Back in
1992, the guys at Play Byte decided to publish a Lunar Lander and Space Taxi
pre-historic clone. And I’m glad they did! Because, even today, this is a truly
freakin awesome game to play!
"Life in the
Stone Age was nice and peaceful. Sitting on your ass all day long, food
everywhere and even a gorgeous girlfriend to play naughty games with. But she's eager for money and jewelry, so you need to think of something to
appease her needs. In the meanwhile, a huge
apple falls onto your head giving you the idea of creating a flying taxi kind
of business to help your fellow cave friends travel faster and, consequently,
make you rich."
Originally
developed by EGO Software for the Amiga, it was also available for Commodore 64
and DOS. You control a muscle-powered helicopter kind of elevator and, to make
some money for your future wedding with your pretty lovely cave girl, you need
to transport passengers from one place to another through 69 – yes, 69 – levels
of pure joy.
You only
need to land near the cave people and they will automatically board your
vehicle and tell you which platform they want you to fly them to. You’ll get
extra bonus points for getting passengers to their destination before time runs
out. In the
process, you need to avoid all kind of hazards that will try to finish you off.
Besides natural obstacles, you must evade hostile dinosaurs, pterosaurs – the
so called “birds” – and rising water level. Also be careful maneuvering your
flying vehicle; touching obstacles with its rotor, as well as hard landings or
colliding with solid surfaces, will result in mechanical damage.
Once it’s
you, the player, that fuels the helicopter/elevator, you will become
more and more exhausted. Your energy may be recovered by picking up fruit that
can be knocked off the tree with blinking eyes using the stone
that also blinks its eyes, both appear on every single level of the game. The
stone can also be tossed over enemies making them unconscious for moments. But
be careful how you use it! If you lose the stone, the more difficult it will be
to finish that particular level.
There’s
also present a very entertaining two player cooperative mode, where you and
your cave buddy will most likely fight for the passengers rather than help each
other!
Sound
effects and music are very soft and relaxing and you’ll find yourself playing
this game for hours.
What makes Ugh! a
lot of fun is the devious layout of levels, all of which are filled with
various traps, switches, doors and other things which will either hinder or
help your progress. Some levels feature strange physics that affect your
control of the taxi, while others contains magnetic fields and wind.
At the end of each level, you’ll be
given a code for keeping track of your progress.
Being
initially a boxed game, it was later re-released as shareware mainly on
magazine cover disks.
Playing
this title won’t certainly make you day boring!
If this game were made for today’s smartphones and tablets, I’m sure that it would make
its creator a millionaire, just like Flappy Bird did to Dong Nguyen.
Ugh! is the perfect example of the good ol'
reflex-coordination puzzle/arcade game.
If you’re after a good old enjoyable and relaxing
Amiga game with beautiful graphics, Ugh! is the game to play!
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