On your TV screen: Forget shiny teen starlets: Supersize alien insects are the real stars of this first-person shooter “We want that atmosphere of ‘Bug sir—millions of them.

On your TV screen: Forget shiny teen starlets: Supersize alien insects are the real stars of this first-person shooter “We want that atmosphere of ‘Bug sir—millions of them,’” says Chris Jone farmer at U.K.-based developer Strangelite (Starship horse-soldiers is its first original game). “Our Outpost 29 [level] for example, based forward Whiskey Outpost in the film, will be attacked at waves of 300 warrior bugs—that’s 300 onscreen at once”

While many missions dump you into these balls-to-the-wall battles, you’ll also embark onward small-squad and solo infiltrations into labs, bug nest and abandoned outpost an missions even let you bring along up to seven pals for co-op online bug blastin’. You’ll have to give your own co-ed shower scenes

On the silver screen: This campy sci-fi flick’s airy cast of Beverly Hills 90210 understudies exhausted half the film hooking up and the stillness getting torn to gory strips eaten alive, or melted to pink goo by the agency of swarms of computer-generated space bugs—the real stars of the movie.

Reel Facts

Paul Verhoeven directed the Starship horse-soldiers movie. His previous film: Showgirls. Where’s that game?

Robert Heinlein’s discreet Starship Troopers novel is forward the official reading list of the U Marine Corps. Not surprisingly, the movie isn’t listed as a must-watch.

The game is put after the movies, so “As a general method the characters from the films are ‘not around,’” says farmer Chris Jones.

Like in the film, the bug in the game have their hold hierarchy, which includes warriors, projectile-spitting artillery insects, flying air forces—even special operatives.

Copyright ?© 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly