Review: Billy Bumbum: A Cheeky Puzzler (Nintendo Switch)

Brace yourselves; this game is all about the obvious double entendre displayed in the title: Billy Bumbum: A Cheeky Puzzler. The game is rated for ages 10+, and for those who are young (or very young at heart), its humor will be well appreciated. Billy Bumbum may rely on poo-gas to propel our hero like a little square rocket, but the puzzles are actually pretty good.

Before we really get moving, let’s take a seat and talk about the sights and sounds. Our hero and his friends are basically cubes. In the case of our hero, Billy, one side of the cube shows his face while the opposing side of the cube is where the cheeky comes into play. Billy’s friends are also cubes, as are the puzzle elements. In other words, lots of cubes in this game.

The importance of the whole cube theme will be explained later, so hold it in for a moment.

The rest of the world looks a bit like square cupcakes with lots of drippy frosting on top. The color palette is a subdued colorful; good color and contrast without being garishly bright or shockingly neon, so it’s appealing and easy on the eyes. Everything you need to see is easily distinguishable, earning good marks for the visuals.

The audio effects and music are whimsical and do not distract from gameplay, so points to the developers there, also.

Now, back to the cubeness of the game. This shape is used as the basis for how you actually navigate the puzzles. I’m sure you recall that one of the sides of Billy’s cube body is his bum and that poo-gas propulsion was mentioned earlier; here’s where the cubes become important. The challenge is to roll Billy around the game grid in such a way that he lands bum down on the target cube at the end of the puzzle.

There are, of course, different shapes to the game grid which limit the number of viable paths to one. There are obstacles you must either go around or thwart, sometimes with something that ends with the same three letters as thwart (you know what I mean). Sometimes you have to block lasers, move extra cubes, use booster cubes to jump gaps, and so on.

There are a lot of levels in this game, and a good number of them pose a real challenge. You will need visual skills to roll Billy on three axes to get a bum-down orientation just where you want it. Forward (and backward) planning to get the proper alignment is also handy. A good dose of patience is helpful, but the game does offer a couple points of grace; you can either back up one flop at a time or reset the level with a push of a button. You don’t really need to worry about dying, and you can keep pushing on for as long as it takes.

Billy Bumbum: A Cheeky Puzzler will keep you busy with a lot of puzzles, cube-shaped heroes, bad guys who look a bit like staring up a nose, and friends to rescue in a world that looks like it came out of a bakery. Sometimes we need to just let ‘er rip and allow ourselves to be a bit goofy. It may not be my number 1 choice, but it is, perhaps, adjacent to number 2.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to see a man about a wombat.