Ugh!

Moby ID: 1043
DOS Specs
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Description

His girlfriend had always had great expectations and one day, by an incredible chance an apple which has fallen right down our caveman's head creates a thought of an aircraft that he can use to earn money. So he makes the machine and uses it for the transport--for picking the other cave friends up and dropping them to their desired destinations.

Ugh! is an action game where you must complete 69 levels, riding inside a pedal-powered helicopter to pick up passengers and carry them to their destinations. Each level is made of a series of platforms, with several cave entrances. Cavemen walk out of the caves and loudly announce where they want to go. You have to land your helicopter taxi next to the passenger and wait until he crawls inside (if you land on him, he'll fall into the water at the bottom of the level, although he can still be rescued) and then fly to the cave that he wants to get to. Controlling the vehicle is a bit complicated - you cannot directly fly up or down; instead, you have to keep pedalling to fly up, and cease pedalling when you want to go downwards. Bumping into a wall too hard will cause a game over and force you to restart the level. There is also a time limit for each level. To finish a level, you have to serve a number of customers.

There are some dinosaur adversaries on certain levels - a pterodactyl which appears unexpectedly and flies across the screen, and a triceratops which becomes agitated when you land near and charges at your taxi.

As you pedal, you exert energy. To refill your energy so that you can keep pedalling, you can pick up a rock and toss it at a tree, making a fruit drop down. Eat the fruit to get more energy.

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (DOS version)

9 People (7 developers, 2 thanks)

Programmed by
Intros Coded by
PC Graphics by
Music and FX by
Levels Designed by
Special Thanks To

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 28 ratings with 2 reviews)

Ugh means fun!

The Good
The concept is simple: Remember that Lander game where you control a lunar landing module's thrusters and have to negotiate a safe landing by fighting against gravity and inertia (think the mini-game on The Dig if you have no idea what I'm talking about)? Well, that's essentially what Ugh! is, except the whole concept is applied to one of those cute puzzle games with little cute graphics and a gazillion levels (sort of like Lemmings, get it?).

The premise is that you are a caveman in control of an elevator/helicopter hybrid, which controls just like the aforementioned landing module (you press up and you get vertical lift, left/right and you move sideways), and you have to play taxi to the various other cavemen in each level, taking them to wherever in the screen they say. Usually this involves going through some dangerous ravines or really low ceilings and negotiating difficult turns in addition to securing a soft landing. Clip the cave walls and you are gone, come down too hard and you are gone, drop your customer and you are gone.

It's simple, and it's tremendous low-budget fun that can fit on a single disk and you can take to any office anywhere. Later levels add other challenges like angry dinos and more customers, but the gameplay premise never gets old and it's the perfect example of the good ol' reflex-coordination puzzle/arcade game that never lets down.

The Bad
The graphics are functional enough, but there is a major sense of repetition in them. Quite frankly I wouldn't be able to tell the levels appart if I saw them from a distance, they are all some light-browned cave-thing.... C'mon folks, a little variety never hurted anyone.

The Bottom Line
Great fun in a little tiny package. Lander goes back to the stone age and it entertaining as hell. And it's just the thing to show off what your brand new 512k cache 3.0Ghz Pentium computer can do!!

DOS · by Zovni (10504) · 2003

Proof you don't need high production values to make a great game!

The Good
The simplicity! You fly (what could be called) an elevator around, you pick up passengers and you drop them off as quickly as possible. There is not really that much more to it, and there doesn't need to be. No need for 3D graphics, no poly count, no detachable body parts, no spurting blood. No epic storyline, no plot twists, no horribly acted speech, no conversational trees. Normally, these would mean a rather bad game. But not in this case.

The Bad
I used to play this game so much, that for two nights straight that's all I could dream of. Just me playing this game. The dreams dragged on forever. I had to stop playing, and I was so upset. But the dreams never came back.

The Bottom Line
I think I'm going to brave bad dreams again. It's worth it.

DOS · by Kevin Olson (8) · 2000

Trivia

Level passwords references

The level passwords for the game are taken directly from the song titles of 2 popular goth bands: Christian Death and Current 93.

The 1st ten passwords are the track listing for Christian Death's Only Theatre of Pain album (CD's 1st album) and it appears the rest continue with Christian Death's complete discography up to the point when the game was released. The passwords then switch to titles by the band Current 93, although not in chronological order.

Awards

  • Commodore Format
    • July 1993 (Issue 34) - Modern Classics: Oddities

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1043
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Accatone.

Commodore 64, Amiga added by Quapil.

Additional contributors: jeff leyda, Alaka, FatherJack.

Game added March 13, 2000. Last modified August 28, 2023.