Kabuto Park captures the fleeting joy of summer vacation

There are many games that remind me of summer – hot days behind the book Dragon Warrior IIIchilling in the basement while grinding Grand Tourism types – but there aren’t many games that really are about summer. That’s part of what makes it Kabuto Park very beautiful. It is a game that can not only capture the moments of summer childhood, but also confuse Pokemon-way to a game that takes only a few hours.

Kabuto Park it launched last year on PC, but it’s available on Xbox and Switch, the latter of which is probably the better platform. It takes place over the course of a month, and you play as Hana, a young girl working on a bug-fighting race while on summer vacation. You do this traditionally: by collecting bugs, upgrading them to become stronger, and pitting them against other collectors.

But Kabuto Park streamlines the process quite a bit. There are only four screens in this game. One is the map, which you use to go to a few places to catch bugs. As you progress, you will earn money that you can use to buy better shoes, which allow you to explore new areas such as the swamp. Catching bed bugs involves netting just the right moment, which is something that is very difficult when you are facing very rare and powerful opponents. There’s also a shop where you can buy things like honey to neutralize the bugs, making them easier to catch, and a collectible craft where you can prepare your bugs, feed them candy to make them grow, and then open up a place to live.

Many actions take place in war. As in Pokemonyou build a team – in this case, each team is made up of three bugs, all with different stats such as strength and defense – and fight against another player. The actual fights play out a lot like sumo matches, as the goal is to push the opposing team out of the ring (which, interestingly, is a joke). Bugs are self-propelled, but you can change the battle by playing cards that do things like temporary stat boosts or quick hits, sure to knock down opposing bugs. It’s simple, at least by modern standards Pokemonbut there is a good way to build your team and play cards at the right time. Some of the games can be very intense, especially if the teams are evenly matched.

For each battle, time advances a day, so you progress through the tournament ladder and the August calendar at the same time. I managed to beat the game within 3 hours and was very impressed with how it turned out Kabuto Park managed to capture the satisfying arc of an epic RPG in a compact package. Its concise nature also fits well with the game’s theme; like the best times of your summer childhood, Kabuto Park it is temporary and leaves you wanting more.

There are many things that I like Kabuto Park: beautiful storybook scenes that sound like warm afternoons, lively and often lively conversations, chirping cicadas that provide summer music. But what I really like is that there are very few games like this. Outside the services of Millenium Kitchenmost of which are available only in Japanese, there is not much else that conveys this same feeling of childhood freedom. And now that the game is on Switch, you can see it Kabuto ParkA vision of summer outdoors really.

_{Kabuto Park available on Switch, Xbox, and PC.}