LadyBug

Although they are mostly harmless and quite scared of people, insects hold a special place on almost everyone’s list of phobias. Whether it’s spiders, wasps or the common cockroach, there seems to be something about them that inspires fear. Hence, it wouldn’t be unfair to assume that an invasion by a giant race of insects would pretty much bring the modern civilization to its knees.

LadyBug is a simple jam game in which you play the role of a monster trying to escape captivity. As it happens, you are a giant insect that can eviscerate people in a matter of seconds, which is great news if you want to get rid of enemies quickly. In essence, the game is heavily based on your ability to react quickly and deal with being outnumbered on a regular basis.

The bug has a few special abilities you can make use of to make up for being outnumbered, but you need to master them before they are of any use. As such, you can jump pretty high using your wings, and you can also stick on walls and the ceiling by holding down a specific key. Thanks to these abilities, you should be able to compensate for the lack of ranged weapons.

It’s still not enough to familiarize yourself with the controls, however, because the fast-paced gameplay puts tremendous strain on your eyes and fingers. The enemies can both see and shoot you in the span of a few milliseconds, so you really have to react quickly in order to get away. It’s not always possible to take them by surprise, so be prepared to deal with high levels of frustration.

As you might suspect, the technical aspects of the game do not impress at all, but that’s to be expected. This is a jam game, after all, so the core concept is the only important thing about it. Hence, neither the graphics nor the sound effects are anything too special, but they are not annoying either.

In the end, LadyBug is both challenging and frustrating, exactly how a twitch platformer should be. Hence, if you are confident in your ability to abstain from breaking things, the game can certainly keep you on high alert for a few minutes.