Kabuto Park

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to follow solo developer Doot’s indie game career since just about its inception. Their first game, Froggy’s Battle, was a pretty unique take on the action roguelike genre, with the titular frog’s battles happening within a circle (that he was skating on – I had to include that little fact). Follow-up Minami Lane, which released less than a year after Doot’s debut, was a tiny city builder set on a single street and featured some phenomenal art, addictive gameplay, and a playtime that respected your time.

Now Doot returns just over a year after Minami Lane’s release with probably my favourite pitch for a game so far. Kabuto Park is a game which sees you catch and collect bugs, only to then have them duke it out with other bug teams in a roguelike deckbuilding fashion. Combine that premise with a beautiful, hand-drawn art style and just the best whimsical feeling all round, and you end up with another hit for Doot, who was joined by fellow developer Zakku for this title.

The release of Kabuto Park feels a bit like a full-circle moment in gaming, to be honest. I remember when Pokémon first released; one of the developers behind the franchise explained that as a child, they had a big passion for collecting bugs. They then wanted to translate the excitement of catching and collecting the little critters in a video game, which they did pretty successfully. But now, here we have a game where you play as a little girl who spends her days at summer camp collecting bugs! It’s just a neat little factoid that I personally appreciate.

Here, you play as Hana, a 10-year-old girl who spends the entire month of August at Kabuto Park, making new friends and catching bugs. Catching the bugs is pretty straightforward, as you select your location and then choose a spot to look for a bug. The actual catching happens with a quicktime minigame, where your reaction speed will be very important, especially the further into the game you get.

The other kids have little bug teams of their own, and they’ve even set up a tournament where bugs take on each other in a kind of sumo wrestling-type deal. Both teams are put on a tambourine and will take turns pushing and defending their position. You are able to interact with these battles in a couple of ways. First off, there’s the choice of which bugs to use: every different critter has its own stats, even depending on its size, so one type of bug can have varying stats as well. You’ll always get a preview of your opponent’s team’s statistics so you can choose wisely before starting the battle.

And then there are the cards. Each bug comes with its own set of cards that you can use in real-time during the fight. You see, unlike other deckbuilders, you don’t just get a set number of energy at the start of your turn. No, energy builds up while you’re playing, so, for example, the moment you get to three energy, you can play a card that costs three energy. Or you could play a two-cost and one-cost card right after each other. It’s really important to choose when to play your cards, as their effects might be wasted during the pushing phase, while they might be vital while defending, or vice versa.

There’s an amount of depth to this card battling gameplay that I wasn’t necessarily expecting from Kabuto Park, but I’m glad it’s here. It makes what is a great game truly excellent and welcoming to players of any level. I’d recommend this game just that bit more to people who are new to the deckbuilding genre, as you won’t get many better entry points than this, but don’t let it scare you off if you’re a veteran of the genre. Especially once the month is over: then you can play all of your opponents again, but all of their bugs will have reached maximum level, giving you much more of a challenge.

The story of the game is adorable too. It’s basically told in tiny conversations before each battle begins, but it really takes you back to that time of childlike wonder when vacations seemed to last forever. Hana will make friends, and all of the kids have their own unique personalities. There’s even a kid who speaks in very Gen Z terms, which I thought was quite hilarious, no cap. As the month progresses, the feeling of melancholy gets ramped up. Yes, there are more shiny bugs to collect, and more and more rare variants will start popping up too, but all of a sudden, the end of the month seems to be getting so much closer. The final battles you have with each of your opponents – you face one of them daily – offer bittersweet goodbyes and a feeling of not wanting to go home and back to school just yet.

And once again, Doot has created a full game experience that will only last you a couple of hours, meaning you’ll have plenty of time left for the things you’re forced to do in life and maybe for another cool game as well. I remain consistently amazed at how Doot manages to create these complete game packages in so little time. They’re also priced very fairly, with the price an indication of the time you’ll be playing rather than the fun you’ll be having. There probably isn’t a better value-for-money game than Kabuto Park right now, and you’d be mad to miss out on it.