It fills me with joy that weâre still talking about Starship Troopers in 2026. You certainly donât need to hear my opinions on military propaganda, fascism, and âflip six three hole,â but trust me when I say itâs a movie everyone (who can stomach it) should see. Especially in todayâs political climate, and definitely before playing Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War.
The movie centered around three young military recruits who take different paths in the 23rd century war against the âbug planetâ Klendathu. The Arachnids, as theyâre called, have launched remote attacks against the Earth, so the Federation launches a massive counterstrike.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War covers that counterstrike, but from a wonderful perspective. Rather than have us relive it through characters from the movie, the developers took a thematically appropriate approach to the story. Ultimate Bug War is a game within the game. Itâs used by the United Citizen Federation to introduce young civilians to the terrors of the Arachnid threat, teach them about military combat, and hopefully coerce them into signing up for the Federation. Itâs a brilliant extension of the military propaganda thatâs satirized in the film.
It helps that this âgameâ is introduced by two people: Samantha âSammyâ Dietz, whose role in the Klendathu attacks is used for the gameâs narrative, and none other than Johnny Rico, the filmâs protagonist, who is again played here by Casper Van Dien. These video segments perfectly match the filmâs tone, and will be a joy for fans.
The game itself is a boomer shooter in both action and style. The Federation may control the Earth in the 23rd century, but theyâre not using their resources for gaming technology, it would seem. The 3D graphics are flat and pixelated like in the first-person shooters you mightâve played after getting home from seeing Starship Troopers in the theater in â97. Howâs that for tangential nostalgia?
The action begins with a training mission that not only introduces you to the gameâs controls, but to the need for finding and using the correct weapon for the job. This ends up becoming pretty important. In the first mission after completing training, I very quickly found myself out of ammunition and, therefore, dead. Take your training seriously (even if Mr. Krabs/Kurgan isnât there to provide it).
There are only eight missions to complete (well, human mission, anyway), but theyâre varied and spread across decently sized maps.
The tighter approach to combat and storytelling makes sure you donât really have time to get bored even as you restart the levels to compensate for your earlier mistakes. And youâll want to, because a full runthrough can be completed in under 10 hours.
All of the missions come with a lot of comms chatter, and I feel the developers kind of missed the mark here. The NPCs are maybe too enthusiastic, their comedy forced. They become important, though, as distractions for the bug attacks. Theyâre also pretty dumb, wandering into the line of fire so often that I feel it mustâve been a purposeful decision. Still no respect for the infantry.
To compensate for the shorter playtime, the developers have made the game pretty hard. To compensate for that, they offer numerous difficulty levels. Even the easiest levels, however, will present a challenge. If even thatâs hurting your chances of joining the Federation and becoming a Citizen, you can activate god mode.
You can also become a bug. Five unlockable missions give you the ability to see things from the Arachnid perspective. In these, the goal is to take out human bases and raise the fear level of the Federation soldiers. These levels provide a fun change of pace, but theyâre not as compelling as the human missions, and the controls are consistently awkward.
Regarding the controls, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War does take advantage of Switch 2 Joy-Con mouse functionality if you want to use it. Beyond that, Iâm not sure why the game is Switch 2-only. The retro graphics would seem to be compatible with the standard Nintendo Switch, although they do occasionally get choppy on the Switch 2.
The big question, and one I canât really answer, is whether this game will appeal to those who havenât seen the movie. Itâs so tightly integrated into its story and themes that it may just confuse those who donât know the one rule of Rasczakâs Roughnecks. The boomer shooter nostalgia may still work, but less so than the numerous ports and remakes from that era available today. But if you have seen the movie. If you can spot the differences between a tanker bug and a brain bug, then strap in, remember your training, and you will make it out alive.
