There’s nothing easier than pressing a single button to enter a game. While you can always automatically skip a visual novel if you really don’t want to do anything but stare at the screen in front of you, One Btn Bosses instead asks you to activate your brain and face the simple and difficult shape-based boss battles.
For Outersloth’s second release as publisher, the three-person team at Midnight Munchies has created a Hail of bullets is instantly addictive. You start the game as a humble triangle trying to climb the corporate ladder. Through meetings with HR (Hint Robot to you), you learn the basic mechanics and types of attacks enemies can launch at you, before being confronted by nefarious figures, each modeled after a horrific boss type we’ve all experienced in our working lives.
The gameplay itself is, as you can imagine, It is based on pressing a single button. Using the spacebar or a mouse click, you move around the small shape that makes up your arena, dodging projectiles that can easily overwhelm you. You fire automatically as you move around the arena, building up more powerful shots as you gain speed, but every time you press the button to change direction and dodge an attack, you’ll hit the boss again with a measly peashot. It’s a deliciously addictive game that constantly encourages you to be greedy and give away one of your three precious lives.
Despite the game’s single-button focus, it’s fairly difficult. Enemy attacks can quickly overwhelm the screen, and while you can learn the pattern of bosses in the campaign, the unpredictable nature of their attacks can continue to throw you off even after multiple attempts. It’s hard to get annoyed or discouraged by one-btn bosses, though, even if the bosses taunt you every time you die at their hand. The campaign is divided by boss, and each boss has a series of levels you can choose to complete at your leisure. You don’t have to complete every level to progress, so you can stick to the most manageable levels to begin with. There’s also Roguelike mode, which combines light deck-building with addictive one-button gameplay to ensure you can keep playing random battles even after the admittedly short campaign is over.
You can also earn power-ups in both campaign and roguelike modes, earning reward points after each battle that can unlock new movement, attack, and assist options. You can also get different color palettes that allow you to theme the game with your favorite colors, allowing you, bosses, arenas, and enemy attacks to appear on your screen along with the retro soundtrack. The power-ups/different abilities you get are cool on paper, such as being able to dodge enemy attacks instead of turning your back on them and picking up your attack in the arena to then fire it back at an enemy, but the initial abilities are so useful that it’s hard to know each other’s strengths. Also considering the difficulty level of One Btn Bosses, even in RH training missions you don’t really get a chance to test out or get used to the new skills and you’re often stuck with what you know.
That doesn’t mean it didn’t find use in other attack and movement options. Pick-Up was a really good attack in any arena that only used one lane, while Dash could be great if it ever seemed like the entire arena was covered in enemy attacks. However, Spin and Shoot were my bread and butter, and it feels like the bosses were designed specifically for them. Maybe I could have tried other options if there were more spacious stages to play on, but One Btn Bosses doesn’t put much effort into the design of the stages. This seems to be intentional, and that’s why I almost didn’t want to criticize it, but after playing, I felt like most of the form arenas were similar to each other. It adds to the simplicity of the overall experience, but I would have liked a bit more variety.
However, that did not stop One Btn Bosses from being a great experience. It has all the characteristics of an outstanding Hail of bullets and the simplicity of the game’s design kept me staying up late for another boss attempt. Like Balatro before it, it’s another indie hit this year that quickly feels like it’ll take up hours of your time in no time.
