The Lingo Show: Big Bug Show (partially lost CBeebies flash game, 2011)
A screenshot of the game’s grand finale segment.
Status: Partially Lost
The Lingo Show: Big Bug Show was an educational flash game that was hosted on BBC's CBeebies website and was designed by Complete Control. It was launched in 2011. The main theme of The Lingo Show teaches children foreign languages as well as culture.
The flash game was so successful that, it spawned a television series adaptation in 2012, which aired on CBeebies, and ran from 2012 to 2013, with 2 seasons and 30 episodes.
Gameplay
The game opens up with a flying tent landing down in a field, Lingo then flies out of the tent, and stick a key into the tent to open it. The player would then have to click on the key to open it.
Lingo then introduces himself to the player, and how that he needs your help to put on a stage for a Big Bug Show. Lingo then introduces the foreign bugs [1], which also double as playable characters, they include:
- Lieb, a sporty and athletic tick, she is from Germany and speaks German.
- Jaadoo, a tick who rides a unicycle and has magic powers, he is from Pakistan and speaks Urdu.
- Wèi, a speedy stunt ant who wears a crash helmet and roller skates, he is from China and speaks Mandarin.
- Dyzlo, a stickbug who has a tendency to fall asleep, he is from Poland and speaks Polish.
- Jargonaise, a consummate and dazzling housefly with a very flirtatious personality, she is from France and speaks French.
- Kikli, a young, colorful and cheerful damselfly, she is from India and speaks Punjabi.
- Subah, a sassy woodlouse, she is from Somalia and speaks Somali.
- Blodwen, a big fuzzy caterpillar who speaks in a loud opera voice, she is from Wales and speaks Welsh.
- Queso, a moth who plays a guitar and had a fondness for cheese, hence his name, he is from Spain and speaks Spanish.
Then the player would have to select to pick what language to learn and what character to play as. after the player picks a bug, the game would have 5 different activities to set up the stage, including colouring a picture, feeding the Bloozles, counting numbers, decorating a stage with props, choosing which costume to decorate a Bloozle, and the grand finale where the bugs put on a sing-a-long song.
Availability
Ever since the closure of Adobe Flash Player in 2021, BBC has removed The Lingo Show from the CBeebies website, any link of the game now redirects to the CBeebies website, or doesn't work anymore, and most old CBeebies games have been removed from the servers. However, a list on archive.org containing a bunch of the game's files (including .SWF's, .MP3's and .XML's, in order to view and download them, you need to put them into the WaybackMachine) have been archived, and can be viewed here, while the .SWF's can load and function, the game is not fully playable, by any means, as the .SWF files, including Shellbase.swf are missing a lot of files that are needed to run the game, and the .SWF files except for Languageselection.swf all feature the character Kikli as the selected bug, and she, along with Lingo have almost all of their voice clips archived, however, two voice clips from Queso have been archived too. The only .SWF file that appears to be missing is the cutscene where the foreign bugs are introduced, and thus, their voice clips of saying hello in their native languages (apart from Kikli's) are lost. Every character's sprites and animations are in most of the archived .SWF's.