Video Game Blog 019: Time to Eat Bugs!

Welcome back to another quickie video game review! This one is a cute (and surprisingly dark) game that I discovered recently called Bugsnax. Bugsnax asks (and answers) the pressing age-old question: What if you could eat Pokémon?

Yay it’s a strawberry! (Credit: Young Horses)

Bugsnax was released in 2020 by developer Young Horses for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch, XBox One, XBox Series X/S, PC, and Steam. For this review I played the PS5 version. I discovered this game in a backwards sort of way. I have a J-Pop station I created on Pandora and the theme song came up one day, spurring me to look up the game. The theme is performed by the band Kero Kero Bonito, and after hearing it I got way into the band. They play feel-good bilingual bubblegum pop tunes and I highly recommend them.

The game concerns Snaktooth Island where mysterious creatures named Bugsnax live. (Half bug, half snack.) Some creatures called Grumpuses have set up camp on the island. (They strongly resemble Muppet monsters.) Your character is an unnamed Grumpus reporter who goes to investigate the creatures at the urging of an explorer named Elizabert who disappears shortly before your arrival. As you reach the island your blimp is knocked out of the sky by a giant Mothra-like pizza monster. The objective of the game is to catch and log the various species of Bugsnax while befriending and accomplishing tasks for the island Grumpuses in order to get interviews from them and solve the mysteries of Elizabert’s disappearance and the Bugsnax themselves.

The overly-friendly Bunger. (Credit: Young Horses)

There are 100 Bugsnax over 8 different biomes on the island. (A free expansion raises this to 112 species and a 9th biome.) In order to capture the Bugsnax, you get various tools such as a trap, a net, a slingshot to fling sauces at them, a catapult, and more. Every species of Bugsnax has likes and dislikes and different requirements to capture them. (For instance, the Bunger will knock away your trap and the flying Cheepoofs have to be caught in midair.) Some will be lured by different kinds of sauce or other Bugsnax. There is a night and day mechanic, with different Bugsnax appearing at different times of day. Rain can also affect which ones appear. (There’s a really cool effect when it rains where the droplets drip down the screen.)

You have a scanner called a SnaxScope that you can use to get intel about the Bugsnax and other things in the game. You also get a diary that logs your Bugsnax, clues, and items. The Bugsnax you collect are held in your Snakpack, which gains more space as you advance in the game. Later on you get your own hut and there is a decorating mechanic where you can earn items to spiff up the place. There is also a mail system where you get new sidequests from the Grumpuses and rewards for the quests you’ve accomplished.

Poor Filbo. (Credit: Young Horses)

The Grumpuses that you encounter are all quirky and charming. One of the objectives of the game is to locate each Grumpus and convince them to return to their town of Snaxburg. After completing their requests, you get access to further missions from them and an interview that helps your investigation along. You also piece together the story of how the town broke apart and mend the relationships between the Grumpuses.

Um, that strawberry hand seems a bit inconvenient. (Credit: Young Horses)

One of the odd things about Bugsnax is the act of “Snakifcation” which happens after consuming the buggies. The Grumpus’s body parts change to resemble the food item the Bugsnax is based on. As the game continues you gain the ability to choose which body part is affected using an item called the Staktivator. One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how come none of the Grumpuses were altered at the start of the game if they’ve been eating Bugsnax all along? It makes me wonder if the effect wears off after a while. The game may explain this when I get further along.

Although the game appears cutesy and silly, there’s actually quite a bit of darkness below the surface. The native Grumpuses that inhabited the island before appear to have all been killed (or consumed) by something. (Their skeletons are strewn about.) Gramble Gigglefunny (yes, they all have weird names like that) doesn’t want to eat the Bugsnax and instead believes they should be raising them as pets. (Even though they keep running away.) The inciting incident that broke up the town seems to have something to do with one of the Grumpuses breaking into Gramble’s ranch and eating his pets. It’s rumored that one of the characters is a cannibal. From the start, a couple of the characters are missing and presumed injured or dead. And, of course, there’s the fact that you’re hunting down these adorable Pokémon-type creatures in order for Grumpuses to eat them alive.

Detailed map. (Credit: Young Horses)

This darkness merges and conflicts well with the glossy cuteness of the game. The core mysteries keep you playing and the exploration element of gaining access to the other biomes with their own new Bugsnax species helps spur you on as well. The characters are layered and likable. The designs of the Bugsnax are great and there is a lot of strategy to hunting and capturing the little critters. The game’s tutorial is imbedded in the gameplay smoothly, teaching you the tools and gameplay as you go.

My town is growing. (Credit: Young Horses)

At the time of this writing, I’m not even halfway through the game. There’s bound to be a ton of surprises yet to uncover. (Although I think I’ve figured out the core mystery. We’ll see if I’m right.) I loved the game from the start, not in any small part due to the fact that the first Bugsnax you encounter is a strawberry. (I love strawberries and anything flavored like strawberries.) One of the things I really appreciated about the game is the diversity. Elizabert and Eggabell are in a same-sex relationship. Floofty Fizzlebean goes by they/them pronouns. These are subtle touches that are referenced in passing and no real attention is drawn to them. I really like when diversity is just naturally a part of art rather than feeling like an afterthought or self-congratulatory. These things shouldn’t BE the character, they should be an innate part of the character.

Yikes. (Credit: Young Horses)

Bugsnax is super-cute and entertaining. It’s very stylized and creative. There is a surprising amount of strategy and emotional depth to it. What could have been a silly and childish Pokémon clone turned out to have its own distinct identity and feel. This game has a lot of charm, cuteness, and heart with a thread of undeniable darkness to it that compliments it and keeps the player off-guard. It’s going to hold my attention for a long time to come and stick with me after I’ve finished with it.

Good ol’ Wambus. (Credit: Young Horses)

Thank you for reading my review of Bugsnax. I appreciate you all and I hope to be back soon with some longer posts I’ve been working on. See you then!

NOM. (Credit: Young Horses)