Kabuto Park Review - Bite-Sized Bug Battler

Like most kids, some of my fondest memories come from my time spent during summer vacation. I’d spent the bulk of my day bicycling around the neighborhood with my friends, collecting random junk. Some days it would be a pretty rock, other days it might be a bottlecap, and on rare occasions it would be some poor kid’s Lego minifigure. 

This love for collecting things stayed with me in my adulthood, and while that sometimes leads to financial decisions that aren’t the best, I’ve found that video games can be the best way to scratch that itch. Which is why Kabuto Park caught my eye from the first few screenshots I saw of it on Twitter. Made by artists Doot, Zakku, Blibloop, and Eupholie, Kabuto Park is a bite-sized game about collecting bugs and battling with them.

A Bug Battler's Life Is Fly

The premise of the game is pretty simple. You play as Hana, a little girl on summer vacation. For the whole month of August, you’re in Kabuto Park, and your goal is to catch all the bugs your little heart desires and then send them out to battle. Yes, much like Pokémon, you capture these critters to level them up and beef with other children, but that’s where the similarities between the two games end.

As depicted in the map, Kabuto Park itself is divided into four areas, with each area being plein-air painting-esque. Each area has around 15 bugs to catch, which can be common, uncommon, or rare. Naturally, the rarer the bug, the more difficult it is to catch. There’s not much exploring to do, as each area already has a fixed number of spots where you can search from, as indicated by the little magnifying glass. Once you choose a spot, you’ll be able to capture a bug. The way you catch it is by timing your button press so that the moving indicator lines up with the correct zone.

Once you’ve caught your bug, you have the option to keep it or sell it for candies, the currency through which you can level up your bugs. Each bug has a unique set of stats and moves, but each species will have its own unique traits. Beetles are built like tanks, butterflies and moths deal wind damage, and so on and so forth. 

Although Kabuto Park is a short game, the collector in me was pleased to see the number of bugs you can catch in the game. Years of playing Animal Crossing had me well-prepared for this. To my surprise, though, Kabuto Park’s strength lies not in its critter-collecting but in its battle system.

You can set up a team of up to three bugs and duke it out with other bug catchers in the summer tournament. At first glance, the combat seems easy enough. Each one of your moves is a card and requires a certain amount of energy, which is replenished as time passes. So while it is turn-based, it also uses an active-time battle system.

Your goal is to keep pushing your opponent’s team, and once they’re pushed out of the arena, you win. Every 10 bug catchers that you defeat, you earn a badge that allows you access to the next area of Kabuto Park, and you repeat the process. 

It took me four hours to reach the game's end credits, but those four hours were the highlight of my day. It’s oddly specific, but I love it when video games encapsulate the feeling of summer vacation, some of my favourites being A Short Hike and Boku no Natsuyasumi. Kabuto Park just screams summer, from its bright color palette to the cheery soundtrack. I felt just like a kid again, digging through the dirt to find some treasure.

Of course, it’s not the best turn-based combat system that you’ve seen, nor is it the most expansive map that a game can feature, but Kabuto Park isn’t trying to be those things. It’s a short and sweet game about collecting bugs, and it accomplishes more than just that. There’s a satisfying loop that keeps you coming back, an eye-catching art style that offers a playful UI, and some charming tunes and sound effects. You might run into the occasional typo or bug (the kind that can’t be captured), but nothing game-breaking.

Final Thoughts - Kabuto Park

Kabuto Park is a perfectly packaged low-stakes bug battler that feels like a slice of summer vacation. While it only takes about 2-4 hours to complete the game, it’s well worth the $5 it’s priced at. Kabuto Park is available to play on May 28th on PC, and even has a demo that you can try out on Steam.

Kabuto Park was reviewed on PC with a copy provided by the publisher over the course of 4 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.