ColonelFancy PREviews – Bugs Must Die

I’d like to thank DG Games Workshop for the demo copy they’ve given me, show support and check out their website for more info. This is certainly a very humbling treat, and it’s a great privilege to provide feedback.

 

If there’s one video game I talk and awful lot about, it’s Jackal. One of my all-time favorites, I gave it very high remarks and it’s a game that I continue to pump loads of playing time into fairly regularly. Bugs Must Die feels like a spiritual successor to Konami’s top-down jeep gunning action title, while cranking up the speed, intensity, and play style to a higher level.

Chucking those ‘nades over walls. It’s 1988 in my grandma’s basement all over again.

Running on Unity, Bugs Must Die is incredibly fluid and the retro style pixels look good. The alien worlds upon which you traverse are clean and devoid of clutter. The terrain can obstruct you means of travel and makes it very important to know where you are heading . If you play with a controller, the right analog stick aims your turret. Enemies attack in swarms, so staying on the move and the ability to attack in all directions is very helpful, but one thing I figured out rather quickly it some of the stronger grunts (Mantises, for example) strike with melee attacks. To do this, instead of charging you head-on, they will FLANK you to get in close or move indirectly! This caught me off guard quite a few times.

The melee attack you have, which looks like a comically large morning star, sweeps in a 360 degree motion to clear out those that get by your long-range offense. It has a cool down period of about three seconds, so it’s great to use in a pinch, but best used as defense. If playing on keyboards suits your style, switching between you options of main and secondary weapons are a single key press away. For controller users, the D-pad cycles through them by pressing up and down, or left and right respectively. 

I’d make a case that this plays like a hybrid of a bullet hell SHMUP title like Darius Twin and The Binding of Isaac. Keeping an eye on where you’re moving is more important than the direction you’re firing.

Enemies constantly respawn and the action seldom slows down. There is a shop provided to boost your vehicle’s variables, upgrade your weapons, and escape pod. The escape pod is your last ditch effort to complete missions before facing total annihilation. One hit takes it down, but you do move a lot faster. That’s a cool feature, but it can be demoralizing when you survive for so long before meeting a grisly end.

The pods each have very effective firepower options. Be sure to purchase one.

In some instances, like navigating the right side of the screen, the objectives menu can obscure your vision and you can get blocked by text boxes. That was the only thing I found to be a mild hinderance. That aside, this is adrenaline pumping retro style action that can keep your gaming reflexes focused. It’s straightforward arcade style goodness at its core, but with enough depth, structure, and customization in all the right areas to provide hours of amusement with a difficulty that’s more than respectable. Bugs Must Die has potential to be a very promising title, and I’m keeping my eyes on it.