LifeisXbox’s Little Bug Review | Little Bug is a pretty interesting platformer, with a unique game mechanic and good ideas being implemented correctly, it also has moments that are darker than I expected from it, which was a good surprise to have. Even though it is a short game, if you’re into 2D platformers you should give this one a try, because it is a pleasant experience, despite having a few difficulty spikes in it. Little Bug has been developed by Buddy System and published by RedDeerGames.
This is a short review, our usual the good, mixed and the bad was difficult because of the nature of this game. Reviewed on Xbox One | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.
Little Bug is an interesting platformer. Your character is a little girl called Nyah and your adventure starts with walking back home from school when you see the spirit of a cat and soon you also see the dead cat on the street, which I didn’t expect to see at all. I must say that it does set the tone right because as soon as you get home, you get into a fight with your mom and enter into a strange world in a dream without having to go sleep. Nyah can only move from one side to the other. In order to traverse most of the game, you have the help of a little light ball which you control with the right analogue stick and press RT to push Nyah towards it that makes for an interesting and unique game-mechanic, being a good reason to try Little Bug out.
There are some collectibles available as well, which you have to put in your lunch bag if you want to collect them. You do have to check if your lunch bag is full often though as you may need to sacrifice either the one you have just collected or one that you keep in there. The collectibles vary between quite a few things; you can get a cat skull for instance, which did feel weird to me, but not for Nyah. She does comment on them as they’re usually connected to her mom, something that was said to her, memories she has, or just a comment of what it reminds her of. Nyah’s mom seems to be quite stressed with Nyah putting a bunch of weird things in her lunch box. You overhear her talking about it with her mom on the phone but it also seems like she is a single mom since a father is never mentioned or shown in-game. This made me understand the tone Little Bug has a little better. The game is named Little Bug because her mom calls Nyah that whenever they fight.
Little Bug has hand-drawn enemies such as the cat spirit, hands, and other obstacles that do have quite a nice look to them. They reminded me of Psychonauts 2’s figments, which was nice to see, but it also has 3D environments and two 3D characters, Nyah and her mom (three if you count the dead cat at the beginning of it). They didn’t stand out as much as the 2D elements but they did fit Little Bug as the mixture of 3D and 2D worked nicely. The soundtrack wasn’t a highlight. It wasn’t out of place but it also didn’t stand out which is a shame because a better soundtrack would have made a difference to it. I also understand that the soundtrack not being prevalent is an interesting idea that can make you focus more on what’s being said (written, because there are no voices here) and in the gameplay itself. Another thing that is a shame is how short Little Bug is. I say this as I managed to complete Little Bug in under an hour and a half and it felt like I was only finishing a single chapter but unfortunately, it was the entire game – and that is counting the parts I struggled a bit at some points in the game. Speaking of struggling, some bits were quite challenging for me but I think that’s mostly on me as I’m not the best 2D platformer player out there, even though I do like to play them.
LifeisXbox.eu is the largest Belgian Xbox-centered website, your reading time is greatly appreciated! Please consider sharing this review with your friends on social media, that means a lot for us! If you are Dutch speaking also consider joining our Dutch exclusive Facebook group Xbox Gamers Belgium. Feel free to use quotes for PR purposes.
Would you like to support us?!
We keep our website completely ads-free as we know how annoying that can be. This means we don’t have any income. Unfortunately, bills do come in for our hosting costs and other LifeisXbox expenses. Here is where YOU come in, your monthly support on Patreon can help us to continue writing our reviews.
Please check out our different options for support us monthly, our Patreon link.
You can also use Ko-Fi to give us a one time gift! Our Ko-Fi link.
Hi there, I’m Gabriel Colombo (Hence my reviewer name), I live in Brazil and I’ve been gaming since I was around 5 years old. Xbox became my main platform on the Xbox 360 era, before that I had played a bit on PC, Polystation (basically a skinned SNES), PlayStation 1 and 2. I really enjoy to experience immersive worlds, but I also enjoy playing silly games to have a laugh or just have fun.
