Review for Bugsnax
In my entire life, I’ve never played a single Pokémon game. Not one. They’re just something that passed me by. I suppose I was a little older than its target demographic when it started becoming popular, and my interests in gaming evolved in other directions. Battling little monsties to “catch ‘em all” and, by extension, any game featuring monsters to collect and raise as its central gimmick just didn’t float my boat. But not having ever played any of them doesn’t mean I don’t recognize one when I see it, and Young Horses’ Bugsnax is essentially precisely that, even if it’s couched in a creative, food-themed design. It’s not surprising then that Bugsnax didn’t light my world on fire, even if I can objectively recognize some positive aspects in its design.
Things start as you arrive on Snaktooth Island (you’ll quickly discover that all of the game’s naming conventions are barely-concealed bits of wordplay). You’ve been summoned here by Lizbert Megafig, a renowned explorer. She has led a motley crew of fellow Grumpuses - that’s what you’re called - there to follow the siren song of a newly discovered, delectable food source: Bugsnax. You are a down-on-their-luck journalist with a penchant for chasing up the wildest leads available for a good story. However, after arriving - or, rather, crash-landing - on Snaktooth Island, you quickly discover that Lizbert has gone missing, and the remaining inhabitants of Snaxburg, the island’s only settlement, are scattered across it. It’s up to you to find and interview the Grumpuses of Lizbert’s expedition to uncover a solid lead as to where she’s disappeared to.
It sounds like a good mystery is afoot. Still, even though there’s some narrative to be discovered, the moment-to-moment gameplay concerns itself far more with catching the game’s eponymous Bugsnax. Snaktooth Island comprises eight distinct zones, some of which are quite large, where different types of Bugsnax run wild. Snaxburg, your hub for this adventure and the place you’ll often return to, is in the very center of the island. Here, you’ll turn in quests to the Grumpuses or pick up new ones, most of which require you to go out and catch a specific Bugsnak and feed it to the Grumpus in town.
To make the idea of a game about catching and eating indigenous fauna more cutesy and kid-friendly, all Bugsnax are designed as food items, even if they are living creatures. Take, for example, the hamburger-esque Bunger (complete with paper wrapper), who lives near other fast-food-inspired fare like the Shishkabug and Fryder. Often, Bugsnax of a similar cuisine can be found in a zone appropriate for them; for example, tropical Bugsnax like Snaquiri and Pineantula are located near the beach, while Tex-Mex-inspired creations like Buffalocust and Scorpepper make their home in the hot and arid desert. These creatures’ designs are colorful, imaginative, and one of the game’s highlights. There are a hundred different types of Bugsnax, though this includes several palette-swaps among them.
Throughout your adventure, you acquire various tools to aid in locating and trapping Bugsnax, like a spring-activated launching platform or a slingshot that allows you to strategically cover objects in flavorful dipping sauces to attract nearby Bugsnax. Catching Bugsnax does not require battling them first, though some have to be incapacitated before you can catch them. Your SnaxScope allows you to scan for the creatures and will give you a slight hint about their behavior, their movement, and what types of creatures or flavors they particularly like or dislike, in accordance with their food type:for example, the hot-dog-esque Weenyworm is naturally drawn to ketchup and mustard flavors.
Using these bits of info, it’s up to you to devise a strategy that will allow you to catch the morsel; think of it like solving a puzzle using the tools at your disposal and, at times, even the environment around you. While this is an excellent idea on paper, it is somewhat undercut by the fact that going through the motions to capture the multitude of different creatures rarely feels very rewarding beyond simply crossing an item off the list to complete a quest and take on the next (very samey) one. Fatigue sets in far too fast, considering the game’s fifteen-to-twenty-hour runtime, depending on how much content you want to work through. The developers have also recently released The Isle of Bigsnax, a free DLC adventure that adds a new area, several unique creatures, and the gameplay mechanic of having to deal with Bugsnax so large they cannot be captured by conventional means. Accessible towards the latter part of the base game, The Isle of Bigsnax is a fun diversion that adds on an additional couple of hours of game time, without straying from the base game’s gameplay formula.
Though you can capture the majority of the game’s Bugsnax in pretty straightforward ways, there are times when the game’s difficulty spikes. In particular, Bugsnax with inherent ice or fire affinities require an extra degree of problem-solving. For the longest time, I assumed I hadn’t unlocked the required gear that would protect me from burns or freezing into an ice cube every time I tried to lay hands on one. In truth, collecting these creatures requires figuring out ways to use your surroundings as workarounds to these effects. In some cases, it’s even necessary to use other Bugsnax to your advantage, involving some finicky timing and trial-and-error, which is never much fun. There are also four boss encounters laced into the narrative, that appear during specific quests. These are a nice change of pace, even though they do little to shake up the established gameplay formula.
Now that you’ve caught a bunch of Bugsnax, what do you actually do with them? Here’s where the game turns a somewhat odd corner. Bugsnax are meant to be eaten, not pitted against one another in combat. Many of the critters you catch end up on the Grumpusses’ menu back in Snaxburg (or simply discarded by you when your limited inventory inevitably fills up). But there’s more to it than that: Bugsnax have transformative powers, so they will mutate parts of the Grumpus who eats them. For example, eating a Strabby will change a leg into strawberries, and devouring a Rootle causes a carrot to sprout where an arm once was. These transformations even extend to the subject’s hair, nose, and teeth - it’s kind of like a decorating mini-game, but with a bizarre body-morphing twist, creating the perfect Grumpus one limb at a time. (A more conventional interior design mini-game also occurs later once you’re assigned your own home in Snaxburg.)
Seeing the pack of freakish Grumpus abominations you’ve created walking around is the one blemish upon the game’s otherwise bright and cheerful aesthetic. Areas are colorful and enjoyable to explore utilizing the game’s free-roaming first-person point-of-view, and the Bugsnax themselves, with their creative designs, are often adorable to encounter in the wild. Even more impressive is the game’s sound design. Musical tracks are relaxing to complement the exploration and puzzle-solving and frequently get stuck in your head long after playing. Voice acting, too, is plentiful and outstanding, with each Grumpus being lent oodles of character. One of the only low points here - familiar to any long-time fan of similar monster-catching franchises - is the Bugsnax’s insistence on repeating their names repeatedly, ad nauseam. It quickly becomes grating when running through areas where you may encounter large numbers of them, and I wish there were a menu option for turning this feature off.
Since the game’s overarching story is relatively straightforward, Bugsnax’s moment-to-moment storytelling is more about character exploration. It may sound out of place in such a childlike game filled to the brim with cartoonish caricatures, but the themes the game addresses - the issues Snaxburg’s inhabitants grapple with - include some surprisingly mature ones interspersed with goofy moments of levity. Take, for instance, buff bro Chandlo Funkbun, who is equally as concerned with maxing out the efficiency of his workout routine as he is with how to handle his complicated feelings for his long-time best bud Snorpy Fizzlebean. Same-sex romances, marital spats, rifts between siblings, mental illness, coping with loneliness, loss of a loved one, and religious extremism are some concepts that crop up during your adventure as you get to know the settlers of Snaktooth Island, and all are handled in mature and gratifying ways.
Much like its titular bite-size critters, Bugsnax is a strange animal of a game. It can easily be compared to a plethora of monster-catching games out there and yet carves out its own identity by almost entirely eschewing combat and making food a central theme of its design. A solid graphical presentation, expressive voice acting, and catchy music are ultimately only held back by the repetition that sets in over short or long with the actual gameplay. One can only get sent back and forth to perform the same capturing ritual so many times before it starts to wear just a little thin. For those who can stomach the gameplay loop, Bugsnax is the perfect excuse to live up to the old adage and become what you eat.
