Ravensburger Bugacula Board Game Review

Reviewed by Alexis Randall

There are few board games that will bring about as much raucous laughter as this brought to us one Wednesday afternoon. Having exhausted all of the children through the summer holidays they wanted nothing more than to slouch in front of the television and do nothing. I’m an avid board game fan and own several versions of some games because I love them so much, and when this arrived I was excited for the kids because it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. 

In the box there are:

• 1x Hexbug Nano
• 1x 3-D Game board with 20 walls and Moon Wall
• 1x catapult
• 24x Candle Counters
• 13x Garlic Counter
• 1x Catapult Counter
• 4x Game figures
• 1x Dice
• Instructions

It is suitable for 2-4 players aged 6 years and up with gameplay approx. 10-15 minutes.

The game is designed extremely well and while it doesn’t seem to make much sense while it’s in pieces, it soon becomes apparent what goes where once you start putting it together. To start, you’re required to pop out the pieces from a piece of card. There are a variety of “walls” and these make up the path for the Hexbug to follow around the board. They are secured by plastic clips and are very sturdy, which is great because I suspect this game will see a lot of use. It took around 15 minutes to unpack everything and connect it all together but you only need to assemble it once. The instructions were a little confusing at first but once you get started it’s easy to see how it all fits together. The Hexbug that’s included came with batteries installed already which is a nice touch. Bugacula is for 2-4 players aged 6 and above according to the box but I think this is suitable for any child if they can roll a dice and count. 

The aim of the game is to move your character and collect candle tokens of which there are four each. You then place these in any of the “rooms” on the board. You then roll a dice to move your character and the player with the most tokens at the end of the game is the winner. Simple enough right? The problem is that a crazed Hexbug is vibrating wildly around the board and bouncing off walls with absolutely no idea where it’s heading next. If the Hexbug touches your character you have to return to the middle of the board and start again from there. The speed in which that dice was passed around our family and the noise we created was nothing short of astonishing. The need to get your character moving before the Hexbug touches you was hilarious. My six-year-old practically went supersonic every time the Hexbug came near him and my two 13 year old daughters were equally anxious as they sped through the board trying to collect the candles and avoid the bug. You have to hang a candle up on the moat wall when you get hit by the bug and you get a chance to win this back at the end of the game which brings us to the catapult. You fire the Hexbug (or at least try to!) through a hole in a wall which attaches to the game board. Should you get it through the hole, you get a candle back. Should you miss (which I did often) then Bugacula gets to keep them! This brought about the most laughter at all. The bug was fired several feet on some occasions and the cat was taken by surprise more than once! It was wonderful to draw the kids away from the TV or their consoles and bring them together for something that is as fun as this game was. There were ways to make the game slightly different but the instructions above are from the game just to get you started. 

With Christmas coming up this would make an excellent gift. The game is going to played again and again and I can’t currently see a time when it wouldn’t be fun. The Hexbug flying around adds a dynamic that not every board game has. It’s really good quality and at around £30 represents excellent value for money.

Overall this is an easy 5 stars and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to anyone with children.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £29.99

Available to buy from Amazon here.