One Btn Bosses masters its easy premise

One Btn Bosses is true to its identify: You want just one button to tackle its chaotic, bullet-hell bosses.

Launched Aug. 6 by developer Midnight Munchies, One Btn Bosses appears easy: On a 2D aircraft that’s largely shapes and contours, you management a small spaceship (a tiny little dot, basically, à la Asteroid) that routinely shoots its personal bullets on the enemy, which concurrently return fireplace — plenty of bullets, lethal floor-is-lava-esque shapes, and lasers.

With its top-down view, One Btn Bosses places all the pieces on the identical aircraft, proscribing the ship’s motion as you attempt to dodge bullets. The ship strikes ahead or backward on a hard and fast rail within the form of what’s normally a circle, sq., or curved line. The one button impacts the ship’s motion. While you first begin the sport, the button adjustments route; in case your ship is shifting ahead, a button push reverses its course, which is useful in dodging enemy assaults. However if you change route, the velocity at which your weapon spits bullets slows down.

As you progress, you’ll unlock totally different talents; for example, one early improve adjustments the button from a toggle that impacts directional adjustments to a one-time sprint, which blasts you shortly by means of enemy bullets. There are additionally assault upgrades for weapons, like including lasers to your ship, that, like talents, might be swapped out and in between ranges.

The artwork type and design is clear and polished. The gameplay is easy. The assault mechanic is restricted to, in fact, one button. Nevertheless it’s inside these constraints that One Btn Bosses shines — it makes a single button a bastion of chance in a world with plenty of guidelines.

There are two modes to work by means of, the primary of which is a brief (4 hours or so) marketing campaign the place you’re a grunt worker taking over literal company bosses who throw assaults at your ship. Shortly, you’ll unlock the second mode — the roguelite piece of the sport, known as Rifts & Developments, the place you battle by means of procedurally-generated ranges. You’ll be able to swap between modes at any level, however your marketing campaign unlocks don’t apply to the roguelite mode. That’s as a result of One Btn Bosses’ roguelite is pretty conventional in its construction: You begin with nothing particular, and gather upgrades and skills that change with every new spherical. It’s a enjoyable technique to check out a complete bunch of various talents whereas blasting by means of fast-paced, really difficult ranges.

One Btn Bosses retains issues fascinating stage after stage by barely adjusting the bosses’ assaults or the sphere of play. One Btn Bosses is rarely gradual, nevertheless it does begin out easy, with enemies sending their bullets straight at you — no advanced patterns to dodge. Nevertheless it shortly ramps up so as to add an increasing number of complexity, and fewer and fewer room for error. Generally, there’s a quirk to the extent — there’s a curved line monitor that’s bought portals on every finish to imitate the fixed motion of a circle with out, nicely, being a circle. It takes a mixture of reflexes and techniques to steadiness when you will need to push the one button; pushing it, like I discussed earlier, slows the speed of the assault, which suggests you’ll have to battle the boss — and keep alive! — for longer. (The speed of assault slows any time you hit the button, truly, whatever the capability that’s chosen.)

So what do you prioritize? Nicely, that’s as much as you. I’m the anxious form of participant who’s at all times tapping the button to dodge the boss; I don’t thoughts staying in a stage longer as long as I’m enjoying it secure. However the speedrunners on the market will need exact pushes that preserve the speed of assault up excessive to finish the extent quick. That’s the great thing about One Btn Bosses — it permits for complexity and differing methods even throughout the strictest of guidelines.

One Btn Bosses was launched Aug. 6 on Home windows PC. The sport was reviewed on a Steam Deck utilizing a obtain code offered by Midnight Munchies. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. You will discover further details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.