If you’ve been following the One Button Games 5-in-1 series, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting here – five tiny games, one button and a surprisingly broad range of ways to make that button do all the hard work. One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 8 doesn’t deviate from that.
One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 8 is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Windows PC, with each version priced at £4.19.
At A Glance
- Game: One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 8
- Developer: ABA Games, m1s3ry
- Publisher: Xitilon
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC
- Price: £4.19
Five Games, One Button
This latest collection once again takes the most simple of controls and tries to squeeze as much gameplay as possible out of them. There’s no complicated control scheme to learn here – just you, one button and five increasingly frantic challenges.
Pump Press puts you in control of a constantly moving robot tasked with shooting balloons before they escape. Hit them repeatedly to pop them, while holding the button lets you speed up. The trick is chaining balloons together to maximise your score.
Cast N heads for the water, turning the single-button formula into a fishing challenge. Catch blue fish to increase your score and lower the rising water, but avoid the red fish or you’ll find yourself making the situation considerably worse.
Then there’s Hopping P, where survival means jumping from side to side while dodging obstacles that bounce around the screen. A temporary yellow bonus can turn the tables, allowing you to score by touching the red hazards.
From Foot Lasers To Laser Fortresses
The final two games take things in rather more explosive directions.
Foot Laser has you running forward while dealing with enemies appearing both on the ground and in the air. Timing your button presses is everything, allowing you to jump, double jump and perform a quick landing while a laser does the damage.
Finally, Laser Fortress turns the screen into a precision shooting challenge. Red enemies are fair game, but blue objects aren’t, meaning you’ll need to keep your laser under control while trying to rack up points.
It’s another nice demonstration of what this series does well. The games may be simple, but changing what that single input actually does can produce five very different experiences.
Vol. 8 Has Plenty To Prove
We’ve reviewed every single one of the previous volumes in the series, and the results have been somewhat mixed. Picking out a couple of interest, and One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 6 scored 3.5/5, with Screen and Froooog standing out, although the collection became less consistent as it went on.
Then came Vol. 7, which dropped to 2.5/5. V Bomb was the clear highlight, but the collection struggled with some frustrating design decisions and didn’t always give us enough reason to return to its weaker games.
That makes Vol. 8 another chance for ABA Games and m1s3ry to find that sweet spot between wonderfully simple and frustratingly simplistic.
Another Quick Hit Of Xbox Chaos
At £4.19 per version, One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 8 is very much another quick-fire proposition rather than something designed to consume your entire weekend.
Whether this latest collection can climb back up the quality ladder remains to be seen, but the premise is as appealingly straightforward as ever. Five games, one button and plenty of opportunities to chase high scores – sometimes that’s all you need.
One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 8 is available now from the Xbox Store, available in three versions that are playable on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Windows PC.
