After years and years of scrolling on the internet and playing videogames, I think Megabonk has finally broken me. My brain’s reward receptors are cooked, and I am probably in need of some medical examination. I think that the only thing that gets me up and about these days is the idea of blasting projectiles at skeletons and oversized monsters. The most cruel part of all of this is that Megabonk is stupidly simple. 130 MB. Costs Rs 480. Runs on a potato computer. And I played this game in exchange for my soul!
The (power)ups!
Megabonk is an incredibly easy game to get into, because all you do is walk around a gigantic arena where enemies rush toward you. Not to worry, because your body is an auto-targeting, auto-shooter constantly spurting out your ammunition of choice at anything that’s dumb enough to approach you. So all you really do is strafe, jump, and scoop experience gems that the dead enemies leave behind. It’s effortless, brainless, and immediately addictive. It’s exactly like Vampire Survivors, that released a few years back — but only, this is 3-dimensional.
It also escalates quite quickly. Soon, there are larger and stronger hordes of enemies. And this is where the game nudges you towards picking a strategy— or rather, a playstyle. Level-ups and special pillars provide upgrades. If you prioritise faster movements over better attacks, you might look at jumping and speed upgrades. These upgrades only last until the end of a run, so you don’t really need to overthink here. You can also add on to upgrades by investing in equippable items that you find in treasure chests. I know this all sounds a bit more complex than when I started explaining it, but I promise you, the game is super forgiving. All of the “strategies” are scattered around as loot and are not some convoluted skill trees. They are easy to grab and enable.
What the game does really well is get its hooks right into your brain. At the end of every run, your neurons will be sizzling, and begging you to go give it another round. It also rewards you with new permanent upgrades at the end of every round if you manage to complete the smaller random quests. You unlock new characters with different starter advantages, and unlock new items you can find in the next run that might be even more helpful. It’s a classic trick in games like these. Keep the bonuses fresh and exciting. Hand you little crumbs. Tiny bites of progress. Keep you locked in forever and ever.
The (power)downs
The problem is, because it’s so shallow and super easy to get into, it also gets boring quite quickly. It’s a low investment game that doesn’t quite figure out the right way to continue being complex and engaging, and it risks losing you. So if you are sharp enough to find out the right strategies to finish the quests, and unlock all characters and maps, there’s not much else for you here. The challenge is not constantly varying. And once you know the formula, it’s not that hard to finish the missions every single time.
If you’d still try to give Megabonk a shot — like a million other people, you can find it on the Steam store. It’s currently available for Windows.
