Starship Troopers is one of those movie franchises you’d expect to have more video games, given its premise is such a perfect match for the medium. It’s nearly 30 years old now, yet there are only about four games in the series, with two of them being real-time strategy titles, a logical choice since the focus is on waging large-scale wars against swarms of enormous alien bugs.
There were two first-person shooters, one in 2005 and Extermination, both of which failed to resonate with fans and general gamers. What Starship Trooper fans want is a no BS first-person shooter, dense with sharp, biting satire and brutal arachnid violence. An experience that allows players to immerse themselves in a believable world inspired by the iconic film’s settings, while also stepping into a Marauder suit with some optional co-op.
The boys who brought us Boltgun have thrown their hat into the ring with their take on Starship Troopers. How does this retro-inspired first-person shooter honor one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time? Can we understand the bug? Would you like to know more? Find out in our Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War! review!
Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War!
Developer: Auroch Digital
Publisher: DotEmu
Platforms: Windows, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: March 16, 2026
Price: $24.99
Ultimate Bug War makes a strong first impression with its presentation and FMVs, which are modeled on the film’s propaganda sequences. The idea is that the game you are playing exists in the Starship Troopers universe, is developed by the United Citizen Federation (a veteran-led, republic-style system), and is propaganda aimed at indoctrinating children to enlist.
General Rico (flawlessly portrayed by Casper Van Dien) introduces the game as based on the exploits of Major Samantha “Sammy” Dietz, and you’re left guessing how much of it is true or glorified for propaganda purposes. In the FMVs, Sammy is portrayed as a calm, collected, one-armed woman with a thousand-yard stare who’s clearly seen some shit and is fighting to keep a strong face for the camera.
Playing the campaign, you see how she goes from a bloodthirsty recruit to a shellshocked veteran. There’s a lot of reading between the lines of the Federation’s lies and what might have actually happened, making the narrative layered and thought-provoking. It would have been interesting if there were a “declassified” campaign where players could experience the truth of how events actually unfolded.
In addition to Sammy’s campaign, there are several bonus missions where the player enters a VR simulation and takes on the role of an assassin bug. Sadly, there isn’t much of a story when playing as the bug because it’s just a simulation for Mobile Infantry to “better understand” their opponent. You don’t even fight this creature; it simply serves as a way to break up the admittedly repetitive gameplay in Sammy’s campaign.
Ultimate Bug War! bills itself as a “boomer shooter”, but that isn’t really what you’re gonna get. Sammy has a weapon carry limit, needs to reload her guns, and the levels are large, open environments. After she’s dropped, you have multiple objectives that can be completed in any order, and you’ll have to fight your way through literal hordes of arachnids to reach waypoints.
Combat unfolds accurately as seen in the film. Once you get off the dropship, you’re instantly bewildered by the chaos of countless soldiers frantically running and shooting arachnids charging them. You take a second to look around to collect your bearings, and before you know it, your screen is filled with mandibles, and no matter how much you shoot, they just keep coming, ripping you to shreds. It’s a chaotic mess of bug slaying but ultimately feels fun.
It can be frustrating at times, but that’s basically how things go down in the movie. The objectives run the gamut of “go here and defend the thing” or “go here and plant bombs on the thing”. Sometimes you might need to restore power to a thing or reach an area to help the Mobile Infantry fight some more bugs. It’s not varied, and I found myself quickly realizing the pattern as most objectives have a handful of permutations.
Mechanically, Sammy controls fluidly, and killing or performing certain feats earns her points, which fill up a gauge. Eventually, she can call for a weapon drop that comes with a medkit, so she can keep fighting endlessly. The MI’s arsenal is pretty extensive, and most guns have an alternate mode; pretty much everything from the movies is here. Even the mech suits are available, though they don’t last long because they are functionally a timed power-up.
As the assassin bug, you’re massive, lightning-fast, able to fly, and instead of calling for a weapon drop, you have a cooldown for armored mode that lets you unleash a spitting flame attack. Bug missions are at best a minor distraction and lack depth. They couldn’t carry themselves as a main game and have even less variety than the Mobile Infantry.
Thankfully, the bugs have only a few missions and are optional. Yet, I failed to see the point in them. It feels like they exist to pad out what is already a very short game. The assassin bug itself also feels like it’s from another game and doesn’t fit the Starship Troopers aesthetic.
The overall visual style feels like what I’d imagine a Starship Troopers game would look like if it had been released alongside the film back in 1997. It has a retro look with chunky, pixelated textures and makes extensive use of 2D sprites for the Mobile Infantry. As a bug, attacking these microscopic cardboard cutouts in the third person doesn’t feel satisfying. It’s fine when you play as Sammy since her brothers-in-arms are mostly background noise for her campaign.
The graphics cheat a lot more than you’d think and are nowhere near as authentic as they could be. The models for the arachnids punch way above what was possible in 1997, yet the environmental details are also below what was the standard at the time. The lighting is also more advanced than anything possible during the film’s reign.
Despite its inaccuracies, Ultimate Bug War! stays true to its source material. It definitely looks like the movie… It’s just too bad it doesn’t sound like the movie. For whatever reason, they were able to secure the rights to the film, get the original actor involved, but couldn’t get the iconic theme composed by Basil Poledouris.
How do you have a stage based on the raid on Klendathu, but not use the Klendathu Drop theme? With none of the music included, it’s tough to really get drawn into the setting.
Why is there no co-op? There should have been an option for some multiplayer options, especially in a game like this, where there are countless friendlies who get ripped apart by the hundreds. Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War! is basic as is, and it really needed a little extra something to add some value. It’s too short, even with all of the bug missions.
While it’s still overall a fun game, as propaganda, I think Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War! would turn kids away from wanting to be a citizen. You’d think Fedev would have put a bit more effort into trying to convince players to join the Mobile Infantry with more stimulating gameplay.
Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War! was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a code provided by DotEmu. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War! is now available for Windows PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
