[1] The year is 2010, and as the result of a previous spill at a chemical factory in London, England, the insects in the surrounding area have mutated.

Several different types of these mutated insects gather together becoming the evil "Herd", who are bent on taking over the garden, and eventually the whole world.

There are several items the player can collect while in each level, such as weapons, nectar from flowers to regain energy, and even point bonuses.

The game was built with the rumble feature in mind, allowing the player to feel the impact of getting hit, supposedly increasing the sense of realism.

[8] While not heavily praised, and widely regarded as below contemporary N64 standards, Buck Bumble was met with generally positive reception from various gaming critics.

Narayan Pattison of the Australian magazine N64 Gamer gave the game several compliments, comparing it to Star Fox for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which was also partly developed by Argonaut Software, saying that it avoids Star Fox's "restricted preset paths that had to be followed."

[11] Next Generation reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Overall, Buck Bumble is most like a diamond in the rough.

"[12] Matt Casamassina of IGN called it "the epitome of 'first generation' Nintendo 64 products" and compared it to a lower-quality version of the bee level in Banjo-Kazooie.

However, he praised the flying controls, the design of the title character, and the addictiveness of the Buzz Ball multiplayer mode.

GameSpot's Lauren Fielder gave the title a significantly lower review than most publishers and echoed the belief that it "missed the boat" of lower-quality first-generation N64 games.