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Players: 2-4 (ages 6+)
Playing Time: 5-10 minutes
For some people, the very thought of bed bugs makes them think twice about spending the night in a hotel—especially now, thanks to the recent outbreak. But if the mention of those blood-sucking little pests actually brings back pleasant memories of the classic kids’ game, you’re in luck. Patch Products has rereleased Milton Bradley’s 1985 classic—and now you can introduce the beloved bug-catching kids’ game to a whole new generation.
To begin, players choose a pair of colored tongs—and all of the colored bugs are placed inside poor Mr. Y. D. Wake’s motorized bed. One player starts the game by turning on the motorized bed and calling out one color—red, yellow, blue, or green. As the little plastic bugs jump around the bed, players use their tongs to try to pick up the most bugs in the chosen color.
When all of the bugs in the first color have been removed from the bed, the next player chooses another color—and play begins again.
Once all of the bugs have been removed from the bed (and Mr. Wake is once again able to enjoy a bug-free slumber), players count the bugs they collected—and the player who collected the most wins the game.
Back in 1985, Bed Bugs was a pretty exciting game, with that motorized bed that sent the bright-colored bugs bouncing and skittering away from their eager young captors. But while motorized games may be pretty old hat (and even old-fashioned) now, kids will still love the frantic fun of this silly game. The rules are simple, and the game goes by quickly—and since everyone plays at the same time, there’s never a dull moment.
Meanwhile, scrambling to pick up the bugs with their tongs will also help young players (and older ones, too) build their hand-eye coordination. But it’s such wild and crazy fun that they won’t even care that it’s good for them (though you might not want to tell them, just to be on the safe side).
The game’s only major flaw is that the motor is a bit finicky. It has a tendency to stop working in the middle of the game, and you’ll often need to stop playing to fix it, which can be extremely frustrating.
Still, this blast from kids’ game past is a fast-paced, bug-hunting adventure that will be just as much fun for parents who once loved the game when they were kids as it will be for young players. It’s fast and fun—and, unlike real bed bugs, it won’t leave you with a mysterious rash the next morning.
