The ire towards this game seems very misplaced. I don't think Buck Bumble is an essential game to the story of the Nintendo 64, but there are plenty of other games with flight on the Nintendo 64 that are worse. This game's presentation is the worst aspect and probably why this game is so divisive. The enemy designs fit the theme, but the game chose to focus on the worst aspects of audio/visual design from that era of the N64 (muddy semi-realistic textures, low draw distance and a D&B soundtrack that doesn't leave much to remember), and doesn't have enough variety is any of those aspects to make up for it. The soundtrack actively detracts from the game, as it's just a constant beat over very simplistic tracks otherwise.

The rest of the game is totally fine. The flight mechanics are rudimentary, but again, they could have performed a lot worse. The only time I had issues with the hit detection were with floating mines, the rest of the game was very generous towards the player in that regard. The level objectives were easy to understand and the flow of the levels was good enough to where I didn't get lost despite their vertical size. It's on the shorter side, a blind playthrough took me about three hours, but any longer and the repetitive nature of the game would have really started to drag.

Buck Bumble isn't the worst game on the console, but it's not a game to rush out and play either. It has a unique gimmick and competent execution, it just needed a few more months in the oven to progress past that.