After the challenging opening that is the classic-style arcade adventure Barbuta, things don’t get any easier in UFO 50’s second game, Bug Hunter.
Bug Hunter is a markedly different sort of game though, and one that arguably has a lot more replay value than Barbuta. After all, once you beat Barbuta and uncover all its secrets, that’s it: there’s nothing else to do with it other than to replay it just for fun, or perhaps work on your speedrunning.
Bug Hunter, meanwhile, is a game that will take time to master — but it’s a rewarding, enjoyable experience whenever you play it, and regardless of if you win or lose. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.
In UFO 50’s completely fictional history, Bug Hunter was released in 1983, and it was the first game put together by creators Benedikt Chun and Gerry Smolski, former business application developers who decided to turn their attention to the burgeoning video game sector. Thorson Petter, creator of Barbuta, was also involved with this game — and the trio of Chun, Petter and Smolski can be seen several other times throughout the complete UFO 50 collection.
In Bug Hunter, you play the role of an intergalactic pest control agent. A quarry has been overrun with bug-like aliens, and it’s up to you to meet your quota of bug eradications by the end of a ten-day shift. You achieve this not through all-action gunplay, but through that most fearsome of devices: strategy and forward planning. Not something I am typically good at, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating and enjoying a good game built on this formula.
Bug Hunter’s mechanics are simple to understand. On your turn, you can play any of your “modules”, which are effectively cards you have in your hand. At the outset of a game, you have four modules that allow you to move in orthogonal directions — that’s north, south, east and west — on a flat level, one that allows you to “hop” up to an upper level in the same four directions, and two attack cards: one which allows you to fire a shot up to two spaces away in any of those same four directions, and one that allows you to lob something (it doesn’t say what, so use your imagination) onto an upper level.
You’re not limited to these commands, though. Each turn, a series of energy cubes drops onto the board, and if you move onto or through these, you’ll collect them. It’s worth noting that any modules that involve “jumping”, such as the initial “hop” ability, do not count as moving “through” something; you’re effectively passing over it instead.
Energy cubes can be spent at any time to replace any of your modules with one of the modules drawn from the overall deck. At any time, there are five modules available that cost two energy cubes, one that costs three and two that cost four. During your turn, you can acquire as many of these modules as you have energy cubes to pay for, and the new modules each replace one of your old ones.
One of the most notable things to bear in mind about this system is that you can swap out a spent module for a new one, and you can use the new one immediately. This means it can sometimes be in your interests to swap out a used module for the exact same thing, because then you can use the same ability again without waiting for it to refresh on your next turn.
At other times, you might want to swap out one of the relatively limited starting abilities for something that offers a bit more flexibility. Notable examples of this include the ability to move or shoot diagonally or for an unlimited distance — or, if you get really lucky and draw one of the most powerful modules of this type, both.
Depending on circumstance, you may also want something that has a very specific utility that will help you out in the current situation; examples are varied, including the ability to make bugs or their eggs explode, the option to manipulate the topography of the game board, the opportunity to create, move to or collect energy cubes, or simply a means of refreshing exhausted modules, allowing you to use them multiple times per turn.
Like all good deckbuilders, succeeding in Bug Hunter is all about assessing the situation and gradually assembling a hand of abilities that synergise well with one another. There’s no one “best” build to strive for, and there’s quite a variety of different modules to acquire, making each game of Bug Hunter unfold a little differently from the last. One thing is constant, though: your hand limit is always seven cards, meaning any time you take a new module you’re giving up an old one.
Another variation from game to game is exactly which of the alien bugs you’ll be facing, as generally, at least on the first stage, you’ll only encounter one or two at a time. There are several types of opponent to contend with, each of which initially appears on the board in larval form, but they all grow by a stage each turn. After several turns, a bug turns into an egg, and the turn after an egg appears, it will hatch, overrunning the board and causing you to lose the game immediately.
The alien bugs’ special abilities start to come into play after their larval form has grown into its full-size counterpart.
Blue bugs raise the platforms they are standing on, requiring you to use throw-related abilities to hit them from ground level, or jump abilities to get up onto the same level as them.
One type of pink bug digs a hole when you defeat it, which can make it harder to move around the board — though there are some movement modules that allow you to take advantage of holes. An alternative type of pink bug has an armoured shell that must be destroyed before you can defeat it fully. You can avoid this requirement by jumping off a high platform and landing on one of these bugs.
One type of orange bug blasts out sharp scales in the four orthogonal directions when you defeat it, making close-quarters combat out of the question unless you have a means of attacking diagonally. Another type summons bat-like helpers that completely protect the main bug (and other adjacent bugs of the same type) from harm until you defeat them.
Each of these bugs require different strategies to deal with. We’ve already mentioned the ability to jump off a high platform and crush a bug below, and this is valid for all types of bug, not just the armoured pink ones.
The orange bugs with the bat-like helpers can be dealt with in a single turn using attacks that hit both the bat and the bug; this includes shooting an energy cube to make it explode and using “shot”-type attacks, which hit everything in a line up to their target space.
The blue bugs, meanwhile, can be dealt with either by using “throw”-type attacks, using “jump”-like movement abilities to get up onto a higher level, or using some of the more specialised modules to manipulate the layout of the board, either bringing yourself up to their level or bringing them down to your level.
As you can probably tell, the “best” hand for any given situation can vary quite considerably from game to game depending on the layout of the board, the opponents you’re facing and your own ability to strategise. There’s no one card that is absolutely universally good in every possible situation, which is good; it means you won’t get into a situation where you feel a game is doomed before it’s really got underway. There’s a large enough bank of possible modules to draw from that each game will unfold quite differently, meaning that Bug Hunter, over the long term, requires you to be able to adapt to a range of different possible strategic situations.
There’s a lot of depth to the gameplay, but the actual way the mechanics are implemented is simple. It’s the very definition of “easy to learn, hard to master” — and if you want to get the shiny gold trophy in UFO 50 for “beating” Bug Hunter you’re going to have to come somewhere approaching to mastery, because it requires you to beat not just one game, but a streak of three in succession.
If you’re playing through in “order” as I have been, after Barbuta proves itself to be relatively straightforward to get through once you know what you’re doing, Bug Hunter acts as something of a wake-up call: it’s a clear sign that you’re not going to be able to master each and every game in UFO 50 immediately. But you’re going to have a lot of fun trying — and you might discover an appreciation for some genres you don’t normally give a lot of time to in the process.
Want more Pete? Check my personal blog I’m Not Doctor Who, and my YouTube channel ThisIsPete. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider buying me a coffee.
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