One Btn Bosses does what it says on the tin, but there’s more to this tongue-in-cheek bullet-hell boss rush than you might first suspect. You play as a small ship that moves through the lanes and fights a series of bosses (quite literally as you fight your way through the ranks of a peculiar corporation). The only real control you have is a single button.
When drawing a visual language Asteroidsplays like a bit Vampire survivorsyour gun automatically fires at your enemy, but your agency is even more limited because you can’t move where you want. At first, pressing the button will change the direction of your ship when you’re trying to dodge attacks (generally, you can take three damage before losing the battle). But going the other way means slowing down both your movement and your rate of fire. This adds a fun wrinkle to figuring out your approach: play it as safe as possible and take more time to defeat the enemy, or go high risk and try to win as quickly as possible to climb the leaderboard.
As you progress, you’ll unlock different weapons and moves, as well as different color schemes. You can choose your load for each round. On the movement front, you can choose to hold down to dodge enemy attacks without taking damage, or hold down to gain speed and accelerate in the other direction. In terms of damage, you can choose a laser that gets stronger as you pick up sparks, or a pickup gun that only fires when you hit an object in the way. Experiment to figure out what works best for you.
In addition to the campaign, there is a separate roguelite mode called Rifts & Developments, which randomizes enemy attacks and plans (attacks can be saved in campaign levels). Here, you only have three lives, and they don’t refill between rounds unless you choose an upgrade that allows you to do so. Except for XP, nothing carries over from roguelite mode to the campaign, so if you’re stuck on a boss and are close to unlocking a new weapon, you can switch to gain some juicy experience to expand your arsenal.
One Btn Bosses is harsh but never feels unfair. Enemy attacks are clear as day thanks to the clean art direction. I didn’t feel caught in the middle of enemy attacks that loss of life was inevitable – in my eyes, all the damage I took was my own fault.
In a strange way, One Btn Bosses It reminds me of the early days of Twitter, when you could only be creative within a 140-character message on that platform. The limitation imposed here by the studio Midnight Munchies forced the developers to find inventive ways to keep it. One Btn Bosses is engaged throughout the duration.
On a side note: this is one of the first game parties to receive support a side project Between us developer Innersloth. The whole idea behind Outersloth is to offer indie developers an alternative funding model and help them “make fun, original and smart games”. One Btn Bosses In short, it definitely fits.
One Btn Bosses is now on Steam.
