BWAG

BWAG is a vertically scrolling run-and-gun game in the arcade tradition, now released. The premise is that the player character ate all of their vegetables, and the vegetables retaliated at sundown by stealing their savings, clothing and every roll of toilet paper, referred to in the game as PLY. The player is left with a hat, a pair of boots and their full collection of guns, and sets out across five stages to take back what was stolen. The stages are Pickle Flats, Cobb County, Onion Hollow, Chili Canyon and Spud Gulch, each scrolling in a single forward direction with no cover and each ending in a boss encounter. A sixth, hidden area beyond the final stage contains an additional enemy that can be challenged repeatedly.

Combat revolves around nine food-themed weapons, each with three upgrade tiers. The starting weapon is the A Salt Rifle, with others including the Pepper Shot, Relish Lobber, Laser Leek, Snot Gun, Double Grease Heat, Flavour Taser, Hot Sauce and The Big Fudging Gun, the last of which must be earned. PLY is the game’s currency and is collected by shooting outhouses along the road. It can be spent on Fast Boots for movement speed, Long Johns for damage resistance, Beans for additional dash fuel, and weapon upgrades. A bean-powered dash lets the player burst through enemy fire and escape crowded situations.

The game features six bosses, each presented with a wanted poster, a title and a bounty: Pickle Peet the Brine Bandit, Cobb McGraw the Kernel, Onion Kid the Weeper, El Rojo the Scoville King, Baked Bart the Hot Spud and The Last Supper. After the main stages are cleared, defeated bosses return in stronger forms. The player character remains without trousers throughout, and the game makes no attempt to resolve this.