After scoring an overnight hit like Octodad, Young Horses took their time to develop another game. Ideas were flowing but it took a lot of time to get things right and to find the necessary funding. Finally after being 6 years in the making and going through some transformations along the way, Bugsnax is out. Currently available on PC and PS4 and soon available on MacOS and the PS5 as the first PS5 game included in the Playstation Plus service.

Investigate

As an investigating journalist, you get word of a new phenomenon discovered on Snaktooth Island: Bugsnax. These half bugs, half tasty snacks might just get you the big break you need to finally be taken seriously in the journalist community. Your boss is happy to get rid of you and gives you the green light to go to Snaktooth Island. Once arrived on Snaktooth Island you find out the island is in shambles and your contact, Elizabert Megafig is missing. As a somewhat renowned investigating journalist, the mayor of Snaktooth Island asks you to help in finding out where Elizabert is. Since all the inhabitants shambled away from “Snaxburg”, it might also be a good idea to persuade them back to town to re-establish some order and to conveniently find out more about the potential whereabouts of Elizabert.

 Take a picture

Not soon after arriving, you’ll encounter Bugsnax all around the place. The inhabitants of Snaktooth Island seem to have a real taste for these creatures because they’ll all need you to catch a few in order to get some sort of progress towards finding Elizabert. With more than 100 of these creatures to catch this starts to have some Pokémon similarities. The fact you’ll also use your camera to collect more info on the creatures and the third person view makes Bugsnax a bit like a more interactive version of Pokémon Snap. Luckily, Young Horses added a lot more into the mix to not make this a poor ripoff at all.

Catch’em all

Snapping pictures here and there and interacting with the quirky characters is all very enjoyable but the real joy starts when you’ll have to catch the Bugsnax. Each creature has a particular way in which you can catch them. Figuring out how to catch them makes Bugsnax so enjoyable. At first, you’ll get a remote-controlled trap at your disposal which works pretty straightforward. Figure out the path of the Bugsnax, place the trap within the right area, and just wait for the Bugsnax to activate the trap. It won’t be long before you’re toolkit of Bugsnax-catching gadgets will start to grow, providing you with a lot of potential combinations to lure those Bugsnax in your trap.

Crazy combinations

The crazy contraptions I had to figure out in order to catch some Bugsnax made my time with the game very enjoyable. For example, at one point I couldn’t catch a fries inspired “Fryder” with my trusty trap. In that area, a burger inspired “Bunger” seem to be very fond of ketchup and lunged at anything covered in it. So in order to catch the Fryder, I needed to doze it in ketchup with my freshly acquired catapult so the Bunger would knock it right out. While the Fryder was knocked out, I had a brief moment to pick it up. Later on, some Bugsnax were hidden in an unreachable hole. After acquiring a Bugsnax in a transparent ball, I could use a laser pointer to maneuver it in the hole and scare out the hidden Bugsnax. These crazy-sounding methods are only the tip of the iceberg since Bugsnax is filled with intricate ways to catch Bugsnax.

Fetch’em all

Bugsnax tries it best at keeping the gameplay fresh but does get a bit too repetitive after a while. While I fully applaud the creativity found all around the game, I had some moments where I felt I played “fetch” a few times too many. It’s fun to go out and find and catch certain Bugsnax but that’s pretty much all there is to the game. After completing each quest, you’ll get another part of the puzzle to figure out what happened with Elizabert which helps to keep you going. Sadly it doesn’t help hide the fact, you’ll have to rinse and repeat the same type of fetch quests over and over again. The fancy ways to solve how to catch a Bugsnax keep things going for a while until it doesn’t anymore.

Conclusion

Bugsnax is a fun game when applied in small biteable chunks. Don’t go and try to chew off more than you can bite because you’ll get burned out quickly. The creativeness Young Horses established with Octodad shines through in Bugsnax so savor the moments instead of going for a big feeding frenzy.

8/10

Tested on PlayStation 4