Bugs, Guts & Glory!
In The Bug Butcher, the developers have taken a game format as old as the hills and turned it into a fresh modern looking fast paced 2D shooter. You play Harry, an exterminator with attitude, who gets called out to a mutant bug infested research facility, where he is met by one of the few surviving scientists who outlines the size of the job at hand. Harry’s mission is to kill as many bugs as he can and survive in each room of the building until decontamination is complete. These aren’t your run of the mill critters either, some of them are very big buggers, and they’re out for blood, particularly yours.
The only way Harry can shoot is straight up, just like classic arcade games of olds like Space Invaders and Galaga. The bugs appear from the ceiling, floor and walls and bounce around the room, trying land on you to take your health. You need to get underneath them and blast away as quickly as you can, earning temporary power-ups by getting chains of quick kills. Some of the bigger bugs split in half and become two smaller bugs, so if you’re not quick the room is soon filled with nasty creatures and things get tricky. As well as the bugs, watch out for the scary spiders that creep across the ceiling and drop a long tentacle down trying to grab you scientist friend and feast on his brains. As the bugs die they leave coins on the floor that you collect to spend back at the menu screen upgrading your weapons. Crates are also dropped for you to collect some nice big weapons of mass destruction like laser beam guns and rocket launchers.
The difficulty curve has been pitched just right in this game, it starts off quite easy as you get used to how to play, then gradually increases in difficulty with each level without making you feel like you’re out of your depth. There’s 30 levels to the game split into 5 sections meaning 5 boss fights, and the variety of the bugs with their very different characteristics makes each level feel different from the last. The boss levels are more of a challenge just like you’d expect them to be, and a couple of times I had to take a 5 minute timeout to calm my frustration at dying again just after hearing the words “Final Wave”, plus it also saved my controller from any rage damage! There’s 30 levels to the game split into 5 sections meaning 5 boss fights, and the variety of the bugs with their very different characteristics makes each level feel different from the last.
As well as the missions, you also have Panic mode, where you must survive for as long as you can, and believe me it doesn’t take very long for this mode to live up to its name as you fire your weapons in a frenzy of firepower to stay alive that extra few seconds. While you catch your breath, you can check your score on the leaderboard or you can challenge a friend on local splitscreen to see who is the better bug exterminator.
The cartoony gore and style of the layered backgrounds and animated characters look great, which coupled with the cheeky humour and great sound, make The Bug Butcher fun to play. With its simple controls, the game is easy to get into and you’re into the action straight away, and although its ideal for a short intense burst of action, you’ll get hooked and will soon find yourself saying “just one more go” over and over again.
Developer: Triangle Studios
Publisher: Triangle Studios
Genre: 2D Shooter
Price: £7.99
Many Thanks to XCN for the review copy.