A Merge-puzzle Game that’s Good Enough to Eat
There are plenty of merge-puzzle games around, but few feel as good to play as Bun Buns. It knows that joy comes from that merging moment, when two identical pieces merge together, freeing up other pieces to tumble downwards and complete their own merges. The biscuits and buns in Bun Buns trundle and roll, donk into each other and then transform in a flourish. Bun Buns is one of the most tactile merge games out there, and it’s easy to underestimate how important that is.
Bun Buns looks great, too. I don’t know if it’s possible to look at something and simultaneously find it adorable and want to eat it. But Bun Buns achieves that goal, with buns that have the sheen and glow of well-made bread, while also being curled into animal-like shapes. The entirety of Bun Buns has a chunky vibrancy to it, like your favourite kids’ book. It’s a lovely game for the eyes.
A Little Skimpy on the Portions
Which is fortunate, as you’ll be playing the same levels for long stretches. Bun Buns isn’t overflowing with backgrounds or ways to play. It’s co-op, as most merge puzzlers are, which is welcome. You and a friend can drop biscuits and buns simultaneously, getting in each other’s way and generally ruining plays. But there are only two levels to enjoy (four with the DLC), and those levels aren’t particularly different from each other. The sides of the arena angle slightly differently, but otherwise one arena is the same as another.
What is welcome, though, is that the merging is supplemented with power-ups. Bun Buns has a healthy number of these, regularly dishing out pitchers of milk to turn your buns incorporeal (allowing them to match bakery products at the bottom of the pile), bowling balls to shuffle everything, and chocolate hearts to remove everything of that type. It’s not supremely clear what triggers these power-ups – combos seem to be a generous source, but not guaranteed supplier of them – but they’re almost always worth having.
They’re also one of the few ways to get rid of ‘burnt’ cookies. Again, we’re not sure what triggers these (if we knew, we’d try to stop them), but they tumble into your puzzle, getting in the way. You can erode them slowly by matching buns that touch them, but otherwise you’re hoping that a power-up rids you of them. A chocolate heart on a burnt cookie is an immaculate moment.
Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit
Outside of these welcome additions, Bun Buns is a simple beast. It’s your traditional score-attack merge game, where the only thing stopping you is a breach of the line at the top of the screen. If a bakery product passes over this line, and you don’t remedy it within five seconds, then your run is over. It’s at this point that you should be unleashing power-up hell.
There’s a neat reward for your best efforts. Should you do well, you will get a motherlode of coins. Those coins can then be spent in a customisation shop, where you can attach moustaches, pig-tails and hats to your avatar. It’s not game-affecting or anything like that, but it’s a nice little bonus after a particularly long session. Achievements are attached to gaining most of these.
Bun Buns isn’t hugely innovative as merge-puzzlers go. The score-attack approach is probably the most common among the genre, and the power-ups aren’t all that new either. Co-op is a bit of a table-stake, and two arenas (four with DLC) is definitely on the low side. Even at the low asking price, Bun Buns isn’t racing to the front of the genre through content or new ideas.
Bitesize, but the Bite Tastes Good
What Bun Buns does have, though, is huge amounts of polish. While it aims relatively low, it hits all of the necessary targets and looks rather dashing as it does so. The presentation is delicious – we want to sink our teeth into most of the UI and bakery items – and there’s a joyful tactility to each action. Merge games live or die on how the merging feels, and in Bun Buns it’s peerless.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more satisfying low-budget merge game than Bun Buns. It’s definitely not big and it’s certainly not clever, but it’s cheap and delivers a lot of flavour in one mouthful. If it was a bakery item it would be a macaron: exquisitely presented, finished in a single gulp, but flavoursome.
Important Links
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/bun-buns/9n8sz52fm4b7
