Maya the Bee & Her Friends

Maya the Bee & Her Friends
German Game Boy Color cover
Developer(s)	Crawfish Interactive
Publisher(s)	Acclaim Entertainment
Producer(s)	Tim Bradstock Douglas Yellin
Designer(s)	Tim Bradstock Kevin McMahon
Programmer(s)	David Theodore
Artist(s)	Terry Ford Emma Denson
Composer(s)	Tim Follin
Series	Maya the Bee
Platform(s)	Game Boy, Game Boy Color
Release	1999
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Maya the Bee & Her Friends is a 1999 platformer video game developed by British^[1] studio Crawfish Interactive for the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color. It is the first game based on Maya the Bee.

The game reuses the engine sourced from a cancelled South Park game which Crawfish Interactive were developing for Acclaim in 1998.^[2] The game was also reskinned and released as The New Adventures of Mary Kate & Ashley in North America to tie in with the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen media franchise.^[3]

Gameplay

The game features over 120 levels. Each of the levels include a number of tricky puzzles that must be solved before the players can rescue one of their insect-friends, trapped behind a spider's web. The players can control three insects, each possessing different abilities. For example, Maya is the only character able to pull switches and Flip allows the characters to leap to higher places.^[4][5]

Reception

IGN rated the game a 6/10.^[6] Total! rated the game 2/6 while praising the music and tricky puzzles but thought the graphics were "boring".^[7]

References

1. "Talking with Crawfish". IGN. November 24, 1999. Archived from the original on November 4, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
2. "South Park [GBC – Cancelled]". unseen64.com. April 5, 2008. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023.
3. LoChiatto, Jonathan (2021-08-07). "How South Park's First Handheld Game Became a Mary Kate & Ashley Tie-In". CBR. Retrieved 2024-11-21.
4. "Maya the Bee & Her Friends (1999)". mobygames.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
5. "Maya the Bee & Her Friends (1999)". nintendolife.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
6. Jones, Tim (July 25, 2000). "MAYA THE BEE & HER FRIENDS". IGN. Archived from the original on April 9, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
7. Reher, Holger (July 1999). "Biene Maja und ihre freunde". Total!. Archived from the original on July 26, 2015. Retrieved 2023-10-05.

Sources

• Bickham, Alex (1999). "MAYA THE BEE AND HER FRIENDS". Planet Game Boy. No. 1. Future plc.