Bugsnax was all the rage during the 2020 release of the Playstation 5, as everyone continuously sang the theme song while booting up this cute launch title for the first time. Nobody could resist how different and cute it looked, despite the other anticipated release titles like Spiderman: Miles Morales or Demon’s Souls. I didn’t have a PS5 at the time, but I added it to my backlog after it came to Game Pass recently. It hooked me enough to finish in a day and a half, which isn’t something that a game does much anymore. I’m glad to have played it, despite a few flaws.
An Isle of Grumpy Grumpuses
Bugsnax is an adventure game from Young Horses game studio, known for their popular series, ‘OctoDad.’ It’s a first-person adventure game, set on the isle of Snaktooth, solely inhabited by creatures called Bugsnax (half bug/half snack). Lizbert Megafig, a renowned explorer, discovered this island with a group of explorers (Grumpuses) and has invited a Journalist (you) to visit and write about Bugsnax. Once you get to Snaktooth, it’s quickly discovered that Lizbert and partner Eggabell have disappeared causing the members of the expedition to scatter across the island. It is now your job to gather every other member of Lizbert’s expedition, grumpy and disagreeable as they may be, and find out what happened to the missing explorers.
It’s a good story! The overall tone seems light-hearted at first, but something feels off from the get go. You discover how dark this game gets as you slowly uncover the mystery piece by piece. Each Grumpus has a deep backstory to dive into, if you so choose. They are all flawed and on this expedition to run from something. This causes them all to fight and dislike each other. I always love a story with deep characters!
Gameplay
The gameplay of Bugsnax has an odd dichotomy. The core of the gameplay is capturing various Bugsnax to appease the Grumpuses, but turns into glorified fetch quests which annoyed me towards the end. An endless stream of helping X Grumpus find Y Bugsnax. That being said, capturing cute Bugsnax are fun puzzles to solve. You have multiple tools at your disposal to capture, but different Bugsnax require different tools and strategies.
For example, there is a Scorpion Bugsnax that flings fire at everything except the one Bugsnax adjacent. Unfortunately, that is the required Bugsnax. You have to figure out how to negate the fire scorpion and capture the other Bugsnax. I usually don’t have the patience for puzzle games, but these small puzzles were fun to figure out. Kept things fresh without getting stale.
If you are a completionist, finding every Bugsnax is an option for you. There are also a bunch of side quests to appease all the other Grumpuses outside of the main quests, but that felt like busy work. Not a fan of that in my video games.
OVERALL
Despite my criticisms about the repetitive gameplay, Bugsnax is as fun game with a fun story that overstays its welcome a little bit. The main story could have been a little shortened, but I enjoyed myself.
One caveat about the ending, however. The overall dark(ish) tone peaks at the end, which leads to a crazy ending that comes from left field. I won’t spoil anything, but it caught me off guard!
Overall, I enjoyed myself throughout my time on Snaktooth Island. It’s been a while since I finished a game in such a short time. The mystery behind Bugsnax kept me hooked throughout my eight hour journey. That’s all I can ask for from a video game. Hook me!
Game Pass Gem approved!