PC Critic Reviews

One Btn Bosses is one of the best games I've played this year, and the fact it has managed this with only one button is remarkable.

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.

Being a simplistic game doesn’t mean that “One Btn Bosses” is boring and simple. It has a surprising amount of depth and can offer an enormous amount of replayability if you’re into chasing highscores or the roguelike-mode. The campaign is a fantastic tutorial but the story and the presentation of it are rather lacking. It plays fantastic on a Handheld-PC and can offer fun for hours and hours if you’re willing to dive into the additional challenges of beating the five floors of R&D.

It's got all the hallmarks of a bullet-hell standout and the simplicity of its gameplay design had me staying up far too late going for just one more attempt at a boss. Like Balatro before it, it's another indie hit this year where I can feel it ever so easily taking hours of time in the blink of an eye.

In the end, One BTN Bosses could easily serve as a gateway to get players into the bullet hell genre without overwhelming them. It still requires the same skills needed for other bullet hells like timing, precise movement, and balancing attack movement with dodging enemy fire. However, it makes everything happen with a single button press, so players can focus on practicing those skills in a more limited, controlled way. It might not convert those who already know they don’t like bullet hell titles, but fans of the genre and even people on the fence might find a lot of excitement in how masterful it is at minimalism.

The art style and design is clean and polished. The gameplay is straightforward. The attack mechanic is restricted to, of course, one button. But it’s within those constraints that One Btn Bosses shines — it makes a single button a bastion of possibility in a world with lots of rules.

A surprisingly funny action game that only needs one button to create a chaotic bullet hell experience. [Recommended]