Bugsnax Review
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am so worn out by the election. Having entered the third week of the now lame duck president’s attempts to undo his loss, it doesn’t seem like much is going to change but that doesn’t stop the belligerents from trying. It’s some relief to see that officials on the losing side of the party line are trying to uphold the sanctity of the election, but things are far from done. Both civilians and officials are clearly retaining morally reprehensible ideals, so don’t think one election result will save the nation. But if you need a mental break from this ceaseless stress, the only escape destination better than a tropical island is a tropical island full of delicious food. At least, that’s the pitch for the newly released game Bugsnax.
In Bugsnax, the mysterious Snaktooth Island has been rediscovered by renowned explorer Elizabert Megafig. Snaktooth Island is famous for being the home to the Bugsnax, a remarkable form of life that is a mixture of bug and snack, though some of the foods are beyond what I would personally consider a snack, including full racks of ribs, daiquiris, and banana splits. But Bugsnax aren’t just remarkable for being sentient ready-to-eat food, they also possess the inexplicable ability to change portions of the bodies of those who eat them into the same kind of food they are, so if someone eats a banana Bugsnak, one of their arms could turn into a banana that still, somehow, functions as an arm. To share this discovery with the world and recruit people for the burgeoning new colony on Snaktooth, Elizabert sends an open call to the world. This catches the eye of the main character, an unnamed but infamous investigative reporter. Eager to chase the lead of living snacks, the player departs for Snaktooth, only to discover Elizabert’s town of Snaxburg is all but abandoned. It falls to the player to track down the former inhabitants of Snaxburg, learn what happened to Elizabert, and uncover the curious truth of Bugsnax.
Unsurprisingly, the core of Bugsnax is the hunting, cataloguing, and capturing of the island’s many species of Bugsnax. What surprised me is the reason the player is collecting the Bugsnax. In order to learn Elizabert’s fate, the player must interview the Muppet-like citizenry of Snaktooth Island, and to do this the player must first befriend them. The only way to do this is gathering Bugsnax and feeding them to the island residents like a half-wilderness guide, half-personal shopper. The townsfolk all left Snaxburg for their own reasons, anything from personal grudges to religious retreats, but no matter their issue, it can be solved by serving them three to five Bugsnax. There is rarely a theme or reason why a citizen wants the Bugsnax they do or why it will convince them to return to Snaxburg, instead it’s typically meant to familiarize players with the nearby area. Once they return to Snaxburg, players are able interview them to learn more about their desires, Snaktooth Island, and Elizabert to advance the main plot. After this, the player can take on additional tasks for the townsfolk and these quests are usually better designed than the recruitment quests. An early example of this is the town’s farmer specifically requesting kinds of Bugsnax that burrow underground in an attempt to improve the soil quality of his farm. None of these side activities are necessary to beating the game, but I appreciated them because the strong through lines felt like a better use of the Bugsnax and a more insightful exploration of each character’s personality and motivations.
As for the Bugsnax themselves, there is a surprising variance in the design quality of the creatures and a serious lack of motivators to pursue them. In my experience, there are three levels of design in the Bugsnax: simple design with poor animation, simple design with creative animation, and complex design. The first tier includes Bugsnax that appear to be real-world food items with a pair of eyes stuck to them, like the Snaquiri, which is simply a daiquiri in a glass with a paper umbrella and the googly eyes all Bugsnax possess. There is no similarity to any insect or arachnid I’m aware of, it’s simply a drink that leaps out of the ground, hovers for a few seconds by flapping its umbrella, and then falls back down to the ground. The Bugsnax in this category feel rushed, as though the game was nearly done and the developers realized they needed a few more varieties to fill out the roster. I honestly think Bugsnax would be a slightly better game if these critters were removed. The second tier are foods that aren’t too different visually from their real-world equivalent, but have been animated in a clever way, such as the Strabby. The Strabby is an upside-down strawberry that uses its leaves as legs. There is a humble genius to these Bugsnax because they take a familiar object and give it life with only a few small tweaks. Lastly, the complex design Bugsnax rearrange food into a novel shape to make something new. A prime example of this is the Fryder, a spider made of french fries and not coincidently the only spider I like. A Fryder is composed of french fry legs while the body is an upturned paper cup that fries are so often served in. Maybe it takes less creativity to design this kind of Bugsnak than the previous tier, but I liked them better because they were more fantastical and emphasized what a strange place Snaktooth Island was.
Unfortunately, regardless of how creative or uninspired any given Bugsnak was, I rapidly lost interest in pursuing them because Bugsnax provides so few reasons to do so. Obviously, the player has to catch some Bugsnax to accomplish the various tasks set to them by the people of Snaxburg, but very rarely are players pushed to retrieve specific Bugsnax, and rarer still are players required to hunt down some of the more rare or difficult to capture Bugsnax. Worse, even if a player does go out of their way to catch new Bugsnax, the only reward they can earn is changing the bodies of the villagers into weird new shapes and the chance to catch even more rare Bugsnax. I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how much Bugsnax would’ve been improved by rewards for the game’s side story missions. If I could have earned an upgraded Snak Trap that was unable to be set on fire or a Trip Shot that could attach to more surfaces, I would have bothered to catch more than half of the 100 different species of Bugsnax before beating the game, and likely would have had a better time with the game overall.
I won’t lie, I had high hopes for Bugsnax. The adorable aesthetic combined with a bizarre new mechanic made me think this game was going to be something special. Unfortunately, I think there just isn’t enough here to justify the $25 price tag. If you’re a fan of the game’s aesthetic, I recommend picking up some of their merch, especially their adorable set of enamel pins. It’s true they’re not a video game, but I’m willing to bet you will get more out of them than nine hours of lukewarm entertainment you would get from the game itself.
Buy this game on sale
It’s worth playing, just not at the price they’re asking
