Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a retro‑styled first‑person shooter from Auroch Digital and Dotemu that immerses itself completely into the satirical, hyper‑militarised tone of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 classic. It’s loud, gory, straightforward for the most part, and absolutely committed to replicating the fantasy of being a Mobile Infantry trooper wading through oceans of Arachnids.
What makes Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! interesting from a systems perspective is that it isn’t just a simple run‑and‑gun shooter even though it looks like one. It’s actually a structured, objective‑driven campaign framed as an in‑universe training simulation, complete with FMV sequences starring (the much older) Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico. The result is a game that feels nostalgic, self-aware and every bit the deliberate throwback to a period of time in popular culture (both movies and games) that is long-forgotten.
The campaign places you in the boots of Major Samantha “Sammy” Dietz, a Federation hero whose exploits are being repackaged as a recruitment tool. As a framing device, this informs the cut scenes, propaganda broadcasts, and mission briefings to reinforce the idea that you’re playing a piece of state‑sanctioned media rather than a literal depiction of events. It’s the kind of narrative trick that you’d expect from Starship Troopers and it allows the game to embrace exaggerated violence, over‑the‑top patriotism, and simplified mission structures without breaking the tone of the game. The story itself is straightforward as Dietz hunts a new kind of Assassin Bug species across multiple planets — but the presentation elevates it in context of the IP, giving the campaign a sense of personality that many retro shooters lack.
Mechanically, Ultimate Bug War! is built around fast‑paced FPS combat with a strong emphasis on crowd control. The Arachnids come in large numbers, and the game’s often large and open levels are well designed to funnel them toward you in waves and in certain “arena style” areas. The core gunplay is punchy and satisfying, with the Morita rifle serving as your reliable workhorse while heavier weapons — flamethrowers, rocket launchers, tactical nukes — providing explosive punctuation. I was disappointed that these heavy weapons have to be used and then dropped, so you can’t pick one up and take it somewhere else as such — if you change to your sidearm, you’ll drop it — but it’s not often a major issue.
One nice feature here is the ordnance system: you can call in airstrikes, orbital lasers, and other devastating support abilities that clear huge swathes of the battlefield, and unlike some games, Ultimate Bug War! Is generous with these. Such tools give the game a distinct, over the top identity, pushing it closer to Helldivers‑style spectacle than a pure ’90s shooter homage. The ability to drop a nuclear strike on a cluster of bugs is both mechanically impactful and thematically perfect.
Mission structure is objective‑driven, with each level presenting a large, open map and a set of tasks you can tackle in any order. These objectives tend to fall into a few familiar categories — defend a specific area, destroy bug hives, collect charges or activate switches — and while they’re functional, they do become repetitive over the course of the campaign. The maps themselves vary in visual identity nicely, with Zegema Beach and the ruined cityscape standing out as highlights, but many environments lean heavily on rocky terrain and wide‑open spaces. The game’s retro aesthetic is very much intentional, but it also means that environmental variety is limited. Still, the scale of the maps and the density of enemies create a sense of constant pressure that suits the theme.
Enemy variety is solid, with multiple Arachnid types that force you to adjust your positioning and weapon choices. Most of these bugs will be familiar to fans, but to state the obvious, Warriors swarm aggressively, Tankers spew fire, and the Assassin Bug serves as a dangerous boss encounter. The game also includes a secondary mode where you play as the shapeshifting assassin bug in a VR simulation, offering a brief but entertaining change of perspective. This slightly mad addition helps break up the pacing, though the core loop remains firmly rooted in mass extermination.
Where Ultimate Bug War! falters is perhaps only really in its long‑term variety. The objectives repeat themselves or at the very least, often feel similar, the mission flow becomes predictable and there’s relatively little incentive to replay the game. I enjoyed Ultimate Bug War! In short bursts, where one twenty to thirty minute level was quite enough for one session. The difficulty in Ultimate Bug War! can also spike sharply when you’re cornered by swarms, and the visual chaos of flamethrowers or dense bug clusters can obscure the screen, making it hard to read threats. In some ways I found it refreshing to die three or four times in a single mission before I finished it, which to me says that the challenge level is right. It’s never frustrating, but it’s not a walkover either.
Despite a few small limitations, Ultimate Bug War! succeeds at what it sets out to do: deliver a nostalgic, high‑energy bug‑slaughtering shooter that replicated the tone of the source material. The FMV sequences are excellent, the arsenal is fun to use, and the offworld weapon systems give the combat a satisfying sense of escalation. Ultimate Bug War! is not a complex game, nor is it trying to be. It’s a focused, self‑contained experience that embraces its retro identity and delivers a few hours of chaotic, cathartic action. For fans of the franchise, it’s easily one of the strongest adaptations to date; for newcomers, it’s a stylish throwback shooter with enough personality to stand on its own.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is available now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5 & Xbox Series X/S
