Review: Bugsnax

A tasty treat

Playing Bugsnax while starting a diet is probably not the ideal way to enjoy the game. I am sitting here trying my best not to think about food and the Grumpus on this island keep asking me to hunt them down. mills with googly eyes or cinnamon rolled snails. Or flaming bowls of ramen. Or Bungers.

God I could go for a Bunger now.

Bugsnax (PS4 [reviewed], PS5, PC)
Developer: Young Horses
Publisher: Young Horses
Released: November 12, 2020
MSRP: $ 24.99 (free on PS5 with PlayStation +)

Somewhere off the mainland coast is the mysterious Snaktooth Island. It’s a colorful and compact place, and it could be an endless source of food with the creatures known as Bugsnax. They could feed the world, or they could all be fake news, but as Grumpus on the verge of losing his journalism career, it’s up to you whether this is a hoax or not. . After receiving a film from famous explorer Elizabert Megafig about her incredible discovery, you board an airship for the island and quickly learn that it won’t be the simple story you thought it would be.

Elizabert is gone and her partner Eggabell hasn’t been seen in days either. And yes, they all have names that sound like the author of a cookbook in the Harry Potter universe. Either way, without their fearless leader to catch Bugsnax, the people of Snaxburg have gone their own way and scattered across the far reaches of the island. After meeting Filbo, the town’s almost useless pro-tem mayor, you save his life with Strabbies and agree to help reunite the community and find Elizabert.

Completing either of these tasks will require capturing a lot of Bugsnax. Sadly, Filbo isn’t that good at tackling these critters. In fact, no one else on the island has bothered to learn how apart from Elizabert. But you can do it, and throughout your journey you’ll receive an expanding set of tools to catch the 100 different Bugsnax that inhabit this island. Some are caught quite easily. Bugsnax like Crapples – apples that are crabs – or Rootles – carrot worms – will go straight into your trap. Others need to be studied closely to determine which of your tools will work on them.

Your most important tool is your SnaxScope. Scan a Bugsnax with it and it will show you its set movement pattern (if it has one) and give you some quick facts about it that will help you catch it. The information is not straightforward instructions on how to do it, but it is a good place to start. The rest is going to take a little common sense and some trial and error.

What you will quickly learn, however, is that there are actually very few different strategies required to catch Bugsnax. Although there are 100 different ones around the island, as you progress through the game you will start to notice repeating patterns and reskins. Angry Baked Potatoes become Angry Charged Baked Potatoes, for example. While these alternate versions of snax can vary in terms of aggressiveness or speed, they’re usually captured in exactly the same way, resulting in a game that really doesn’t have a difficulty curve. By the time I reached the last section of the island, I only needed to observe a Bugsnax for a few seconds before I figured out what to do to catch them. There are some giant Bugsnax that aren’t that straightforward, but to complete the story you really only have to rely on a small handful of tactics.

You’ll also have to hope that AI and physics don’t mess up your solutions. I had several Bugsnax stuck on level geometry in my game, forcing me to leave the area for them to reset. With load times as long as they are on PS4, I would roll my eyes every time this happened. Bugsnax doesn’t necessarily act the way you expect them to. Trying to grab a creepy icy pudding, I caught it on fire and watched it move back and forth between the ocean’s edge and a coconut palm tree, never fully entering the water to turn off.

Despite how cute the Bugsnaxes are and how they squeal their name over the PlayStation controller speaker every time you grab one, I was much more interested in learning all I could about the Snaxburg Grumpuses. They are incredibly well written and performed, each with their own unique personality, goals, and relationships with others. And it’s a diverse group too, with LGBTQ and non-binary characters among the cast.

While you can get around the countryside in about seven and a half hours, I suggest you take your time and get to know all of the residents you meet on your trip. When you find one in the wild, you will need to complete certain tasks for them which almost all revolve around catching Bugsnax. Once back in town, they’ll give you optional quests, asking you to research or feed them specific Bugsnax. This will turn parts of their bodies into food, so you can create some really weird and delicious Grumpus. Seeing how stupid I could make them was a delight, of course, but it was their personalities that I appreciated the most in our interactions.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a game with a character cast that was so good it made the rest of the experience better, but this is where I am with it. Bugsnax. Because they are awesome. And the concept behind Snaktooth Island is just as brilliant. It’s just the actual gameplay here, catching all that snax, isn’t convincing enough to match that brilliance.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

Bugsnax reviewed by CJ Andriessen