For those of you who prefer catching critters in Animal Crossing or battling Onikabuto in Genshin Impact, this one's for you. Kabuto Park released on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and it makes the best use of the console's amenities that I've seen in a while.
No, it's not a Pokémon spin-off all about the one prehistoric critter - Kabuto Park is the next truly delightful indie game from Doot, the developer behind Minami Lane (adorable, I recommend it) and upcoming Milki Delivery (also adorable, will likely also recommend).
It's set in summer, where you're a young girl off on school break, who has time to kill - so what do you do? Spend it looking for bugs, catching them, training them, and then battling other kids. It sounds harsher than it is, though. The game has a really cute hand-drawn art style, and all the bugs have googly eyes.
There's a roster of 40 bugs for you to grasp from trees, grasslands, ponds, and other natural locales. There aren't any spiders, though, so don't worry about that. The lineup mostly includes beetles of every shape and size, some moths, butterflies, and two varieties of mantis. The mantis was a key member of my team once I leveled it up a bit.
Once I had a handful of bugs, I leveled them up by feeding them candy. I took on other kids in beetle battles and won almost every single one on the first try. No one can mess with my mantis, rhino beetle, and giraffe weevil team. After a while, I won all the medals and became the best darn beetle battler there ever was… for this summer break, anyway.
What really makes this game is the excellent way it handles its controls on the Nintendo Switch. In Kabuto Park, you can use fully touchscreen controls, which work very well for a short indie sim like this. The catching minigame requires you to choose a location, which finds a bug, then you click at the right time when a bar hits a green section. Being able to press the screen makes this super easy, and there's no moving around between locations, so it's point and click all the way.
However, if you do want to use buttons, you can. Or, simply detach the Joy-Cons, and you can swing them like a net to catch the bugs on screen. Very satisfying. Very immersive. Very good. Sure, on PC you can use a mouse and keyboard, but using a Switch means you can sit or lie anywhere, while you prod the screen or swish your Joy-Cons.
I've had my Switch (and Switch 2) since release, and while some games added in extra ways of controlling them, Kabuto Park feels like it was made for touchscreen (and motion) controls. It's similar to Pokémon Let's Go! Eevee, in that respect, though it's significantly easier to catch a bug than it is to land some Pokémon.
So, if you're looking for an easy, cute, relaxing game to play this summer that brings warm and fuzzy vibes, I highly recommend Kabuto Park. Whether you use a controller, Joy-Cons, or touch, it's a great little time.