Hailed as a prequel to the highly acclaimed The Binding of Isaac, the Legend of Bum-bo is a deck-building rogue-like game that features fast-paced and addictive gameplay. In addition to this, the game feels like a strange, blasphemous take on Candy Crush. Players are literally flung into the sewers as one of several characters and must vanquish enemies, and dethrone bosses, all while hurling snot and feces.
The game takes inspiration from the classic ‘Match-3’ genre (whereby players must combine 3 tiles to create a more powerful variant) but adds a twist as it forces players to match 4 items, or tiles, instead of 3. This allows for some interesting strategies that can be pulled off in later turns as players will always need to pick/utilize a card. Since its initial release, the game has also been updated with more characters, monsters, and items. With so many combinations and tactics at play, newcomers may feel disoriented but fear not, with several tips players can become the next king of the hill, even if that hill smells a little off.
4 Basics Boot Camp
As a deck builder, players will need to match up various tiles that represent all the 'nice things' such as Urine, Snot, Bones, and of course, Feces to deal damage to opponents and acquire mana to cast spells. The different tiles are color coordinated and newcomers will quickly get the hang of the different tiles at play.
Mana is important as it will power up various spells. It’s color-coded to match the various forms of discharge that players have selected. Newcomers will quickly realize that combos of 4-6 are needed to cast some meaty spells that can bite into the enemy HPs. Balance that with keeping the health bar up whilst avoiding curses and players have the basics sorted out. Additionally, there are 3 lanes that enemies can spawn on that players will have to manage.
3 Attack Abilities
Attacks typically come in the form of Teeth and Bones. Although initially, they don’t differ too much, it becomes apparent that they do once players match up to their combinations. Teeth offer good crowd control abilities and are great at the start of conflicts. What makes Teeth particularly handy is that they are useful in engagements where a lot of enemies are present as they can be used to hit multiple targets. When matched up to 7 tiles (the max gathering of spells) teeth can deal up to 4 damage to every enemy on the board.
On the other hand, Bones are typically the heavy hitters in the game and do good damage against single targets, especially powerful enemies and bosses. If players collect 7 Bone tiles, a figure appearing as Death will show up and rain down bones on random enemies.
2 On Defense
When it comes to defense, players will have an arsenal of options at their disposal by using Snot, Poop, and Urine. Lovely. Snot is primarily used to slow down or even skip enemy turns as it prevents enemies from moving down the lane or fighting the player. Meanwhile, Poop essentially protects the player from enemy attacks, nullifying any harm done. High combos of Poop will deploy turd barriers that act as a wall to incoming foes.
Urine is an essential ‘resource’ in the game as combining Urine tiles will grant the player additional moves. Players who time their maneuvers just right can give themselves an additional 1 or 2 moves (depending on powerups) before the enemy phase. It’s even possible to ensure enemies don’t even get a turn.
1 Acquiring Spells And Coins
Unlike its famous sequel, newcomers to the game should be aware that there is quite a bit of luck involved throughout especially when it comes to selecting spells. The game consists of 4 stages, with a boss fight at the end of each stage (players then move on to harder sections comprised of the same structure after defeating a boss). The first 3 rooms involve regular creeps and at the end of the 1st and 3rd rooms, players will have the opportunity to purchase spells and abilities to aid them in future fights.
It's here that players will be able to acquire trinkets and boons much like in games like Slay the Spire. At the end of every fight, players will acquire coins. These coins can be used at the Casino which can be accessed after every successful boss encounter. Players can opt to play the mini-game (appearing on the left) and also try their luck at a round of Wheel of Fortune.
The first game will cost 5 coins and give players a chance to get an additional heart, more coins, and a featured power-up that’s on display. The Wheel of Fortune or Stat Wheel (as it’s called) will give players a chance to upgrade their overall stats. Players will want to invest in this little Stat Wheel as it appears to be the only way to improve their stats.
The Legend Of Bum-bo is available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and iOS.