Bugsnax is a dumb game in every way. You inhabit a world of Sesame Street– like monsters, and visit an island full of bugs in the form of snacks – hot dogs, soda cans and more. The googly-eyed residents inexplicably want to eat this Bugsnax, which turns their limbs into the objects they devoured. This process is known as “queuing” and for some reason does not please everyone but everyone. You have to bring the scattered townspeople back together, usually by capturing certain creatures and passing them on to individuals, even when absurd melodramas play out between the characters. It’s as strange as it sounds.
While this makes for an unusual wrapper, Bugsnax is really a puzzle-solving adventure game. You’ll wander through several relatively small open areas from a first-person perspective, scanning and packaging the small bites by luring, catching, or tricking them. Along the way you will meet many unusual islanders and solve a riddle about the missing founder of the settlement.
The light-hearted but deeply weird premise isn’t always enough to keep the story engaging, and there’s a lot of borderline nonsensical spoken dialogue as you meet and solve problems for the eccentric cast. If storytelling works, it’s because everything is communicated through such a serious and healthy delivery. All flawed characters are lonely, and topics around the value of community and relationships make for a heartfelt message. Whether it’s the guy trying to understand whether or not his long-time roommate is really his friend, or the husband and wife who love each other even though they are completely different, everyone is struggling to connect. And also to fight to play word games. So many puns.