REVIEW : Bug Academy (PC)
Bug Academy from Igrek Games is a logic based riddle play that stars, you guessed it, bugs. The play centres around four distinct bugs that are all learning lessons at the Bug Academy which proposes various challenges they must overcome. There is no real story surrounding these bugs, you’re just here to help them be the best bug they could be.
As soon as Bug Academy begins, it immediately tells you to grab a controller because it’s easier to manoeuvre than a mouse and keyboard; it’s still very doable with a mouse and keyboard, but the controller is the way to go. After you choose that, you instantly begin with a tutorial for the first bug, the fly.
The controls are rather simple: left thumbstick is flying around, pressing and holding left trigger will grab things, and pressing A continuously makes you fly faster and will allow you to lift heavy objects. You can gather a group of bugs as well by finding them in levels, but if they are no longer needed you can drop them with B. These commands go for all the bugs as well, with more added as you get to control others. Controlling these bugs feels great; you can feel the sensation of speed as they fly through the world but also you can feel the pressure of an object as they are carrying it.
Each school for the bugs has seven levels, which isn’t many, but they are all rather varied to retain things fresh, even if it only takes about three hours to accomplish them all. The levels differ in what they need you to do, but the end aim is always the same: get three stars. The levels aren’t typical bug-like tasks though, you’ll be doing some eerie stuff such as delivering fridges and washing machines to cows in their home, grouping cows together in a fenced field and rebuilding said fence, or shooting cows with a slingshot at a castle comparable to Angry Birds. A lot of duties involving cows for some odd reason.
Many of the levels have a Little Big Planet vibe to them, which isn’t unusual as that’s a physics-based play as well, but the physics themselves are impressive especially for an indie developer. Rushing through buildings carrying a fridge and watching everything just break apart and collapse is very pleasant along with seeing items glide away in levels with zero gravity. It is hard not to acknowledge the work that went into making everything communicate with each other so realistically.
As you proceed through the Bug Academy, you’ll be able to control other bugs such as fireflies, mosquitoes and bees. Fireflies are usually the same as flies when it gets to controls, but mosquitoes and bees add new details to keep the puzzles interesting and fresh. As a mosquito, you can suck up fluids with the right trigger and releasing the right trigger will spray the liquids uncontrollably. As a bee, you play the ruler bee so you’re able to use other bees you accumulate as projectiles which can be aimed and fired with the right trigger as well. These allow some great diversity to the tasks within levels even though some are the same levels just slightly altered to include the new ability.
Visually, Bug Academy surprises yet again with excellent use of lighting, reflections, shadows and depth of field. The firefly levels particularly showcase this because they are primarily illuminated by the bugs, and it looks really good as the lights reflect on almost all surfaces. The several bugs look good as well with a goofy and cartoonish look due to their googly-like eyes and the way their bodies just swing around. Fun stuff the developers incorporated as well as fun details about bugs with loading screens such as ‘bees don’t buzz during a solar eclipse’. It was a weird combination of actually studying about bugs while doing these extreme tasks with them.
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