Super Ubie Island REMIX

From time to time you get a game that seemingly does everything right at the start, but gradually crumbles as you venture onward. Such is the case the Super Ubie Island REMIX.

When I first booted it up, I couldn't help but feel excited and smile. The art has a nice charm about it with a certain laughably cute aspect that can give you a perpetual smirk, and the music is so upbeat that you can't stay mad ... even if you find yourself in a challenging area. But Good looks and charm can't save the shortcomings in level design and regular occurrence of glitches. More on that later though and back to what works.

As I said, the art is very nice. And no, I'm not talking epic backdrops with surrealist landscapes and imposing monsters, but merely that the overall game is genuinely appealing to look at. It has this sort of very simple comical style that brings to mind games made by The Behemoth such as castle crashers and Alien Hominid. The worlds consist of bright pastel colors, and the mixture of simple animations with cheery sound effects make for an overall happy mood.

Even once I started losing interest I was still enjoying the art design and music, as the music is very upbeat as well, with a sound landing somewhere between old school Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. But that may be where things begin to fall apart. The game tries to mimic so many different games that it begins to feel a bit hectic and confusing.

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At first I got a Yoshi's Island feel with the focus on vertical movement, then some Sonic vibes with various enemy bounce chains and even Rayman came to mind with a mix of bounce puzzles and gliding movement.

It may not sound like a bad combination as all three of those are often considered to be some of the best platformers ever made, but it didn't really seem to work out just right when combined in this case. Couple the strange feel with inconsistent hit boxes and a few glitches and we're left with a game that lacks excitement and causes rage. And even though the glitch of getting stuck in place can be remedied by a quick pause and unpause, it happened to me three times in the same boss fight causing damage or death and honestly ... there really isn't any excuse for that.

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Some other downsides I felt were kind of a downer were the collectibles and the money system. The store only offered two different palette swaps and nothing else to spend your hard earned coins on, and the bees which I initially believed were going to unlock cool secrets just gave more money so I just gave up on even trying to put in the extra effort to collect them.

I wish there was more to say but the game itself overall is pretty short with little reason to replay. I was able to get through the whole thing in a little over 3 hours and I honestly don't see myself going back to beat scores or run times. It might be worth giving a shot if you can pick it up on the cheap and have nothing else to do, but personally, I'd say to give this one a pass.