4.5/5 ★ – pinksteady's review of Bugsnax.

Bugsnax is a subtly underrated game. I briefly heard about it during PS5 launch time but discounted it as it seemed way too cutesy and probably aimed for kids. As it happens, and as I have kids, I recently decided to try it out, and it totally surprised me. This game has enormous depth, a unique concept, incredible writing and voice acting, decent game mechanics and an incredibly dark undertone to the story. The general premise is that a bunch of ‘grumpuses’ (the prevailing species of whatever world this game takes place in) escape the troubles of their home lives by emigrating to a strange island inhabited by little creatures that resemble real life food. Eating these creatures makes the grumpuses feel great, and even allows them to morph their own body parts into snacks. Slowly, the addiction to bugsnax takes hold and the characters’ relationships and mental states deteriorate. You are a visiting journalist, tasked with uncovering what is going on. You spend your time catching Bugsnax for the inhabitants, learning about their lives and helping them overcome their personal problems. All this while slowly uncovering the (ultimately horrifying) truth about Bugsnax island and the snax themselves. Gameplay-wise, you are armed with a variety of gadgets that let you catch the bugs. These are really fun to use and the harder/larger bugs require a fair amount of imagination to capture, using a combination of traps, environment and even other bugs to catch. It never really gets old and is always satisfying and rewarding. Story-wise, the characters each have fairly complex back stories, and the side quests essentially allow you to learn more about these and help them. This could be helping a singer restore her confidence, to helping a character overcome his self-esteem issues to express his love another. Each character is excellently voice acted and the dialogue is genuine and thoughtful. None of this ever seems cheesy or clichéd. Uncovering the truth of the island also uncovers what this game is all about. To me, it read as fairly dark yet honest depiction of the journey of substance abuse and addiction. It turns out that the Bugsnax themselves are designed to elicit obsession in whoever eats them, so those who eat them eventually completely turn into Bugsnax and get absorbed into the island. The core of the island is in fact made up entirely of previous grumpuses who have been lured to the island and transformed. At the end of the game, your efforts to help each grumpus overcome their personal issues, combined with some more literal fighting of Bugsnax, results in you all escaping the island, with each character showing a refreshed mindset and optimism about their future. So this is the addiction metaphor then. Escaping real life trauma and seeking solace in a substance that brings short-term escapist euphoria. To continue consuming this, seeking greater relief, while ignoring the growing negative consequences this is having. And, if not dealt with, to succumb entirely, and die. The solution? Just as in real life, to acknowledge the problem, seek help, and to face and deal with the trauma that one is escaping from. This game is a direct mapping to the journey of addiction, which I found fascinating. The dark reality of the game gives it an unexpected maturity. Certain events grimly foreshadow the ending reveal, including when one villager attempts to behead himself in the pursuit of greater snax-fuelled enlightenment. So I was really blown away by it really. Also it has an awesome them song recorded by British psy-pop band Kero Kero Bonito.