Collect Slugs, Ladybugs, and Other Critters in Bug Off!

Collect your bugs — the bigger the collection, the more points they’re worth! But be careful to score them before they’re told to bug off and they all get discarded.

Published by R&R Games, Bug Off! is a 20-minute card game for 2-5 players, ages eight and up.

Gameplay

The deck of cards is shuffled and each player is dealt three bug cards. There are six different types of bugs in the game. In the deck are also six bug off cards, one for each type of bug.

On your turn, you draw a card. If it’s a bug card, you add it to your hand. You then play one bug from your hand. When playing a bug, you either place it in front of yourself face-up, or you score it. When you score a bug, you discard it to the center of the table. You then take all the bugs in front of you that are the same type and place them face-down into your points pile. Every other player also gets to take all the bugs in front of themselves of that same type and place them in their own personal score piles.

If, when you draw a card at the start of your turn, you draw a bug off card, every player at the table discards any bugs in front of themselves that match the bug shown on the bug off card. The bug off card then goes face-up on the table. When future bug off cards are drawn, players don’t just discard the bugs that match the card drawn that round, but all bugs that match any bug off cards drawn thus far in the game. After a bug off card is resolved, the player who drew it draws another card and plays a card.

After all six bug off cards have been drawn, all players count how many bugs they have in their points piles. The player with the most bugs wins the game.

Review

Bug Off! is a very simple game and quite nicely put together. There’s a push-your-luck element each time you choose to grow your collection of a particular type of bug rather than choosing to score now, hoping that those bugs will still be in your collection the next opportunity you have to score them. When you’re waiting for that one card so you can score your bugs, and a bug off card hasn’t been drawn in a while, each new card drawn can feel tense.

You’re also playing off of what other players are doing. If another player has a large collection of butterflies, it can pay off to lay down a few yourself, since you can bet they’ll spend a butterfly to score them, which will allow you to score yours as well. This is very much a game of looking at what other players are doing and responding in turn with your own choices. Scores tend to be tight and games close.

There is also a great escalation to the game, as more and more bug off cards get drawn, and more and more types of bugs get discarded with each new one that is drawn. This keeps increasing the suspense of those push-your-luck choices.

The artwork on the bugs is fun, but the quality of the cards themselves could be better. They’re thin and feel a bit flimsy to handle and will bend easily with a lot of shuffling.

Bug Off! is a fast, fun little game with fun choices, light player interaction, and a clever scoring system that blends well with the push-your-luck mechanics. Very easy to learn, this is a great, casual little card game.

Pros: Very simple rules, satisfying push-your-luck choices, nice artwork for the bugs

Cons: The card quality could be improved

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.