New secret level select codes discovered in the Saturn game Bug! after 28 years

Bet you didn’t know that the 1995 Sega Saturn game Bug! (1995) had level select codes in it. Well, actually people did know, but nobody knew there were actually two very different ones until now. On January 11th, 2024, 11 days ago, @memory_fallen revealed on Twitter (X) that they had discovered cheat codes in both the North American and Japanese versions of Bug! that had never been revealed before. There’s a bit of an interesting caveat to the new code in the North American version in particular as well. You can check in after the break to see what these new codes are.

According to @memory_fallen, who’s going by “Bo (Low Context Burning Rangers)” on Twitter as of this writing, the NA and Japanese versions of Bug! have different inputs for the level select code. For the NA version, press Down, Right, X, Y, Left, Right, A, Down, Right, L. To help you remember, the code spells out “SEXYWEASEL” when you think of Down as South, Right as East, and Left as West. The code for Japanese versions of the game is L, A, B, Z, A, X. Just enter these codes at the title screen.

Keep in mind that these codes work differently after activated for each respective version of the game. The Japanese version’s code brings up a menu where you simply select the level you want to play. For the NA version, you instead switch between levels during gameplay by pressing L + Up or L + Down simultaneously to go through each level one-by-one.

Here’s where things get really interesting. Fans of Bug! will know that the NA version of the game had a level skip code that was already public knowledge since the game was released originally. That code required you to press B, A, B, Y, Down, Right, A, L, Down, or “BABYSEALS” at the title screen and also had you skipping between levels during gameplay with L + Up or L + Down. So what’s the difference between BABYSEALS and SEXYWEASEL? It turns out SEXYWEASEL gives you level skip privileges AND the ability to perpetually levitate freely through a whole level. Simply hold Y and move with the d-pad during gameplay to move yourself wherever you want, same as the Free Movement cheat in Bug Too! (1996). (I’d like to post the tweet with the video showing this in action here, but Twitter links don’t seem to embed on the site anymore. Thanks, Elon.)

So there you have it. All new cheats to play around with in Bug!. If you have a copy of the game, give it a try for yourself and tell us all about it in the comments below.

Saturn fans will also check out our last article about a cheat code long undiscovered until recently in Clockwork Knight 2, only this one is arguably a lot more exciting than a level select code.