Are we so gullible? Do we as an audience not demand anything from our art? There's no story, no new mechanics, no real characters, no interesting or enjoyable visuals, no compelling gameplay, no original ideas at all in fact. Is a faceless strawman to antagonise really enough to get millions of people to play an Unreal Engine asset flip made as artlessly as possible? Is no one else actively disturbed by how blatantly and gracelessly this rips mechanics from every popular game of the last 2 decades, without integrating any of them together whatsoever? Has art ever felt this cynical before?

Feel free to discount my opinion. I am a 'salty Pokemon fanboy' after all, and I only gave this game an hour or so of my not particularly highly valued time. I personally just prefer the art I engage with to care for the art form it sits within, even a little bit. Palworld hates video games. It sees nothing more within them than a collection of things to do and hopes that by shovelling a flaccid farcical version of as many of them as possible into your mouth it will somehow constitute a 'video game' when all is said and done. It doesn't. I'm deeply saddened that so many gamers think so lowly of our art form that they genuinely think this is acceptable.

Gráficos
( ) Minecraft
( ) 144p
(X) Pixel Art
( ) Aceitável
( ) Bom
( ) Ótimo
( ) Cada frame foi pintado por Da Vinci

História
( ) Que história??
( ) Tem história só pra não dizer que não tem
(X) Uma história digna de prestar atenção
( ) Uma história bem elaborada
( ) Mais complexa que Machado de Assis

Jogabilidade
( ) Tudo travado igual a coluna de uma senhora de 90 anos
( ) Precisa de dois dedos pra jogar
( ) Ruim, mas com muita determinação até que vai
( ) Esquisito no começo, mas você acostuma
(X) Gostoso de jogar
( ) Orgasmo para os dedos/mãos

Trilha sonora
( ) Meu peido faz um barulho mais bonito
( ) Deixa mutado
( ) Nada de especial
( ) Boa
( ) Memorável
(X) Toque isso no meu funeral

Nível de diversão
( ) Tão legal quanto assistir uma poça d'água evaporar
(X) Da pra passar um tempo
( ) Vai te prender por horas!
(X) Meu mundo melhorou depois de jogar isso aqui
( ) Já amanheceu ???

Bugs
( ) Praticamente feito pela Bethesda
( ) Dá pra jogar
( ) Os bugs deixam o jogo mais divertido
( ) Alguns bugs
( ) A palavra bug é desconhecida
(X) Esse jogo saiu perfeito do forno

Tempo de jogo
(X) 1-5 horas
( ) 8-15 horas
( ) 24-48 horas
( ) + 100 horas
( ) Multiplayer inifinito
( ) One Piece acaba e você ainda não fez tudo

Dificuldade
( ) Você adapta a dificuldade
( ) Dá pra zerar só assistindo vendado e bêbado
(X) Médio
( ) Com um pouco de prática vai
( ) Bem desafiador, as vezes difícil
( ) Soulslike
( ) Você precisa despertar o instinto superior para jogar

Para melhor experiência
( ) Desinstalar
(X) O jogo é Offline
( ) SinglePlayer
( ) Coop
( ) Multiplayer

Vale a pena ?
( ) Arrependimento
( ) Reembolsa isso ai
( ) É bom, mas pra zerar uma vez só
( ) Recomendo!
( ) Bom pra caralho, JOGUEM!
(X) Queria apagar a memória só pra me encantar de novo

Listen, these past few months have been tough for me in terms of games. Every time I tried to play a game, I just felt bored. No matter how fun the game was, it was just... boring. And this really sucked, because I love games, and I played every week, so to just quit gaming... Yeah it was rough.
So after a few months with no game time, I was bored, and decided to pick up my switch. I played different games, and yeah. It was still boring. Then I decided to revisit my favourite game of all time. And holy crap man, all I got was pure unfiltered joy. I don't think I have ever felt so much joy in a game, I kept running jumping, platforming for hours among end. I was addicted. I was back to playing games.
So thank you Mario Odyssey. Thank you.

It’s funny the game is called Ugly because it’s such a beauty, it’s close to perfection when you see a footage of the game. The graphics have so much detail, attention and personal touch put into the environments. I love to zoom in often just to see the cupboards, the kid drawings made and toys scattered for instance. You also have many situations where you move past objects and they animate in delightful ways. It’s not just the graphics, the soundtrack is also fantastic and the same holds true for the sound effects. This game is just incredibly polished and the story it’s trying to tell is beautifully presented. The achievements (either collectibles or story progression) are used to explain the story slowly in simple words and art. It’s another great example of using achievements to enhance your enjoyment of the game instead of work against it.

Now what about the gameplay you ask? It’s brilliant but it needs some explaining. Depending on what you’re looking for it might be a turn off or the opposite. The game took me around 15 hours to 100% and it’s mainly divided in 2 parts. Now the game is a platform puzzler in a general sense. Part 1 relies mostly on the thinking aspect. Almost every room can be executed with ease as long as you figure out what you’re supposed to do. The second part while still a puzzler at heart, it focuses heavily on the platforming, timing and execution. Often times it’s easier to figure out what you’re supposed to do but being able to is a different matter. Then we have the 5 bosses (in part one) in every main area. Those are a mix of both styles. The game is incredibly difficult as a whole. Normally this is a red flag for me but I was so intrigued that it didn’t stop me. I wanted to advance further and didn’t want to let go. You’re often put in situations (especially part 2) where you look at a room and think it’s impossible to clear. Then you clear one and you can’t believe it. The game keeps pushing the limits, showing you the possibilities of using your skills in unexpected ways and it honestly feels amazing. I don’t remember the last time a game ever did that to me. I had more issues with part 1 (glass area mainly) but there is a hint system in-game and it’s easy to look up solutions online if that’s not enough.

Flaws:
-Boss 5. Honestly the obstacles in between were too frequent, too quickly and mostly not fun. This should seriously be rebalanced and improved
-Glass area (part 1). It feels like the mechanics introduced were not introduced properly and you were suddenly getting some rooms with highly complex puzzles. The areas after were much better at gradually introducing mechanics and the puzzle complexity being appropriate
-There is minor backtracking in part 2 every time you clear a room, I’d have liked a quicker way of getting to where I need to be from the starting area
-The story being unclear. Even though I enjoyed the story and was dying for more, I didn’t fully understand the ending and what it meant

This game is very close to perfection despite the few flaws mentioned. Ugly should seriously be played by many more people. It should not be passed on even if you dislike challenge. Now challenge is subjective and I don’t want people to hate themselves for games being too frustrating. But if you consider yourself at least an average player, often going for normal difficulty and like the genre, then give this a shot and push yourself more than usual because the pay off will be worth it most likely. I paid around €14,50 for Ugly and I think it’s worth it.