One Btn Bosses

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

One Btn Bosses is a one-button mobile-style Arcade game originally released in 2022 on the itch.io web gaming platform, then adapted in 2024 to PC, and then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2025. This game has players moving along a line around “boss rush”-style enemies and using a button to alter the player’s movement and attacking patterns in various ways, both to better fight the enemy and to evade enemy attacks.

That description might seem confusing, but it’s actually fairly simple. You start out fighting an enemy while automatically moving along a line in a circular orbit around that enemy. As you move, you fire automatically, with your movement getting faster and attacks getting stronger the longer you move. Pressing the button instantly changes your direction, going clockwise instead of counter-clockwise, or vice versa. In doing so, you reduce your speed and shot strength for a moment before you speed up again.

As you progress through the game, each element of this formula starts presenting variations. The obvious one at the start is enemy attack patterns – some will start materializing attacks directly onto your line, creating ricocheting shots that bounce around on your line, or that move along the line, always giving you a warning before doing so to give you time to evade, but shaking up how you need to evade.

However, you’ll also find the shape of the line changing, no longer a circular orbit, but a square, or a triangle, or even a single arc with a teleporting portal on each end. And after a short while you’ll start earning alternative movement and firing rules that you can choose to swap to. For example, maybe instead of changing direction when you press the button, you start an invincible dash that allows you to plow through obstacles, but can only do so for a short while before having to release it. Or perhaps pressing the button stops you in place with releasing it giving you a burst of speed.

These clever changes take this from being what was a fairly simple and repetitive game to something with surprising depth, because now with each new boss’s attack pattern, you’ll want to consider which movement and attack pattern will be the best way to tackle it. And what’s really impressive about the game design here is that at least in theory any boss could be beaten with any movement and attack pattern combo, though some will surely be easier to use than others for a given boss, or for speed runners out there, perhaps not easier but faster.

The presentation here is simple, using a limited color palette and pixelized geometric shapes for visuals, with players having multiple unlockable options for different color palettes. This is backed by a decent synthesized soundtrack with heavy use of chiptune, though honestly you won’t be listening to that much with the massive onslaught of attacks you’ll be more focused on.

Also, I should mention this game’s silly framing device, that interprets the word “boss” like your boss at work, with the game representing some sort of odd abstract workplace hierarchy where beating bosses equates to promotion. It’s nonsensical, and the yammering of a sort of narrator character doesn’t really impact the gameplay, but it makes for an amusing addition to the game all the same.

When it comes to complaints, I do think that one of this game’s greatest strengths is also something of a weakness – the single-button control scheme. While this is a clever gimmick that simplifies the gameplay, it does cause some frustration when you want to move in a specific way and the button simply doesn’t afford you the same nuance or direct control that you’d have with directional inputs. That’s kinda’ the point, of course, but it’s a frustration nonetheless. Also, and in part because of this, the challenge level here can be a bit on the high side.

Still, One Btn Bosses is a great example of how you can do a lot with a little, and its very simple but surprisingly deep gameplay can be very compelling. At $10, it feels like a nicely-priced time-waster that you’ll find yourself returning to to try to take on just one more boss, or maybe try to tackle a boss you struggled against with a different move set. In any case, as long as you don’t mind a challenge, I definitely think this game is worth picking up.

tl;dr – One Btn Bosses is a one-button mobile-style Arcade game that has players automatically orbiting and attacking “boss rush”-style enemies, with their sole input being a single button that can interact with your movement and attack patterns in different ways. Despite its simple gameplay, there’s surprising depth here, and while this is a challenging game that won’t be for everyone, I think it’s a compelling time-waster that you’ll definitely want to keep coming back to.

Grade: B+

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