Bugz: Harmless Fun [Briefly]

Posted on December 18th, 2008. Written by Arron.

A couple of weeks back now, I was given a copy of Bugz by Didev Studios. An iPhone game which doesn’t necessarily have all the ‘gloss’ which features in most other games, but it holds it’s own. With it’s simple objective and addictive nature, it’s pretty hard to stop yourself re-playing it. You might say it’s a bit of ‘harmless fun’ …

Luck, chance and good timing, you’ll need it all for this title …

Objective
In Bugz [App Store] your aim is to ‘pop’ as many bugs as possible by starting a chain reaction. Careful though, start the chain too late, or too early and your guaranteed to get a low score. The more bugs you pop, the larger your score. Popping a bug generates a bloom-like ring of colour which if this then hits a bug, it will pop that too, and so the chain reaction continues.

Each level requires a certain amount of bugs to be popped by you in order to move into the next level – and let me tell you, that’s no easy feat. What makes this game even more interesting is further criteria must be reached on future levels. This criteria is shown on the screen leading into that certain level. One example of this is when greyish/black bugs were added into the mix. I found I had to time each tap just right to make a chain long enough to pop the black bug. Just a note, black bugs are required to be popped in further levels, in order to progress to the next. It’s a requirement.

Visuals
Extremely polished for what they are. I mean for a game which focuses on near-microscopic bugs, the graphics of each bug had to be spot on, and they are pretty clean. The way this title functions graphically may also remind you a bit of Bloom [App Store]. Each time you pop a bug a radius of colour emits from each bug. If this radius hits another bug, congrats, you have a chain reaction!

Things we liked:

• Auto-saving of profiles
  In Bugz you must create a player account. Each account and the respective level progression of that players account is saved. These accounts are accessible from the game’s main menu and an account can be loaded up in one tap.

• The concept
  The concept for the game is great. We’re sure it’s not ‘unique’ but Didev have done a good job making the game what is it today. Simple. fun. addictive.

Things we didn’t:
With the good comes the bad … and this time, it’s the soundtrack. My gawd is it annoying. Ok it’s upbeat, and actually kinda pleasant the first time round, but on the 5-6 loop round, I couldn’t hack it anymore. Seriously, it’s a great little title, but having a midi loop as background to your game play gets pre-tay grating after a while. Something we suggest should be a priority fix. I personally found myself having to put the game on silent. You might love it, but I’m taking a stab in the dark here that you probably won’t.

At 59p I can’t really argue with the price. The game is fun to play, and after a few goes, you’ll probably get the hang of it – that is until more bugs and certain level requirements are thrown into the mix. I have to say the game does initially seem to be aimed at a younger audience to ourselves, but the addicting nature of the game, and your need to either beat a level or beat your previous score means this game could really be played by anyone. Who am I kidding … I was playing it for good hour or so. Level 35 baabby ………!

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 3.0MB

Publisher: Didev Studios
Released on: 26th Nov 2008
Retails for: £0.59 / $0.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G