Midnight Munchies have done something incredibly novel with ONE BTN BOSSES. They’ve merged bullet hell gameplay loops with a striking visual aesthetic to create a highly replayable arcade game that, yes, only needs one button. While I personally want more bullet hell bosses and a deeper roguelike mode, there’s enough in this delightful package to hold me over for hours to come.
Hi, my name is Will, and I am addicted to ONE BTN BOSSES.
Okay, addicted is a strong word. Maybe enamored is a better way to describe my love for Midnight Munchies’ premiere title that is so simple that anyone can play it. You press one button.
Yes. One button. It’s in the name, my dude(tte)!
The first time I saw a trailer for ONE BTN BOSSES, I honestly wasn’t convinced that this game would be fun. It looked too simple, almost like a FLASH (RIP) minigame on Newgrounds or ebaumsworld. I wasn’t able to visualize the potential ways something like this could work in a way that could span more than a few levels. Only ONE input – meaning my space bar, left click, or another key of choice – was needed!
Then, I played the game. The first few levels were simple. Press one button to switch directions. Dodge the red bullets and shapes that flew toward my little blip of an employee that is on a fixed course surrounding a pixelated boss at the center of the screen. Stay alive long enough to kill that boss. The longer I didn’t press the button, the faster I went, the faster my little blip shot its weapon, and the more damage I dealt to the boss in the center of the screen.
I then unlocked my first movement variant which made it so that, when pressing the button, I simply sped up and became invincible. “Okay,” I thought, “I should speed up to dodge bullets. This makes sense!” Some levels later, I unlocked a new weapon that made it so that I didn’t continuously shoot, but I had to pick up a bullet on the other side of the track. Now I had to manage my speed (in a single direction) to dodge bullets, pick up my own bullets, and stay alive as long as possible while I whittled away at a boss’ health.
This is where ONE BTN BOSSES gets its depth, and it does so in a way that is replayable and fun. ONE BTN BOSSES presents a believable illusion of simplicity that translates well to a simple bullet hell gameplay loop. Instead of simply relying on more and more and MOAR bullets (like you would see in the higher difficulties of Touhou), it changes up the equation in how the player can stay alive all the while they are confined to a single input.
Bullet hell games are notoriously difficult and offputting to many players because of how they ramp up in difficulty and require ridiculous degrees of precision with arrow keys / joysticks. I’ve struggled to get my friends into bullet hells beyond something like R-Type (which is more of a side-scrolling shooter) because they’re just too chaotic for most folks. Despite Vampire Survivors incorporating bullet hell elements into a roguelike game, I sincerely doubt that it would have its appeal if it lacked the replayability that came with the pattern of dying, coming back with more power, and chaotic variance from weapon upgrades.
ONE BTN BOSSES is in a league of its own for how well it slowly, but surely, ramps up its difficulty while introducing additional bullet patterns. There are only so many ways you can “move” and “attack” when confined to a single input. Timing and precision are the keys to climbing ONE BTN BOSSES’ corporate ladder which is constructed of around six bosses. Yep – not that many bosses, but there are quite many levels to complete. The faster you complete a level, the more points you earn that push you toward a promotion, a new color scheme, and/or a new upgrade that you can take into a level.
Four hours in, I climbed to the top of the corporate ladder and became the new de facto CEO…only to have all of my skills put to the test in a boss battle against a foe with five bars of health and ridiculously complex bullet patterns. I don’t expect the average player to hit the end by four hours – but it wouldn’t surprise me if the hours fly by for players who are determined enough to get to the end. It felt like I had spent a matter of minutes in ONE BTN BOSSES, partially because each level can take anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes to complete. Of course, the end-game levels were the most difficult the point where I perished far more than I would like to admit, but I still made it through.
At any point, I could deviate from my normal path up the corporate ladder and play ONE BTN BOSSES’ Roguelike mode. It’s a decent mode that shakes up the typical gameplay loop and a great way to grind points to unlock additional color schemes and weapons/movement mods. I started a run with no upgrades and three health slots. Defeating a boss let me pick between three upgrades to choose from (like additional speed, additional health, additional damage, or something that boosts my chosen weapon). Completing a floor let me rest to regain health and spend my health to purchase another upgrade if I wanted. However, if my health ever reached zero or I had completed the fifth floor, the run ended.
My one complaint about ONE BTN BOSSES is something that Midnight Munchies should be happy to hear: I want more. I want more levels. I want an endless roguelike mode. Heck, I want a survival mode where I have to stay alive the longest. I was obsessed with seeing VICTORY fill my screen (especially after that final boss – woah). I want more level designs and bullet patterns. I want MORE BOSSES. MORE COLOR SCHEMES. MORE!
Oh yeah, and I want Ace (the talking cat who accompanied me along the way) to get a fair wage.
The great thing about ONE BTN BOSSES is that anyone can pick up and play it, as it’s easy to learn but difficult to optimize. Figuring out the best combination of modifications to complete a level ends up being part of the fun. Since it only requires one button (ha), it shouldn’t be an issue playing this on ANY computer. Heck, I would love to take this game with me on my Switch! OR, even better, MY PHONE!
I loved playing ONE BTN BOSSES as it effortlessly scratched my bullet hell itch while giving me a good challenge. It was easy for me to complete levels in a matter of seconds once I had spent several minutes attempting to figure out each level’s unique bullet patterns.
Midnight Munchies have done something incredibly novel with ONE BTN BOSSES. They’ve merged bullet hell gameplay loops with a striking visual aesthetic to create a highly replayable arcade game that, yes, only needs one button. While I personally want more bullet hell bosses and a deeper roguelike mode, there’s enough in this delightful package to hold me over for hours to come.
