Bugsnax Review – A Fascinating Take on Creature Collecting • Eurogamer.net

Bugsnax is so interesting that I suspect it deserves a fairly short review. The real fun here is discovery and interpretation, two things that both call for a bit of mystery. Really, it would be good if you stop reading now and go play. Go play Bugsnax. It’s not a spoiler to tell you it’s definitely worth it.

If you need a little more than that, know this: For the most part, Bugsnax is sort of a riff on the sort of creature collection, more Viva Piñata than Pokémon. You walk around an island made up of different different biomes, collecting the local creatures, known as Bugsnax, which are half bug and half snack. At first you will find a spider that might have fries for its legs, a burger that is also a beetle, and a hot dog worm. The designs are inventive and often fun. My favorite, much later in the game, is a moth which I think is also made from French toast. I could be friends with a butterfly like this.

These Bugsnax are captured using an expanding arsenal of gadgets, starting with a trap you can set and then trigger when the Bugsnax is within range, and increasing to include things like some sort of hamster ball you can steer laser, a rebound pad, and even some sort of Hookshot. Really, however, the Bugsnax are surprised by studying them – discovering their likes and dislikes and making their way across the world. Then you need to think about how to use your gadgets – and any other Bugsnax – to get them within reach of a trap. How to drop a flying Bugsnax? How to lure a ketchup-loving Bugsnax out of the bush where he’s hiding? How to increase the size of a Bugsnax that looks like a popcorn kernel so that it doesn’t escape your trap? How do you get a cold Bugsnax to stop freezing you before you can get there?

At its best, this stuff immerses you in a world predictable enough to make your way, but still dynamic enough to surprise. I spent an absolute age trying to get a sensible noodle bowl with lava using some kind of lollipop stick insect. I caught fire a few times which was good but so did the stick insect which really put a twist in things. There is fun here in working out all that a gadget can do and all that a Bugsnax can do and then discovering the possibilities of combining those possibilities. If that was all Bugsnax was, it would still be good enough.

But that’s not all. Beyond that, there is a mystery to be solved on the island where the Bugsnax live, and solving it means bringing together and understanding the relationships between a wonderfully diverse group of Grumpus, sort of muppety creatures that represent, I suppose, for humans at the top of the food chain. These Grumpus adore Bugsnax and have a very particular set of uses, but they don’t often like other Grumpus, and the game evolves as a kind of investigation into their attempt to create a community on the island where the Bugsnax live. .

Even that gives the impression of saying too much. Really, you just have to play this game, which uses familiar ideas, all well handled, in the service of something that I’ll keep returning to my mind over the next few months I guess. Bugsnax is colorful, intelligent, and surprising – and you deserve to experience the deepest aspects of it for yourself.