Reading the description for Kabuto Park, I imagined it would be like Animal Crossing’s Bug-Off. But this quick, cosy beetle-collecting game from French developer Doot Tiny Games presents a concept that’s closer to another Nintendo series: Pokémon.
The story is pretty light. Your character, Hana, visits the eponymous park for a month to catch bugs and catch up with friends. It’s played through menus, where you select areas rather than explore them – you’ll unlock four throughout. But the gameplay loop is where Kabuto Park really flies: an addictive combination of catching and battling. Capturing bugs takes the form of a minigame inspired by another very cosy title, Gears of War’s Active Reload.
Its speed scales with area and rarity. You can use Joy-Con, too, and swinging them like a net is fun and responsive. There are three levels of difficulty, from a casual easy mode to a hard mode that demands insect-like reflexes. Watching your collection fill out is satisfying, especially when you get rare bugs or Shinies.
The bug battles take inspiration from sumo fights. Teams of three bugs take turns to ‘PUSH or ‘HOLD’ against each other on a platform, until one team falls off. You and your opponent have sets of cards determined by the bugs in your colony. Beetles have cards like ‘Beetles Kick’, while butterflies have ‘Strong Wind’, and the Energy bar is a timer that determines when you can play a card. Each card is assigned a number – gustier attacks have higher numbers, so you wait longer to play them. The higher your combined Energy, the faster your timer.
Early game, you can flap into battle without much prep, but you’ll soon need to develop stat-based strategies. It’s not too intense on the (hive)mind, though using the Battle menu isn’t all smooth snailing. Selecting a bug from the menu puts them in the team automatically; I wanted to view their stats before I chose them – like seeing your Pokémon’s summary in the PC before adding them to your party. Battle opponents named Ash and Satoshi are also present, for those counting the Pokémon references.
This game has plenty of bugs (insects), yet no bugs (imperfections) that I encountered. Touchscreen controls are there if you’re playing handheld. It looks great too: everything is coloured with a storybook art style, with block-coloured backgrounds, and crayon-texture details that have been carefully considered right down to your creatures’ cute bug-eyes. That’s all set to earworm-worthy music that strikes the balance between catchy and relaxing, complete with nature and insect sound effects.
Kabuto Park’s runtime is less than a day (that oft-misquoted lifespan of a fly), but for a low price, it’s worth it. The cycle between catching and battling is simple yet variegated and captivating. And if you’re a completionist, capturing all the bugs and exploring their various battle tactics — not to mention post-game content that ups the ante — could have you coming back like a moth to a flame.
