I bought bugsnax on a meme-fueled whim mostly. It had looked intriguing to me, as I like simple creature collection games and loved the way Young Horses took a creative approach at control schemes in Octodad. That, and having Kero Kero Bonito make the promo track for it helped. The basic aesthetic of food creatures is always an idea I've liked, so with all these elements I knew it would be a safe bet to purchase, and at a little bit of a discount via the epic store since I don't sub to ps+

I have to say I didn't not imagine being as charmed as I was with it.

First off, the character designs are all great. Mostly in terms of the snax themselves, as if you just generally like muppety things, you'll like the main NPCs. Some of the details are a bit odd, like when you start Existenzing the creatures into the other characters, but it gives, especially over time, a lot of flexibility on how you can tweak it to make more aesthetically pleasing friends.

The gameplay is chill, and can be decently fun. Not terribly exciting through most of it, but sometimes it would have some peaks to give you something over the casual laid-back semi-puzzles of the main game, and some of the tools they give you, while not very clear at times on how to use them optimally to catch snax(some felt like no matter how many I caught I wasn't figuring it out and it just eventually happened to catch em), were themselves fun to play around with.

The writing is definitely the strongest part of the game. I did not imagine these goofily named muppets to be genuinely compelling characters with some depth. It didn't go extremely deep or anything, but in subverting that expectation of mine it went a lot further than I initially expected, and the plot didn't spiral into something extremely grand, but did widen quite a bit with an interesting twist to it, betraying its cutesy style a bit. This had been happening throughout the game, from things like partner separation, agoraphobia, existential crises(from nearly every character), cannibalism, mysticism, etc. It is a fun, child-friendly game full of primarily adult themes(not in the horny way) and is a bit wistful in its own way, mostly with characters chasing a dream. It's weirdly one of the most compelling games I've played in terms of its themes of chasing identity, fleeing society, transforming oneself metaphorically and physically. To some degree it's a bit of Great Gatsby through the lens of Harlan Ellison if he were to create a kid's show.

the music is also not quite fitting, but very good. It is some of the most enjoyable BGM in a game I've played this year.

Hey guys. Bob here. Detailing this video game would be like pouring salt unto the freshest of wounds had it not been me, Bob BUNGER (get it) reviewing this video game franchise. I believe that, had it not been for my indubitable compassion for my family, such a videos game would have simply passed by me eons ago. However my blabbering daughter decided it would be just absolutely astonishing if her father (that WOULD be me after all) bought her this eclectic experience for the windows pc console during the newly fabricated (as it does each 365 taunting days) christmas season. My Bob Burger franchise sustained my family quite astonishingly this beautiful 2023, therefore it cost me merely a fraction of my wealth to afford this teasingly bountiful bug-snack. Sliding the disk into its allocated crevice in my Playstation 5 console, this interactable frame by frame imagination from paper to game engine flashed before my eyes. Promptly, I quite severely (and physically) shit myself - a combination of daunting nvidia geforce 200 frames per second and the brand new C++ written Irrlicht Engine causing my bowels to frantically rupture. Ok game

I know the rating is only a 8/10 but I fucking love this game. The hilarious characters, the unique and fun environment, the weird but very intriguing story. I love almost everything about this game and its very often one of the games I recommend the most to my friends. The only parts I don't love are the ending and the plot twists. I know some people really liked it and it did really change up a lot but it tainted the game I found cozy and fun in a bad light. Anyway I love this game 8/10.

Reviewing every game i've fully completed #19

When I finished this game, I was kind of left wondering who it is for. The gameplay is very simple and forgiving, but its themes and humour are not childish. The answer is, of course, that this game is for everyone and, to be honest, that is pretty refreshing.

While the gameplay is very simple, that does not prevent it from being very enjoyable. It just makes it accessible. The classic goal of "catching 'em all" is a common gameplay trope for a reason. Tried and true, never failing to deliver. Bugsnax puts its own spin on things, providing creatures based on real world food with adorably creative designs and names. They all behave in unique ways, but are never that hard to catch. It makes for a wonderfully relaxing complesionist experience, the model naturally pushing you towards finding every bug in the game.

However, the gameplay model is not the only thing that pushes you towards this. I would say that the game holds your hand a bit too much. Completing every quest will see you collect the vast majority of the bugs for the NPCs in what are essentially fetch quests. To the game's credit the variety of bugs prevents catching them from becoming overly chorish. Completing an NPC's quest chain will also sometimes result in you taking on a boss, in the form of legendary bugs. These boss battles are creative, but they are not hard to figure out, and I would have preferred if these were something you had to seek out and defeat on your own, without having to wait for an NPC to be ready for you.

The boss battles are also marred by the general lack of any risk in the game. Usually, you want to have to weigh up your options; assess what challenge you are best prepared for and see if you can overcome it. This game offers no such challeneges, but to be clear, that is very intentional. The bugsnax are only really used for feeding the NPCs. The game does not explain the risk in this until the very end (even if it can be guessed pretty easily), and even then, it has no effect anyway. Transforming a villager seems to have no impact apart from making them look goofy. It really takes any risk or tension out of everything you do, which is pretty disappointing. It feels like it should be possible to consume the bugs yourself, granting you some unique abilites based on which ones you eat, with some narrative drawback, maybe (think typhon abilities in Prey, and similar).

Despite this, the game holds up. I personally found the mystery elements of the story satisfying enough to make me want to find out how it cocludes, and the way NPCs ask you to catch certain bugs as part of their quests helps to pace the filling out of your journal. The NPCs themselves are different and interesting, with caracturised personalities making them enjoyable and entertaining to interact with, but I never found myself to be too invested in any of their stories, given their arcs are pretty predicatable. Still, discovering new ways to catch new bugs remains interesting and engaging for the duration of the game, without ever becoming overwhelming. I could have probably done with either a couple more tools or maybe leaving some until later in the game, but there are still plenty of ways to combine the ones you have in ways that often require you to think outside the box (but only just outside it).

The game also contains a number of different levels, each one small but not sparse, styled after various biomes, with the bugs imitating the animals you might expect to find there. It works well, with each biome being notably distinct and unlocking each one allowing the developers to very effectively control your progression through the game. Just note that the game also contains fast travel, but it just doesn't tell you that (or maybe I just missed it). Don't be like me and only realise that 7 hours in. By the time I realised that it was there, I was getting pretty sick of running through each biome again and again, but at the same time, I kind of wish the fast travel wasn't so easy to use. It does feel like a shame to skip travelling through these levels entirely, but I have no suggestion of an alternative in this case.

One final note: I do not really agree with the common assessment of this game that generally goes along the lines of describing it as "psychological horror for kids"; that is going too far, if you ask me. The mystery around bugsnax, combined with the varying levels of caution advised by the NPCs, adds a disturbing air to the creatures, but the game's quests requiring you to feed them to the villagers and having no option to eat them yourself, again removes a large portion of the stakes (portion of the steaks). It is a case of the games narrative not lining up with its mechanics. The in-game discussion and consequences of comsuming the bugs is rarely tackled in a serious way, and the whole vibe aims more towards a group of diverse personalities stranded on an island, and the dangers and events that come with that, rather than how people battle with temptation and consumption. That being said, I don't think that's a bad thing. In fact, I think it's better that the game is not trying to be something it isn't. It adds some depth to the story, but it is not the focus of the game.

Overall, I would recommend Bugsnax, but I could definitely see some people finding it a bit boring. It is incredibly creative, with interesting characters and solid gameplay, but the lack of any real challenge beyond solving some basic puzzles really takes away from the experience. That being said, I do think that Bugsnax nails what it is trying to do perfectly and without the disturbing and unknown nature of the bugs, I think a lot of people would not play this. In the end, there is something to be said for the fact that the game delivers a unique experience and engaging mystery without trying to go beyond its means.