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Bugsnax is finally coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, and Nintendo Switch on April 28 after being only available for PS5, PS4, and PC. That same day, the game will also receive its first major content update, The Isle of Bigsnax. The expansion is a free update.
Ahead of its release, I got to see what’s in store for Bugsnax when The Isle of Bigsnax launches. In short, it’s largely more of what the experience is like playing the base game. Sure, The Isle of Bigsnax offers new activities to do and a brand-new story campaign, but the experience is pretty much just more of what we’ve already got.
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Now Playing: Bugsnax Video Review
And honestly, that’s 100% fine with me. I sadly didn’t get to actually play the new expansion, so take what I say with a grain of salt–I can only base my opinion on observations, not first-hand experience. But what I saw looks a lot like what it’s like to play Bugsnax, which is a great game, as described in GameSpot’s Bugsnax review.
In The Isle of Bigsnax, you travel to Broken Tooth–a strange island where Bugsnax grow to enormous size. Chandlo, Floofty, Triffany, and Shelda all join you on this new adventure, with everyone working together to uncover the mysteries of the island. There’s an underlying implication that perhaps something sinister is afoot, or at the very least, there’s more to this island than just bigger Bugsnax.
“A large focus in this set of quests is the conflict between Floofty and Shelda especially, but also there is a lot with Chandlo’s relationships with Snorpy in a moment where they are not around each other for a long time, as well as Triffany worrying about working in a group setting because she is very used to working alone,” Bugsnax creative director Kevin Zuhn said during a Q&A at the preview. “Those are the major themes each of the characters are going through.”
“[The island] is one large level that is pretty open to explore,” Bugsnax programmer and producer Kevin Geisler said at that same Q&A. “It’s significantly larger than the other levels in the game.”
Uncovering more of the story requires you to complete errands for your fellow grumpuses. You need to help them out, solving environmental puzzles and figuring out how to skirt around obstacles by observing and scanning the local wildlife. Scanning Bugsnax provides insight into their likes and dislikes, allowing you to take advantage of their unique behaviors to solve certain puzzles.
From what I saw, the process of using Bugsnax to your advantage or catching them plays out much like what we’re familiar with–using bait and your assortment of items to attract, stun, and trap your prey. But given that the Bugsnax on Broken Tooth are significantly larger in size, they are used in new types of environmental puzzles, like knocking down walls that are blocking your path or serving as a springboard to platform up to a previously unreachable cliff. Catching them can prove trickier too, as you seemingly need to always find a way to shrink them down in order to trap them.
If you’re a new, wannabe fan, don’t worry–you can jump into the expansion even if you haven’t finished Bugsnax. Narratively, the story of The Isle of Bigsnax occurs just prior to the ending of the game. So if you haven’t finished Bugsnax and have yet to uncover the final narrative threads, this expansion won’t spoil things for you.
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“In some ways, it actually puts [players] in a state to be more ready for the end game in the first place,” Zuhn said. He added that he feels like there are gaps in Bugsnax story that needed to be filled–The Isle of Bigsnax addresses that concern, providing additional insight into the game’s central mystery.
Because it takes place so late in the campaign, you’ll actually have to play quite a bit of Bugsnax to access The Isle of Bigsnax. “In order to begin the quest, you have to complete Snorpy’s side quest; then he will approach you with this quest available,” Zuhn said. “At which point, you’ll also have to complete the side quests of the other characters who are involved. So this takes place after each of them has had that particular sort of quest state and character development. So it is fairly late in the game, but if you’ve already completed everything, it’ll just be available right away.”
A new fast travel feature means you can easily go back and forth between Bugsnax’s Snaktooth Island and the new Broken Tooth. And there’s plenty of new stuff to do back on Snaktooth. The expansion adds new mail quests, where you can approach your newly added mailbox and find requests from your fellow grumpuses. Accomplishing these tasks earns you cosmetic items that can be used to decorate your new hut, which also gets added in The Isle of Bigsnax.
Amusingly, it looks like the cadence of new letters is dependent on who you’ve met and how far you’ve gotten in the campaign. So if you’re just jumping into Bugsnax for the first time on April 28, you’ll seemingly be getting letters at a fairly normal pace. However, it seems that players who have already beaten Bugsnax or at least poured a lot of time into it can expect to see their new mailbox absolutely chock-full of messages. It was comical to see the developers fast-forward the preview build to a later point in the game and then get dozens of letters all at once. The tasks denoted in the letters are reminiscent of tasks given to you in the base game–finding certain Bugsnax, feeding the grumpuses specific Bugsnax, etc.
The final big addition of the expansion is hats. In a loose variation of the process of shiny hunting in Pokemon, there are now one-of-a-kind unique Bugsnax out in the world for you to find–they’re not any different in design in comparison to their brethren, other than an especially cute adornment upon their heads. Capturing said critter will unlock the hat they are wearing, which you can use to dress up the captured Bugsnax donated to Gramble’s ranch. It seems like a nice distraction to look out for while accomplishing mail quests–not something I’m looking forward to, but I know plenty of completionists who will enjoy the process of acquiring every available hat.
According to Zuhn, The Isle of Bigsnax’s campaign will take around three to four hours to complete. The time needed to find all of the collectibles and complete all of the mail quests will depend on your skill level, though Zuhn predicts that this DLC adds about 80% more content to Bugsnax. So it doesn’t quite double the amount of side content to do, but it’s pretty close.
Even if The Isle of Bigsnax isn’t adding anything fundamentally fresh to Bugsnax’s formula, the new story, mail activities, hut decorating, and hat collecting all seem to expand upon the best aspects of the core gameplay loop. And as plenty of folks can tell you, Bugsnax has a great formula–one that seems well worth jumping back into for a few hours.
