Firstly, LCD loves the stewardesses of Paluk Air, Zip-A-Way and Fly By Night airlines equally in their sexy-lipped, nose-less style of a yesteryear when men were men and stewardesses were stewardesses. As stated, Travel Bug’s characters are bright and, ahem, trippy, with lots of suitcased-bearing mosquitos and bizarre smiling terrorist bugs – really: The caterpillar doffs a beret, sports a Pancho Villa-looking moustache, and totes an AK-47; meanwhile, beware evil beetles when traveling to London! Maybe LCD hit a dry spell, but playing Travel Bug felt like a series of interminable nothingness punctuated by brief hyperactive bouts of activity. Kind of like intercontinental travel, actually. Or a bug’s life. Ah, well, at least there are the ladybugs. Or rather, “Lay-dee Bugs!” LCD rating: 7 (coincidentally, the typical number of spots on a ladybug) out of 10.
In Travel Bug, colors and ladybugs fly furiously while awaiting fun bonus round. For daughter Zsuzsa (age 2-1/2 years), the most striking feature of 5-reel 20-payline Travel Bug amidst the deluge of color and activity are the little ladybugs that walk around in circles as the Bug’s five reels spin. “Lay-dee Bugs!” says she over and over. And the wheels spin again. In fact, Zsuzsa is so enthralled with the creepy crawly cutey little things that she’s ultimately disappointed when LCD’s favorite bit comes up, namely the appearance of three passport characters on the screen which in turn triggers the most excellent bonus round. Sure, it’s just a guessing game – in this case, guess which airline of three offers the best price to a given virtual exotic location like New York, Cairo or ... Madagascar – but it’s addictive.
The cartoon version of the Indiana Jones-type map graphic following the flight of the airplane round the globe is great, too, and damned if you don’t cheer for Travel Bug to go five, six places on this trip. (After all, it’s more money for you in the round.)