Oooooo… oh, well, you probably know what I’m going to be talkin’ ‘bout. Bugsnax was one of my favorite games of 2020, and it’s great to be able to return to this cute (but body horror) game. In my original review, I praised Bugsnax for representing relationships better than any other game, and for its snak catching mechanics—both of which were great to return to. While Bugsnax might be finally making its way to Nintendo Switch and Steam (after its Epic Game Store exclusivity) it also comes with some quality of life improvements, and gameplay additions in the form of the Isle of BIGsnax.
If you’re playing for the first time, lots of the changes added in today’s update will come organically as you play through the game. However, if you’ve previously played through Bugsnax, like me, you’ll be glad to know that you’re able to “continue” your game straight into the DLC—before the big “point of no return” at the end of the game. This includes hats, a customizable hut, and a mailbox where you can receive items as reward for completing quests for the various characters. If you want to travel to the Isle of BIGsnax, though, you’ll need to get some side quests done.
To get over to the Isle of BIGsnax DLC content, you’ll have to play most of the game—and have all of Chandlo’s and Snorpy’s questlines. These two romantically entangled Grumpuses have one of my favorite relationships in all of video games, and completing all of their side quests is how you’re going to get yourself over to Broken Tooth Island Even so, the quest didn’t trigger for me right away—I had to fast travel from Snaxburg and back to get it to show up.
When you finally get to the island, you’ll find the ruins of an ancient civilization—and whole lot of new Bugsnax to learn about, track, and trap. A lot of these Bugsnax are just variations on ones you’ve seen on the main island—but with sometimes unexpected twists. It was definitely great fun relearning how to catch new snax.
Along with the free DLC update comes a few other new mechanics, most notably the ability to customize a hut in Snaxburg. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to my expectations, and the hut customization feels a bit half-baked. Still, it’s cool to finally have my own home in Snaxburg—and the ability to decorate it with various knickknacks I accumulated through my playthrough. Or rather, I would have accumulated. Since I jumped in with an already completed game, all of the rewards were retroactively dumped onto me. Most of these rewards you get through the new mailbox.
Outside of your hut is a mailbox—and expect letters to come from your fellow Grumpuses as your progress through the games. You will also receive requests to perform tasks through the mail. These act a bit like side quests, but they have the explicit reward of giving you something you can use to decorate your hut—or even the Bugsnax themselves with various hats that are available.
The Isle of Bugsnax is a great addition to Bugsnax—and even better, it’s free to those who already own the game. If you’re interested in playing Bugsnax, there’s no better time to grab it, since it’s releasing today on both Steam and Nintendo Switch.
Bugsnax is available today on Steam and Nintendo Switch, and already available on the Epic Game Store, and PlayStation 5.
A Steam key was provided to us for this review