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