IHugU by developer Kool2Play is a casual swipe left, swipe right indie game created with the message of delivering peace between people from all different kinds of backgrounds and countries. The cover of the game depicts a man standing next to what appears to be a llama and gives it a cute, positive vibe all while being in a nostalgic 8-bit theme. IHugU is a memory game with a big diverse cast of characters ranging from pop culture such as Jules Winnfield to real-life characters such as North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
As colorful this cast of characters may be, the game has nothing else much to offer. The goal of the game is to hug as many people from different cultures and backgrounds as you can without breaking your combo and getting the highest score possible but the gameplay gets repetitive rather quickly. Despite it having such a large character selection you have to go through the levels unlocking them without any change in the gameplay such as an added power-up or rewards.
There is a bonus level where you collect clovers for more points and one where you have a ‘hug fight’ with a heart-man character and consists of you hugging and pushing him off the screen but that’s it. That was the most significant change in the gameplay. That random ‘fight’ encounter threw me off guard thinking there was going to be more change in the gameplay but there wasn’t. IHugU continued in the same repetitive pattern.
The developers could have done more with it but I remembered that they are going for a more peaceful tone throughout the game. You do have the option of playing on two-player mode on the Nintendo Switch port of the game, which adds a bit more to the gameplay experience but not by much. I tested out the two-player mode with a friend and they lost interest pretty quickly as we progressed through the levels.
There is a character customization option in the game but it adds no gameplay value because it’s just a mixer that lets you switch body parts of characters onto other characters, such as the llama having the head of Abraham Lincoln. The game has a total of 8 different backgrounds that don’t really look all that much different and has the same one song playing in the background and one other song for the title screen that really doesn’t match the overall theme the game has.
This would be a good game if it had a short straightforward storyline line and added bonuses and different gameplay mechanics like in Angry Birds for example; so the player doesn’t get bored too quickly and they keep on playing to reach the satisfaction of beating the level but so far with the gameplay. IHugU would be a good game for a younger audience such as toddlers so they can develop better a memory. Overall the game lacks a fun and inviting gameplay.
From my experience with it, I would not recommend IHugU mainly because even though I understand the message the developers are trying to portray with it, it could have been executed better.
Take a Look at the iHUGU Trailer:
IHUGu is available for Nintendo Switch for $3.99.
Hello there, I got into video games at a very young age and my first console was actually the Super Nintendo, I still have it to this day and have quite a collection of games for it. I play a lot of games ranging from different genres like fighting games, i.e Tekken and Street Fighter, RPG's i.e Dark Souls and Final Fantasy, side-scrollers, visual novels, MMO's, Shooters, and Horror. The more violent and story drove the better!. But, as I mentioned before my range for videogame genres has no bounds, I'll play anything as long as it's fun!
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