Bugs
in the Kitchen

Bugs in the Kitchen (2013) is a fast-paced puzzle game where you have to trap a constantly moving robot bug. You play by rolling dice and turning Maze pieces to create paths for the digital bug to scuttle down. It's chaotic fun where you have to be quick to avoid victory becoming defeat in an instant.

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You play as an exterminator tasked with removing a bug from the kitchen. To start you release a small self-propelled robot insect (Hexbug Nano), into a 3D maze made of cutlery that can be rotated to change possible routes. But you're only allowed to rotate a specific piece of cutlery when you roll the corresponding shape on the dice. So each turn you have to try and get the bug closer to your side of the board, by creating a path that forces it out of the door nearest to you.

As you play, you take turns rotating the cutlery, shifting the maze and creating paths for the ever-moving insect that drive it back and forth around the board. To win, you get the insect to your assigned door but all the while block other people's paths. Each turn becomes a back-and-forth of action and counter-action as the bug whizzes around the maze.

It is the erratic nature of the bug that creates the joy in this game. You need to act quickly, rolling your dice and making your move with speed, so that you can affect the path of the bug before it sets off towards someone else's home space and you lose. Sometimes when you think you have it all sorted, the bug jags off in an unexpected direction and you have to wait for your turn to try again.

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Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Bugs in the Kitchen 21 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.