Shoot Me Some Bugs is a game jam game made by GradDev95. It was submitted to four different game jams, which was very weird to me, but that might just be normal for many game jam projects. I felt this game was fine, but I do think it had a few issues that I wanted to discuss. This is the first quickie, a series of very short reviews on games I felt were interesting, but couldn’t stretch a full review out of.
Shoot Me Some Bugs is a top-down shooter that is wave-based. You are stuck in a very basic room with a few blocks to hide behind, and you must survive twelve waves in order to finish the game. There are only two types of bugs, the first one being a tiny purple ladybug-looking thing that just runs towards you, while the other one is a big bug that shoots you. This big bug also looks more like a robot than a bug. I don’t know why the description really makes the inclusion of two enemy types seem like a selling point, but hey, it worked on me.
The game has twelve waves in it, and once you beat all 12 waves, the game ends. Each wave increases the onslaught of enemies, and a few waves spawn in powerups. There are only two powerups, one of them increases your health, and the other makes you invincible for a short time. That’s all of the help you're going to get here, and it’s honestly very little. The main problem with this setup is that later waves just feel like enemy spam, which is the most annoying feeling to have in a wave-based shooter. The powerups are also spammed more in later levels, but the danger of enemy spam outweighs the usefulness of item spam. The enemy spam is a poor way to handle difficulty curving because it just feels like more, and more is being given to the player until they die, or win. There are no stage variants, no new enemy types, no new weapons, you simply fight more, and more of the same enemies until you win, or die. You can say I’m being too harsh, and maybe I am, but it’s still a flaw.
Anything else about this game? Well, I do like the visuals of the game. It does look rather generic, but that doesn’t mean it looks bad. I particularly like how the player character, the shooting bug looks. I also do like the music that plays in the game, but it also does sound like generic rock music. The voice that said game over when you die is also amazing.
Despite my criticisms about the enemy spam, and the lack of new elements during waves, I do like what is shown here. You need to remember that this is a game jam game, and it was only made in one week. There’s nothing inherently bad with this game, it controls well, and the combat is fun. My main problem is the lack of content. Even though this is a game jam game, I do think adding a new enemy type, or doing something in between waves to make the enemy spam less noticeable was definitely needed. That’s all I have to say here. Shoot Me Some Bugs is a fun game, but it just needed more.
LINK TO GAME: https://graddev95.itch.io/shoot-me-some-bugs
Comments