Inspired by Super NES game Super Pang (or Super Buster Bros) The Bug Butcher has a simple concept with a bit of a twist. A bullet hell style shooter fundamentally, you move around the confined level areas shooting monstrous creatures and giant bugs while dodging incoming fire. The twist? You can only shoot vertically. It doesn’t sound like much, but it creates an interesting strategic experience where you must run from side to side anticipating falling enemies, where they will land and where they will bounce back up to.
As far as the story goes it’s as simple as: you’re an exterminator called in to rid a facility of giant bugs, ‘assisted’ by the scientists who’ve hired you. There are 30 levels in the arcade mode throughout which you will face an increasing variety and number of bugs. These range from simple blobs that bounce around the level, larger blobs that split into smaller ones upon death, face-hugger types that go directly for your character, and even spider like creatures that try to eat the scientists; there’s actually a fair variety on offer, and it keeps the 30 levels interesting.
What you have to deal with the bugs starts as an automatic weapon, firing energy (or something – more comparable to a pulse rifle), but weapon drops, power-ups and upgrades allow you to unleash a wealth of attacks. These range from electric rounds that catch other nearby enemies, a laser beam, rockets, power-ups that add fire damage to your weapon or give you extra speed, and special abilities that can be activated after filling a combo meter such as freezing all enemies on the screen. There’s a good variety as it is, but the real fun comes when you learn these weapons and power-ups can be stacked. I’m not talking laser beam rockets or anything like that, but laser beam with fire damage and speed, etc. When moments are more hectic, a skilful player can really create quite a spectacle.
As for the upgrades, these are paid for by coins collected throughout the levels (after killing foes). On offer are a few upgrades improving your weapon’s stats (firepower, accuracy, etc), as well as improvements to weapon pick-ups, power-ups and some character upgrades (such as increased running speed, a protective bubble, etc). It takes a while to get enough coins to acquire all the upgrades, but some are essential to achieving high scores. You may find yourself returning to earlier levels to grind before you tackle the later ones, and returning just to try to achieve all the stars with your new upgrades. It provides a bit of something extra to the longevity of the game, giving you a good reason to revisit levels.
The actual levels themselves, however, were a bit of a disappointment. The game’s art style is wonderfully quirky and colourful, but the level design is a tad bland and repetitive. There are five stages of levels, therefore five variations of design which effectively translate to bland facility, slightly less bland facility, facility with red in it…you get the gist. There are some interesting dynamics thrust upon you as the levels progress, such as platforms and walls that intermittently block fire and enemy paths, which add a bit more to the level design, but there’s not enough of it. I suppose the main fault for this is the length of the arcade mode. 30 levels comes to about 2 hours of gameplay, and while there is worth in returning after completion, I can’t imagine this extends the length too much.
But despite some disappointing level design and a far too brief arcade mode, The Bug Butcher excels at its base premise. It’s an exciting shooter. Colourful and challenging, and satisfying to boot. Bugs are quirky and humorous in design and explode into goo on death, and the mixture of weapons, abilities and power-ups makes for a hectic and inventive experience. In order to achieve all the stars and the challenge combo (for example a combo of 45) on each level actually takes a deal of skill and strategy – you need to have the right level of abilities, quick fingers to dodge incoming fire, and precise aim in order to kill bugs fast enough. It almost makes up for the short arcade length…almost.
There are also two other modes on offer. A ‘Panic’ mode, which serves as a sort of survival mode – starting you out with no upgrades and abilities, then giving you the option to buy them as you go on, trying to last as long as you can; and coop play. I didn’t manage to test the coop gameplay, but I suppose it’s nice that it’s there.
It really is difficult for me to get past the whole length criticism, and that’s the primary reason I’ve not scored The Bug Butcher higher – there must have been more the developers could have done with the game to keep it going for longer, and considering some of the repetitiveness and lack of interesting levels I think they definitely should have. But otherwise the game is well worth a look for any shooter or bullet hell fans. It’s exciting and enjoyably challenging with an aesthetic and mechanical twist that sets it apart from the plethora of other shooters available.