Ugly (Nintendo Switch)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): September 14, 2023
- Release Date (EU): September 14, 2023
- Publisher: Graffiti Games
- Developer: Team Ugly
- Genres: Puzzle, Platform
- Also For: Computer, Xbox One
Game Features:
Have you ever looked into the mirror and imagined what it would be like to step through, to see the world from an alternate perspective and investigate this strange yet familiar reflected land? Ugly lets you step into your reflection and puzzle your way out of trouble!
When I booted up Ugly, I'll be honest, I wasn't entirely sure what it was. Starting the game I was immediately impressed with the minor details of the menus being reflected, the shimmer and shine, and the caustics floating around, I was intrigued beyond reason.
Is it set in a castle? Is it all in his mind? He seems to have lived through some serious trauma, is this a psychological break?
An Enchanting Tale Cleverly Told
The game has you assume the role of the titular "Ugly" nobleman whose story is told via chilling "found" memories, and who has to rid his abode of the evil that is barricading the doors and preventing progress to each adjoining location. Throughout your puzzling, you have to negotiate platforms that seem impossible to reach, shift through walls and defeat oversized bosses: yes you need to outwit monstrously huge bosses and beat them at their own game before you can call each zone completed. Remember that you have no attacks, and no real means to defend, so use logic and quick timing to keep out of reach of enemies.
Ugly is, at its heart, a puzzler-come-platformer that relies on a singular simple mechanic to allow you to scour otherwise impossible-to-reach areas. By pressing the B button you place a mirror in front of you, and you see and command, your reflected self with inverted controls. Right is left, left is right, etc. Alternatively by pressing D-Pad down and B you drop your single instance mirror on the floor and project your simulated self above or below your actual self depending on your positioning.
The clever thing about this mechanic is that if you focus on your true self, you can then use Y to switch to your shadowy self to take control from there. This means that to pass through a wall all you need to do is place your mirror before the wall, walk backwards as yourself so that your mirror-self moves away from the back of the mirror, and get to a position where you can then hit Y to take control of your mirror-self and carry on traversing the estate. Get it all wrong and you can quickly and humorously restart by holding X and taking a good long swig of night-night-juice, where you wake up in a daze but the section you were on is reset and ready to re-try.
Graphically the game employs a relatively simple cartoon aesthetic, it's super simple, incredibly detailed and visually stunning to waltz through. Each area is colour-coded coded, contains keys to unlock progression and a boss to beat before heading on to the next wing of he estate.
The graphics may look basic and "mobile-game-ish" however they more than serve their purpose and actually have heaps of interactivity, such as chandeliers swinging or material flapping in your tailwind. Sometimes when you run past a painting and a bug scuttles out over to another, or a ghost hand pops out and makes you pause for a second. Also if you rush past something like plant pots, for example, and one rolls off and smashes, it might reveal a butterfly which then flutters around to a rather specific place... you should probably follow it!
Sound and effects-wise Ugly is joyfully whimsical with its interactive elements causing sounds to emanate from them as you brush past a merry-go-round, push past some rubble, tip over toys, or knock down a painting. There is absolutely ZERO vocal dialogue throughout this game, it's all suggestive, minimal and exceptionally well put together, giving you a very unique experience.
The background music in general is an enchanting mixture of string and piano that delicately leads you through the environment, punctuating impactful areas and highlighting secrets and devious things to pay attention to.
Look Before You Leap, Logic is Key
The majority of the puzzling takes the form of requiring you to weigh up the environment in front of you, rather that simply jumping in gung-ho. You may see pairs of broken ladders at opposing sides of the screen, boxes out of reach up above, or a balance beam that you can't quite jump across fast enough.
Using the mirror allows you to experiment with physics too. For example, place the mirror on a ledge, jump off the ledge to the ground below and your mirror self will be higher up in the air than you could possibly jump. Hitting Y now swaps you to the position of your phantom twin and from there you can take control of the action.
In quite a few sections there is too much gloom, shadow, or icky pinky-purple ooze to traverse. Your mirror self can only materialise on surfaces in perfect, clean light, so keeping watch on what you can and can't transport yourself onto by way of teleporting is key to understanding how to reach those tricky spots!
I had massive amounts of fun attempting to catapult myself across the levels, figuring out smart ways to use the mirror to reach places that looked impossible, but it's all entirely possible, it's all been meticulously planned by the development team, and it's going to take the majority of your mental focus to unravel its perilous platforming complexities.
Unassumingly Smart, Incredibly Playable
Ugly is an extremely cleverly crafted title. Just when you think there is no way through, no way you can reach THAT ledge, you can step away for a moment and then come back to it to realise that the answer is right in front of you!
So many times I got completely perplexed, and just as I went to give in and try somewhere else: it clicked. Sometimes the answer is derived by surveying your entire surroundings, perhaps something is out of place, maybe something is written on a wall or carved into a door frame, sometimes there will be those small aforementioned details leading you around the map and ever-so-subtly guiding you without you even realising, but only if you are super observant.
Ugly is a superb puzzle-come-platform title with a fantastically mysterious premise, incredibly fun and challenging lateral thinking puzzles to navigate, a heartwarming yet chilling story to unravel and a vast series of beautifully detailed environments to explore.
Highly recommended!
Early Preview:
Verdict
- Challenging but rewarding gameplay
- Plenty of puzzles to overcome
- Clever mechanics force you to think
- Achievement system built in!
- 52 memories to unlock
- Slight learning curve to overcome
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4.90.1?