Quick answer: A bug game for cats fills the screen with crawling insects your cat squashes with paw taps — each bug pops on contact. In FunCat, the Beetle Smasher bug mode is the Premium game ($3.99/week or $14.99/year), while four other games — laser, mouse, fish, ball — are completely free to try first.

Why bugs flip the switch

Insects are the prey cats catch most in real life — low-stakes, fast, and everywhere. Bug movement is skittery and chaotic, which produces the most frantic, paws-everywhere play style of any game type. Where a fish game is meditative and a mouse game is tactical, a bug game is pure arcade: rapid targets, rapid taps, rapid pops.

FunCat's Beetle Smasher leans into it — hundreds of creepy-crawly beetles scuttling across the screen, popping as fast as your cat can smash them. For athletic young cats and confirmed fly-hunters, it's the highest-energy game in the app.

Is Beetle Smasher worth Premium?

Honest answer: start free and let your cat vote. Download FunCat and run a week of Laser Chase, Mouse Hunt and Fish Pond — all free. If your cat is the type who ignores the fish but explodes at anything fast and scuttly (you'll know), Beetle Smasher is their game. Premium is $3.99/week or $14.99/year — the yearly works out to about $1.25 a month, less than a single catnip mouse.

High-contrast FunCat play screen — the same engine that powers the Beetle Smasher bug game for cats
FunCat's high-contrast play screens are built for feline vision — Beetle Smasher runs on the same engine at maximum chaos.

How to play a bug-squashing session

  1. Warm up with a free game — one minute of Laser Chase gets the hunting engine started.
  2. Open Beetle Smasher and start with fewer, slower bugs. A full swarm on day one can overwhelm cautious cats.
  3. Floor, always. Bugs crawl on the ground; the game should too. A screen protector is smart here — bug games generate the most enthusiastic smashing.
  4. Scale the swarm. As your cat gets faster, add bugs and speed. Watching a cat try to cover six beetles at once is the content the internet was built for.
  5. Cool down. Bug games run hot — end after 5–10 minutes with a treat, before excitement tips into overstimulation.
Two-cat households: Bug mode is the best multiplayer game — a swarm gives both cats their own targets. Use an iPad for enough floor space; see games for cats on iPad.

A note on real-bug enthusiasm

Bug games don't teach cats to eat more real bugs (that instinct predates the App Store), but they do give indoor cats a safe outlet for it — no stink bugs harmed, no spiders lost behind the sofa mid-hunt. If your cat's bug obsession comes from boredom, pair the game with the enrichment routine in how to entertain a bored cat.

Start free, then release the beetles

FunCat is free with four full games. Try them tonight — and if your cat's a bug hunter, Beetle Smasher is waiting.

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