Hey guys. I'm feeling like making a review just for the sake of fun. I'll talk about Hugo for the original Playstation. I also want to talk a bit about the reason I'm doing this.
Back in the late 1990s/early 2000s, there was a very popular show here in Brazil called "Hugo". Basically, if you were a kid (or an early teen), you could make a call to the show. Then you would go live, talk to Hugo and the host, and choose a minigame featuring Hugo to play by pressing the numbers on your phone to interact with the character.
At the end of the show, the kid that made the highest score would win a prize. You could even win a brand new Playstation 2. Part of the show also featured fanarts and little jokes between Hugo and the host. I tried calling it once, but the program was cancelled some time later, so I never won a PS2.
So, it was back around 2013 when I found out that Hugo was actually a PS1 game. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Let's talk about the minigames from this classic. No, better idea, let me introduce Hugo to you guys.
Hugo is a small dwarf that lives in the forest with his wife and his little kid. One day, an evil witch that lives at the Skull Mountain captured his family. Now, our hero will face a long way to the mountain in order to save his loved ones. There are two ways of playing this game: You have the TV Mode, that allows you to choose any minigame, and the Arcade Mode, where the levels must be beaten in a order, with cutscenes and plot-related stuff.
Now, the minigames:
Forest: Hugo will be walking in the forest, easy as that. You can control his speed, jump to avoid traps and grab money bags, and also crouch to avoid tree branches. Also, you must dodge the occasional boulders.
Lumberjack: You start by jumping on a log in the river. Then you must jump from log to log in order to grab money bags and avoid getting stuck. Also, you don't want to jump on water or stay on the same log for too long.
Scuba: Swimming. You must avoid the dangers of the river while controlling Hugo. By the way, you need to get air or you'll drown.
Skate: By using a skate, you will cross a dangerous path. Don't smash yourself against stones, and avoid holes in the way.
Train: In a railroad, you must change paths in order to not get hit by the trains. Also, you can jump to grab money bags.
Airplane: This is probably the easiest minigame. In the skies, you can grab money bags in balloons. But also remember to dodge bombs and lightnings. You can also press a button to display the map. Your goal is to reach the Skull Mountain entrance.
Mountain: Hugo will be running to the top of the Mountain Skull, You can jump to the side to grab money bags, and also dodge the boulders. Remember to time your jumps, or else you'll fall.
There are also the extra minigames, but... Well, they're a secret.
In TV Mode, you have 3 lives for each minigame. But in Arcade Mode, you have 3 lives for the entire journey, so I would recommend you to practice in TV Mode before jumping into the story. Anyway, the TV mode could be a lot of fun if you have friends around you.
I really want to stop here and say that this game is great, but... I can't. It hurts my childhood memories, but not everything about Hugo is good. The Arcade Mode is very, very frustrating for a lot of reasons.
First, like I said, only 3 lives to beat part of the minigames (You choose the levels from a map, so you don't need to play all seven. Just reach the mountain). And there are flaws in a lot of them.
In "Forest", you must time your jumps to don't step on the traps, but there are times where the game puts a tree branch right next to the trap. In other words, you jump the trap and automatically gets hit by the branch.
In "Train", you literally must predict from which path the trains will appear. If you take a move, and a train appears in your track (You can't see from the minimap), there's nothing you can do but wait until Hugo is hit. I'm not sure if the game let you know from where they'll come. At least, I never noticed.
Graphics and sound are cute. The characters, cutscenes, and voice acting are well made, considering we're talking about the PS1. The "losing a life" cutscenes are fun to watch, and will probably take a laugh from you. Kids will love it.
But, like you noticed, the game is really low on content. I would only purchase Hugo if it were cheap, since other than going for the highscore, there's not much to do.
Hugo is a good game for fun. Just don't spend too much money on it, or play it if you get stressed easy.
And no, you won't earn a Playstation 2 by beating it.
The Good: Great for kids, visuals and voice acting are nice, multiple languages (depending on disc), fun for a while on TV Mode.
The Bad: Game is very harsh on Arcade Mode, sometimes it looks unfair to the player, it lacked polishment.
Score: 7.3 - Good
