Meme potential. Megabonk game review

I'll be honest, I wasn't going to play Megabonk, I've had enough of the new vampire-likes in the last few months. But when all my Steam friends started buying the game en masse, and in the comments to other reviews they started asking me what I thought of this vampire-like, I gave up. I had to try it.

Megabonk is a project by a lone developer from Norway named Vedinad. The game appeared on Steam back on September 18, 2025 and initially had very moderate success. But then it was noticed (I suspect thanks to streamers) and it began to grow before our eyes, adding 10 thousand players online every day. On Sunday, October 5, Megabonk showed a record online of 117,336 players and since then has not dropped below 100 thousand (peak within 24 hours).

When the game rose to 6th place on Steam by player count, the author tweeted: "i will be eating spaghetti with EXTRA cheese tonight." With the average price of the game at 300 UAH and sales approaching 2 million copies, that's a lot of extra cheese.

To be honest, one of the main factors that put me off buying Megabonk was the graphics. After Achilles: Survivor, Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, which featured graphics on par with modern action/RPGs, the return to 1990s standards was a bit daunting.

Megabonk really looks like it was developed in the 1990s. Low-poly models, pixelated textures, sprite special effects… It’s like you’ve gone back 30 years, to the days of Quake. I understand that this style is partly chosen to save on development, and partly because of the general fashion for the 1990s, which affects games as well. But I don’t like this style.

When I started playing, I realized that graphics aren't important. Megabonk captivates with its simplicity, easy-going attitude to everything, and yes, a mix of Vampire Survivors and Risk of Rain 2 gameplay.

The main innovation is honest 3D, basic physics and the ability to jump. Enemies are now not flat sprites, but three-dimensional objects that occupy volume, which can push you away, crash into each other, and create real chaos on the screen when your character is carried throughout the level during the final onslaught.

In everything else, Megabonk is almost a standard vampire-like. We kill enemies, collect experience, get new skills, improve them, buy boosters or open chests for money. We try to explore the level by completing simple tasks such as activating shrines or destroying intermediate bosses, and we try to find a portal to the next part of the level, which will open if we defeat a huge boss.

Megabonk's big advantage is its enormous meme potential, which is why streamers like the game. See for yourself. One of the game's characters is Gigachad, who destroys enemies with his aura. Another is a gorilla in dark glasses who throws bananas. Another is a hero that the developer was forced to make by the game's Discord users. Another is Athena, this is Captain America, who was ordered on Temu... And here you can also find a deadly sniper hiding in the bushes and Zoro, who has turned into a monument to himself and a microwave that copies things. And that's everything here. What heroes, what weapons, what power-ups. The author mocks everything around and thus tries to deconstruct the genre.

Although, to be fair, Megabonk is also great as a vampire-like. Yes, there are essentially only two levels, but to unlock all the heroes and all the weapons you have to really try, completing difficult, and sometimes very unexpected tasks. And this really motivates you to try again and again. So yes, everything is good with addiction here. In addition, the races themselves are quite short.

But with the metagame it's difficult. There is nothing here that would strengthen your character before the next race, only things that simplify life and the process of collecting builds. Transferring skills and items, the ability to disable specific skills and boosters, etc. So you can only move forward by learning to play and choosing the right build for each of the heroes, who have their own passive abilities.

Overall, I don't regret buying Megabonk. Yes, in the list of the best vampire-likes of all time (let's recall, only three years have passed since the genre appeared), I would put Megabonk lower than Achilles: Survivor, Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, but not by much. And Megabonk also has Ukrainian localization from the start, and it's quite good, which in itself is pleasing and deserves respect.

Well, that's all, I don't have time to talk, I still need to open the rocket launcher and Robin Hood.