Back in 1997, a campy and fun movie called Starship Troopers was released. Featuring pretty people shooting massive, arachnid-like, alien bugs, it made a name for itself and cemented a cult like status. Despite never being much of a B-movie fan, I actually quite enjoyed it, though I haven’t seen it in years.
Fast-forward to today, where we’re in a period where what’s old is often new again. This includes live action remakes of animated Disney films, TV show revivals or reboots, and video games made to resemble the days of yesteryear. We just experienced this yet again, with the latest retro-brawler, Scott Pilgrim EX. Now, a week or so later, there’s another yesteryear inspired game to talk about, and it’s called Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!
Developed by Bristol, England’s Auroch Digital (Wyldermyth, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun), this is not your typical video game. Although it’s deeply rooted in the stylings and mechanics of something from the later 90s, it breaks the fourth wall unlike most games in existence. You see, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is designed as an ‘in-universe’ training game for aspiring Citizen soldiers. Part propaganda, and part virtual training session, it pushes the war agenda hard and does so with its tongue-in-cheek. As such, you can expect campy, live action, cutscenes and developer diaries that talk about things like considering pranking the player with regards to deleted saves.
The core campaign follows a young female soldier named Dietz. She goes through a very brief training course, which teaches you how to move, shoot and more, and also has you capture flags, but it’s very brief and basic. Then, you’ll progress through a number of 15-25 minute missions or thereabouts. This isn’t a long game, though, so it will take you maybe four hours if you don’t rush too much.
At its core, Ultimate Bug War! is a retro first-person shooter the likes of which we played on the original PlayStation, PCs and even N64 at the time of the movie’s release. It’s designed to look and feel dated, combining older style 3D visuals with sprites that animate in basic ways. Nothing about this is modern, outside of the HD live action cutscenes and the devices you can play it on. The animations are basic, the gameplay is basic and the story is a tongue-in-cheek tale based on the world of the movie.
Before each stage, you’ll get a text/voiced briefing and occasionally also a cutscene. Then, you’ll hear the main character talk to the pilot that flies her into each of these open maps. Said stage environments (a quarry, a South American city, and a beach resort for example) are large and somewhat empty, tasking the player with running from one location to another a ways away. There are objective markers, and they tell you how far everything is. For the most part, you can choose which order to tackle things in.
While going from spot to spot, you’ll face alien bugs of varying types, ranging from little guys to the familiar spider type from the movie, all the way to massive creatures. There will be the occasional swarm, but those mostly occur when you get to an objective point and have to turn on electric barriers, defend the location or flip switches. It usually boils down to facing waves of aliens and then moving on to the next one. There’s not a lot of objective variety.
There will be a number of weapons to use to dispatch these baddies, including a typical science fiction assault rifle, a shotgun, an electric gun, an old fashioned bolt rifle, a light machine gun and a flamethrower. On top of that, there are turrets to use, and mechs to pilot, but neither one lasts too long. The mechs eventually self-destruct, and the turrets are only helpful sometimes. Enemies often move into spots that are difficult to shoot at using the turrets, will break down walls and will attack you as you use it without you being able to see them. They are helpful though, as they fire a lot of ammo at high speed.
There are also special ‘weapons’ that can be picked up and used, by pressing up or down on the directional pad. These range from electrical spikes that electrocute foes, to aerial bombing runs. They can take out large groups at one time, or at least do a lot of damage to heavies. Grenades are also helpful when it comes to that, as is the nuke gun. I only got to use it once though, and somehow killed myself twice with it. I don’t know how that happened, at least the second time, as I was aiming at the target. Maybe a regular enemy got in front right when I fired? Regardless, it sent me back a ways, to a previous objective I’d already completed and left. That was pretty annoying.
Lastly, it’s important to mention that you have a melee knife attack. It’s pretty good at killing even big spiders, but it leaves you open to attack. The problem is that there’s such a surprising lack of ammo that you’ll run out quickly. Ammo, health and shield replenishments can be found in suitcase like cases spread throughout the maps, but they aren’t highlighted and can be annoying to find. Expect to be without ammo a surprising amount of time.
Other NPC soldiers will also ‘assist’ you, but they’re forgettable cannon fodder. They’ll get in the way of your bullets, or get stepped on by your mech. They will complain, but that’s just part of the game.
Almost all of the missions are the same, with similar objectives and gameplay. There’s little variety, and things get repetitive. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is also a surprisingly challenging game, even on its second of several difficulty levels. I ended up switching to easy, because it felt like the game would have been better as a co-op experience due to this. It’s pretty challenging, and having limited ammo doesn’t help.
There are achievements and trophies for beating this thing on each difficulty, so those who care should know to expect that.
It seems like the secondary mode in Ultimate Bug War! is considered part of the campaign, even though it’s a separate simulation. Here, you’ll take control of a big alien bug which can change types and forms. It can fly and dive bomb barracks, tents, generators and soldiers, and can also crawl on ground and melee attack things. You’ll use these abilities to cause chaos and annoy human soldiers over five short stages.
If you’ve ever wanted to play as an alien from Starship Troopers, then you’ll maybe enjoy this. However, I found it very basic, and didn’t like the controls. While the core campaign is dated, and nothing special mechanically, in terms of shooting, it all works pretty well. I struggled here, and found myself rushing to locations, scanning for red things to destroy and doing so as quickly as possible. I appreciate that they tried to add more play time and some variety into the mix, but this mode feels very tacked on and forgettable. It wasn’t for me, especially since every stage seemed the same. I completed three of five of them before having to go to a family dinner, but started the fourth before I left. All of its objectives seemed the same.
Overall, this is pretty much what one would expect from a game based on this movie, albeit done in retro form. Some will like it more than others, just like the film. To me, it’s just ok.
For the most part, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! ran well, but it is dated by design. However, it really frustrated me at one point today.
When I was close to finishing one of the last stages in the human campaign, I had to exit via a cave to get to the level score screen and go on to the next one. However, upon entering the cave, the game seemed to freeze. I could hear audio, but couldn’t move, and also couldn’t get the game to progress. I closed it, but when I tried to go back to the console’s dash I was met with a black screen. I couldn’t do anything, and had to reset it. I hope and guess this was some type of crash, but it’s really worried me. I’m obsessive compulsive, and recently bought this console. I don’t use it a lot, and try to take great care of it.
I really hated that that happened. However, I won’t unfairly deduct points for it.
Everything about the visuals and audio is dated, and PS1 era, outside of the HD cutscenes featuring some familiar faces. I don’t need to go over this again, but it works.
In conclusion, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a decent trip to the past through the lens of a campy, cult classic, 90s science fiction movie. Fans of the film will appreciate it most, as will those who grew up with such games. For others, it’s a look into the past. It is repetitive, basic and buggy, but it’s decent fun.
This review is based on the Xbox Series X version of the game, which we were provided.