Doing My Part
Touching back down in California after a grueling week walking the floor at GDC, my brain felt like absolute mush. Between the endless networking, the developer panels, and staring at engine presentations for six days straight, I needed something to completely fry my brain in the best way possible before packing my bags for PAX East next week. I needed high-octane, unapologetic, visceral action.
Enter Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!.
Launching tomorrow, March 16, this brand-new title from developer Auroch Digital and the retro-revival masters at Dotemu is exactly what the doctor ordered. It is a single-player, narrative-driven boomer shooter that drops you directly into the boots of a Mobile Infantry recruit named Sammy.
Having played the explosive Zegema Beach demo, I can confidently say this is one of the most mechanically satisfying, hyper-violent, and nostalgically pure FPS experiences of the year. If you have ever fantasized about standing on a blood-soaked beach, holding down the trigger of a Morita assault rifle while hundreds of giant alien insects charge at you, it is time to earn your citizenship.
FMVs and Diegetic Brilliance
Before you even fire a single bullet, Ultimate Bug War! hits you with a wave of sheer charm. The game completely understands the satirical, hyper-militarized tone of the 1997 Paul Verhoeven classic.
This commitment to the bit starts at the main menu. Rather than a boring list of text boxes, the menu is fully diegetic. You are standing in a bustling Mobile Infantry cantina. Want to launch the campaign? You walk over to the dropship bay. Need to exit the game? You hop into an escape pod. It is a minor detail, but it immediately establishes the developers’ passion for this universe.
And then there are the FMVs. Ultimate Bug War! Features full, high-quality Full Motion Video cutscenes starring none other than Casper Van Dien, returning as the legendary General Johnny Rico. He is joined by a new hero, Major Samantha Dietz, delivering the exact brand of cheesy, over-the-top Federation propaganda we all know and love. Hearing Rico narrate a travel commercial for the “pleasure paradise” of Zegema Beach right before you drop in to scrape bug carcasses off the sand is cinematic perfection.
Boots on the Ground: The Arsenal and The Swarm
Once your boots hit the dirt, the game opens up into a frantic, incredibly fast-paced retro FPS. The shooting mechanics are unbelievably tight. You are armed with an arsenal of over 30 iconic weapons and items.
The classic Morita rifle feels punchy and devastating, but the sandbox truly shines when you start calling in heavy support. The game utilizes a brilliant tactical menu where you can spend credits (earned by slaughtering bugs) to call in M7 support drops, health packs, ammunition, and devastating orbital strikes. There is nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of being cornered by a dozen Warrior Bugs, only to call down an orbital bombardment and watch the screen fill with glorious, pixelated viscera.
At one point during the Zegema Beach invasion, you can even hop into a mechanical biped (a razorback mech) or take control of a dropship’s door gunner to rain fire from above. The variety of combat scenarios keeps the blood-soaked pacing cranked to eleven.
Squad Tactics and Swarm AI
You aren’t fighting this war alone. As you traverse the semi-open levels, you will encounter scattered Mobile Infantry troopers. If you save them, they actually join your squad, following you into battle and providing crucial covering fire.
As someone who spends way too much time debugging C++ code and reverse-engineering game logic, I have to tip my hat to Auroch Digital’s AI pathing. Rendering a massive swarm of enemies in a retro-style engine without the game collapsing into a stuttering mess is an impressive technical feat. The bugs swarm, flank, and overwhelm your squad with terrifying efficiency.
The gore system is equally impressive. The game features localized damage, meaning you can blow the legs off a charging Arachnid, shattering its carapace and leaving it to crawl toward you. It is gross, chaotic, and endlessly entertaining.
The Best Bugs Are Dead Bugs (Unless You Play As Them)
The enemy variety is stellar, pulling all your favorite nightmares directly from the films. You will fight the standard Warrior Bugs, dodge airborne Hopper attacks, and desperately kite massive, screen-filling Tanker bugs. Taking down a Tanker requires a massive expenditure of ammunition, grenades, and sheer panic, resulting in some of the best boss encounters in the boomer shooter genre.
But Auroch Digital recently dropped a massive bombshell that elevates this title’s replayability: Bug Mode.
For the first time ever, players will actually be able to experience the campaign from the perspective of the Arachnid menace. Tearing through heavily fortified Federation outposts as a razor-sharp alien killing machine is an entirely different, incredibly satisfying power fantasy that perfectly flips the game’s mechanics on their head.
The Good, The Bad, & The Arachnid
| The Good | The Bad | The Ugly |
| The FMVs: High-quality, live-action cutscenes featuring Casper Van Dien perfectly capture the satirical propaganda of the films. | Screen Clutter: The retro explosions and pixelated viscera can sometimes obscure incoming enemies and vital health drops. | The Tankers: Fighting massive Tanker bugs in tight spaces will quickly drain your ammo and your patience. |
| The Arsenal: Over 30 weapons, orbital strikes, door-gunner sequences, and playable mechs provide endless combat variety. | Squad Survival: Your AI squadmates are incredibly helpful, but they have a bad habit of standing directly in the line of fire. | |
| Bug Mode: The ability to play as the Arachnids and slaughter the Mobile Infantry adds massive replay value to the package. | ||
| Diegetic UI: The interactive Cantina main menu is one of the coolest, most immersive UI designs in recent memory. |
Should You Buy It?
Yes, if: You love high-speed boomer shooters like DOOM or DUSK, you are a die-hard fan of the Starship Troopers universe, and you want an adrenaline-pumping solo campaign.
No, if: You prefer slow, methodical tactical shooters, or if retro, pixelated art styles give you a headache.
Recommended for fans of: Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Helldivers 2, DOOM (1993), Starship Troopers: Extermination, and Prodeus.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!: Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a masterclass in retro FPS design. It refuses to hold your hand, throwing you directly into the meat grinder with a rifle and a prayer. While the chaotic screen clutter can sometimes make it difficult to spot health pickups, and managing your squad's survival in the middle of a massive firefight can feel a bit like herding cats, the sheer fun factor completely overshadows any minor gripes. It is a loud, brash, exceptionally well-crafted shooter that perfectly captures the magic of the cinematic universe. Do your part. Grab your rifle. I'll see you on the leaderboards. – Obsidian