The rhythmic assault of One BTN Bosses is an easy sell as it can be played with one hand inside a bag of chips

In his review of Vampire Survivors , Matt Cox described the game as something he could play “with one hand inside a bag of chips.” I think about it often, in fact, because it's often my offline friends (or Fortnite/FIFA buddies) who ask me to recommend a good or interesting game. Show them something as popular as Elden Ring and it can be overwhelming in every way, despite its grandeur. But what about Vampire Survivors? It's an easy sell: simple, digestible, ridiculous value.

What this all means is that One BTN Bosses is from the easy-sell school: after all, you can fight bosses one-handed inside a packet of pickled onion-filled Space Raiders.

The joy of One BTN Bosses is in its simplicity. The story is good because it's largely non-existent: you're part of an evil corporate entity, and a cute pixelated cat wants you to defeat your ruling overlords. You try to destroy them using a Dorito's Chilli Heatwave packet with one hand and your left-click mouse with the other. For the main campaign, there's a series of increasingly difficult scenarios where boss checkpoints prevent you from climbing any further. And if you get stuck, there's a series of warp holes that take you to a roguelike mode where you can earn extra Grind Points (more on that later) or blow off some steam in a different format.

Watch on YouTube

The format, at its most basic level, is a circle. You're a small ship that automatically spins around the circle, and the boss is in the center of it. As you spin, you automatically fire bullets at the boss until he dies and explodes. The bosses try to thwart your plans by shooting back or creating a series of obnoxious obstacles to steal your three lives. If they succeed, you'll have to restart the level from scratch.

You have a trick at the start of the game, where clicking the mouse will send your ship hurtling from clockwise to counterclockwise and vice versa. Bosses, meanwhile, will give you a major bullet hell and spawn plenty of missiles to test your timing. The good news is that things get hectic as bosses develop interesting ways to disrupt your fun. Big boxes gradually choke your space. Exploding circles appear in sequence. Missiles shatter. They even play with arenas, instantly turning them from circles to squares or arcs. Almost all of them feel challenging (and certainly frustrating), but they're rarely, if ever, unfair.

A boss at One BTN Bosses says they will take the job seriously, showing the seriousness of the job.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Midnight Snacks/Outersloth

And the tools the game gives you to defeat the bosses’ sprawling arsenal are clever. Those springs? You can find teleporters on either side that let you instantly dodge attacks, if you can do the mental gymnastics necessary. And as you earn Grind Points by completing levels, you’ll unlock new abilities. So instead of reversing your movement, pressing a button can let you zip past obstacles, or charge up a super-fast mega-buzzer that stops you in your tracks temporarily, but lets you fire larger pellets for longer. Some are also a bit odd, like one where pellets are replaced by a small boomerang that you have to hit when it spawns in the arena, causing it to ricochet off your ship and hit the boss.

I will say that I haven't found a particular combination of movement and attack that I particularly like outside of the default setup. I think that may be because I haven't encountered a boss that requires complete confusion, or it may be that the harder the bosses get, the harder it is to learn new techniques without getting destroyed in two seconds. To be honest, the default combo is easier to master.

As you climb the roguelike element of One BTN Bosses, you decide what powers they will have.

Earn Grind Points and get closer to unlocking

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Midnight Snacks/Outersloth

We fight a hexagonal boss in One BTN Bosses.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Midnight Snacks/Outersloth

Still, I like that the depth of the game lies not just in mastering your chosen vehicles, but rather in the momentum as a whole. That's because it takes a while for your ship to reach full speed when you change direction. And during that acceleration, it'll fire small rounds, then medium rounds, until it's firing large rounds at maximum speed. Of course, they all have increased firepower. This adds an extra challenge on top of the “Oh my god, I just want to beat this boss and move on” scenario, as a more serious crowd might be competing for fastest times. But for the average person, it's also a nice way to challenge yourself and see how long you can keep your jet engines burning without crashing.

If you're really struggling to win, you can enter a roguelike mode where you earn Grind Points by climbing an increasingly difficult ladder. The usual stuff: pick a route, choose from some upgrades, death is permanent. Although it works really well, the quirky power-ups and general rhythm appeal to me more than the core campaign itself.

No, I don't think One BTN Bosses is great by any means. But I do think I had a good time. And perhaps most importantly, it's a game I can recommend to my uninitiated friends who are 1) looking for something a little different; 2) can play one-handed on a pack of Walkers Max Punchy Paprika; and 3) isn't called “Elden Ring” or “Dragon's Dogma 2,” which doesn't immediately make me sound like I'm speaking in nerd lingo.

Leave a Comment