That’s a juicy Cronenburger!
Bugsnax
Developer- Young Horses
Price- $25 USD
Platforms – PC/PS4/PS5
MonsterVine was provided a PS4 code for review
The title alone tells you basically everything you need to know about this game. There are bugs, they are snak, and they delightfully run around shouting their name. If you feed them to the Grumpuses, they’ll turn into terrifying Cronenberg abominations. There’s not much else to say.
Set on the legendary Snaktooth island, you play as a journalist after their next big scoop when sent a film reel by the infamous Elizbert Megafig. She’s started a community on the island and discovered the titular bugsnax, a discovery that could change the world. You arrive to find the community in shambles and Elizbert missing. You take out your notepad, SnaxScope and get to work. The main task at hand? Catching bugsnax.
The art of catching bugsnax is pretty simple. Usually some small environmental puzzle using whatever tools are at your disposal. None of them are particularly hard, but they do start to get more challenging as the game goes on. Some involve using other bugsnax to do the work for you, and these can get pretty tedious, especially when you have to catch more than one. If you are ever lost don’t forget to pull out your SnaxScope.
The SnaxScope functions like a pokedex with actual purpose. It gives you hints on what a Snak likes and dislikes, how to best catch it, and its caloric value. Most methods to catch Snax are pretty similar, and by the end you have a pretty good idea of how to catch most of them. Which is a shame, especially when so many of the Bugsnax in the game are just slight variations of others. There’s about 100 different kinds, but only half of those are unique.
That said, almost every bugsnax is adorable. They look like delicious preschool arts and crafts projects. Just food with glued on googley and pun names skittering around shouting their names like Pokemon. It almost makes you feel bad when you feed them to the citizens of Snaxburg.
Snaxburg and its citizens are where the game really shines. Aside from catching bugsnax the main goal of the game is getting each Grumpus to come back into town and interview them about their experiences and what happened to Elizbert. Each Grumpus is incredibly well written and voice acted, with their own connections to the community and reasons for being there. As the game goes on you cannot help but be drawn into their world, and just want to help them in whatever way you can. Which is usually feeding them bugsnax and turning them into horrible food monsters, but also helping better understand each other and themselves.
So there was a bit more to say. Bugsnax is a simple and weird game. It functions like some unholy combination of Pokemon Snap, Viva Pinata, and Dead Rising, but it works. It’s whacky and doesn’t take itself very seriously, except in the places where it really matters. A weirdly moving love letter to community and found family hidden inside of a game about cute food bugs. I can’t recommend it enough.
The Final Word
Bungers are 30,000 calories, but I’d eat like 5 of them.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
