Bugsnax is more than just a song

You only have one chance to make a first impression, and back when the PlayStation 5 was officially revealed in June, Bugsnax absolutely nailed. Its song-y trailer donned an otherwise standard next-gen presentation with a sugary outer shell, and the song itself achieved meme status almost instantly. But is it really a good game? For the most part yes, although your mileage may vary depending on how you feel Pokémon SnapCronenbergian, puzzling, inconsistent, chimera mutants.

Bugsnax, which will release Thursday for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC, is shamelessly bizarre. You, journalist, you venture on an island invaded by the titular creatures half-snack half-insects. There, you embark on a journey to understand why the intrepid adventurer who alerted the world to Bugsnax’s existence, Elizabert Megafig, has disappeared. In order to collect leads, you must reunite Lizbert’s scattered community and rebuild their nascent city, usually by finding them and feeding them specific Bugsnax.

There are over 100 varieties of Bugsnax, and capturing them is like playing a game less on rails. Pokémon Snap. You take out a camera to scan an individual Snax and learn their characteristics and preferences. Then you use a number of devices or good old-fashioned social engineering to neutralize and trap them. For example, a Bugsnak (official singular spelling) may be attracted to hot sauce, so you can use your slingshot to shoot a glob to a remote controlled trap, which will cause the Bugsnak to err against its better judgment. Each Bugsnak is a mini-puzzle, although it is not entirely self-contained; Bugsnax roam a series of small, open areas and interact with each other based on their unique likes, dislikes, and daily schedules. Sometimes when your traps don’t work because, say, a Bugsnak is perpetually on fire, your best bet is to simply attract a different Bugsnak with the power to freeze anything it touches nearby and let nature follow. his courses.

However, these are not all basic elementary pairs. Some of the best Bugsnax require a little more lateral thinking. My favorite is the Instabug, which hides in the bushes as you approach, but immediately emerges the second you pull out your camera because, according to its description, it loves the spotlight. “Instabug of Iiiiiit!” he says when he makes his big appearance. The whole thing is extremely endearing, with a well-placed “Like and Subscribe” joke once you scan it with your camera to seal the deal.

But while some of these puzzles are really fun, others are frustrating and inconsistent. None of your tools seem particularly fun to use, and there’s an awkwardness that you can’t ignore in just about everything you do. In addition to that, IIt’s not uncommon to do all of the steps correctly on your way to picking up a Bugsnak, only for the AI ​​or physics to not work properly, in which case you have to start all over properly. Chaos is a regular but not always welcome companion; at one point i tried to hit a steering wheel, The fire based Bugsnak came out of the sky using a rope for the clothesline, only for it to fall into a bunch of other Bugsnax, some of which attacked it, others attacked me. Then I tried to swing my net on the Bugsnak fire, and I caught fire causing my character to get out of control until the fire went out. I repeated this process until I put my hands up. Fortunately, after several tries, the Fire Bugsnak’s AI started to glitch so that it just stays on the ground, allowing me to use a grappling tool to manually drag it through water and extinguish its flames. . Then I was finally able to capture it.

When the Grumpus – the muppet-like humanoids that the main cast is made up of – consume Bugsnax, their limbs instantly transform into an aspect of whatever they’ve eaten. The first time I fed someone with a Bugsnak, his foot turned into a carrot. This character, the budding mayor Filbo, was delighted with his new appendix. I was quietly horrified. Before long I was giving Grumpus slender arms made from barbecue ribs, teeth made from Oreo cookies, and legs that looked (and moved) like unrolled cinnamon buns. I couldn’t help but think about how uncomfortable the exposed bones are, the teeth that spray when exposed to milk, and the boneless jelly legs must have been for characters, but they clapped even as their bodies slowly grew unrecognizable.

Bugsnax makes the curious but most importantly effective decision to pair this understated body horror with a series of relatively mundane character stories that, at times, resemble something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. The vibe of the game is very relaxing, with relaxing music (and it should be noted, mostly wordless) that energizes you as you collect Bugsnax for the nerd who loves the jock, or archaeologist Grumpus who abandoned her farmer husband (who, in turn, overcame his demise by dressing a cactus in his clothes), or the aforementioned desperate (but also hopelessly optimistic) mayor who just wants everyone to get along. Over time, the characters learn valuable lessons to treat others better, overcome their flaws, and be the best in themselves. In the meantime, they hang out in town and greet each other constantly. Everything is very sweet, sometimes bordering on saccharin, but the writing is peppered with some pretty cute gags and subtle twists to bring to life otherwise bland archetypes.

Despite this omnipresence lightness, the game never stops hinting that something is wrong on Snaktooth Island. Unfortunately, It does it unevenly. Transforming character limbs keeps feeling sneaky sinister, but at the same time BugsnaxThe latter’s premise and framework inevitably raises issues of handicap and colonialism, it just does not engage in those ideas at all. Instead, the game’s main story slowly begins to question the wisdom of devouring Bugsnax for free, culminating in an absolutely banana twist that doesn’t quite work, but is certainly memorable. I plan to discuss this later this week, because wow, that’s wild and in some ways good, but also incongruous with the stories of many characters and not at all fun to play.

Bugsnax, then, is a strange mixture of ingredients. He can never quite agree on a tone, and his characters feel like they’re pulled from several different games. Over a relatively short runtime, he rolls out a set of Costco 64-count Doritos ideas, but only a handful really. Then the end, uh, comes. I played on PS4, and the performance was also oddly difficult for a game that, apart from the intertwined AI systems, doesn’t seem to be too technically demanding. I altherefore encountered several revolutionary bugs, which were, to be clear, not a variety of Bugsnaks. Again, Bugsnax is a unique and relaxing game that definitely goes to places. It’s not all it could have been, but it’s also much more than a funny song and a strange concept.

Recommended stories