Bulb Boy review

Reviewed on: PS4

Playing Bulb Boy is a different experience, since it causes a curious mix of emotions in the player: it is scary, macabre, oppressive, gross… and cute!
Bulb Boy is a 2D horror adventure from Bulbware, a duo of Polish developers, and although the project failed to reach its goal on Kickstarter, it drew a lot of attention from the YouTuber PewDiePie, who decided to invest in the project, making it possible to release the game on several platforms.
Bulb Boy tells the misadventures of the title character (who is literally a boy with a light bulb head) who lives with his grandfather (who has an oil lamp head) and his moth-dog, in a house that is also shaped like a light bulb. Everything is fine until one night a strange unwelcome visitor from who knows where invades the house and turns the whole setting into a cute version of hell, and it falls to the young protagonist to save the day, as simple as that.
The game has no (really none!) line of text, except for the credits. The menus are all icon-based, which causes some confusion at first, because the game doesn’t indicate which button does what. The dialogue is all in an incomprehensible language, à la The Sims, so understanding the story happens through symbols in speech bubbles and the characters’ expressions. As in any good horror game, the soundtrack and sound effects are well crafted, with somber music and gross, agonizing noises especially in the deaths. The only setback in this department is that the music for the battle against the last boss is too upbeat for a game of this type.
The visuals are Bulb Boy’s great charm. The game has retro references scattered through the settings, starting with the monochrome green (red in some parts) of the graphics, as if the game were running on an old Game Boy screen, for example. The design of the characters and the world in general is very reminiscent of the cute/macabre aesthetic of some cartoons, like Courage the Cowardly Dog, although it is not so cute here, since the protagonist can die in several very bad and gross ways. Another highlight is the game’s lighting work. Since the main character is a light bulb, this influences the scenery; many times he is the only light source and this is even used as a mechanic to solve some puzzles.

Speaking of mechanics, the gameplay follows the basics of adventures: explore the scenery looking for objects needed to solve a puzzle and advance to the next area. In this respect Bulb Boy proves a bit limited. Although it makes use of the character’s unique traits, such as lighting an area around him or even unscrewing his own head to get through certain places, and later controlling a second character, all of this is quite limited by the short length, since the game is split into a few small “rooms” with relatively simple puzzles with a single solution. The boss fights add welcome variety to the gameplay, demanding even a bit of stealth, but with a little over two hours of play you can already see the credits, leaving the feeling that all these mechanics did not have time to be explored to their full potential. After finishing you can still revisit earlier stages, but the incentive is small since there are no new modes or very attractive extras.

It is always good to see cool projects by indie developers get published, especially when the result is a quality, creative project. And Bulb Boy deserves credit for managing to mix cuteness, horror and toilet humor in a very well-made way, mainly because it doesn’t take itself seriously. The short length and lack of replay value are flaws to consider, but for fans of the genre (or of Courage the Cowardly Dog) it is an experience worth getting to know.

Story: 7.5
Audio and visuals: 8
Mechanics: 7

FINAL SCORE: 7.5

Worth the 28 reais? If you are a fan of point and clicks, like bizarre stories or are simply an admirer of indie gems, it is a good recommendation. If you don’t fit that description, you can leave it to try when a good sale comes along.

Reviewed on the PlayStation 4 version