Bugatron Review

Bugatron is much like the classic '70s shoot’em ups Galaxian and Space Invaders, but substitutes the attacking aliens with insects. Unlike its retro ancestors, many stages require strategy to defeat. For example, early in the game you encounter a swarm of bugs surrounding Earth. Lasers are ineffective; the enemies are destroyed only by deflecting them into the planet. As the game continues through its 100 levels, the difficulty increases and becomes quite a challenge while retaining its enjoyability.

The controls are simple to use; the arrow keys or mouse control movement while the left mouse click fires weapons and right mouse click gives a speed burst. Power-ups are gained by defeating certain enemies increase weapon strength or provide an ally, but aren’t more creative than previous games of similar nature.

Music became somewhat repetitive, but remained catchy and upbeat. Sound effects are lively, and added to the atmosphere

Graphics are in 3D and do their job, but are fairly simplistic. Insects are colorful and varying in appearance. Yet, other objects like the aforementioned Earth could use more work. Backgrounds remain a static blue/black mixed with basic white stars. An increased variation including planets, nebulas, or other visibly impressive space objects would've broken up the monotony.

While the gameplay is very addictive, Bugatron suffers from not offering anything original. Besides using your brain to figure out how to defeat certain enemies, the rest feels very familiar.