At A Glance
Released: 10/12/21
Reviews: 55038, net mostly positive, as of 12/2023
English Reviews: 23428
Localized in:
Had Publisher: no
Majority of reviews:
English ~42%
Russian ~12%
Spanish Spain ~11%
Price: Free, originally $5
Review report:
Negatives: Got heavy flack for company decisions (getting involved with NFTs, reducing the price of the game from $5 to free and then not rewarding the OG fans)
Positives: short, immersive, fun, good characters, good scares, was recommended by a 5 and 8 year old (how?),
Gameplay
Vhs tapes can only be used with certain-colored vhs players
Can walk, sprint, and jump to start
Had to unlock a color-coded lock door (cutesy, toy-like, not boring numbers)
Unlocking the hand grabber requires watching a video
Needed to grab key off of Huggys hand, it dangled as to give away its position a little easier, because there was no visual indication of where it came from, only auditory
Player slows down when falling from a great height
By stretching out the arm wire to it’s limit and jumping off a great height you can prevent fall damage and create a pseudo grappling hook, without the swinging
If you make it into the conveyor area and stay at the edge Huggy will stand there staring at you
Music
Tense booming noises, gives the impression of a grandiose space
Switches to bells tolling in the storage warehouse?
Sounds
Echoing footsteps
Sfx for the hand grabber sound very goofy and approachable, whether directly considering the younger audience with this game or indirectly just by making the environment a toy factory it works out
Electrical current sounds good
Art
Game is very dark, no flashlight yet
Cranking up brightness helped
No shadows or body model on player
The hand grabber has very fluid and juicy looking animations, not just a simple throw and retract gadget
Hand grabber flips upside down when shooting it at the ceiling
First look at Huggy is a big statue(?) in an atrium illuminated by moonlight
Eyes of the toy monster in the middle of the build a toy room follow you slowly when moving
Beyond the conveyor belts there is a large industrial room and then a Victorian-era hallway where the Poppy toy is inside a glass case
UI
Main menu has a button for the merch store, very expensive stuff
Item tab in the pause menu that can be looked at
Text is playful and colorful
Writing
Vhs tape can be played, hints at security systems in the corp and also offers a little humor from the narrator by saying this is a tape they play on repeat during off hours to deter trespassers
As indicated by vhs, Huggy is some kind of experiment
Scare Factor
Huggy statue disappears from the stand once power is on
Arm slinks into a doorway (garten of banban as well)
High pressure steam coming out of a pipe, classic
After solving an electric puzzle in the conveyor belt it automatically takes you through tunnels and alarms go off, spilling toys on the belt
Huggy comes through dark tunnel where you are supposed to go to activate the next part, have to get very close to his spawn point in order to make him appear (Maximize oh shit factor?)
Horror stinger plays when he appears, music that follows isn’t as strong
Walks slow, towering
Have to go into the conveyor belt area, doesn’t follow
Finally get flashlight
Shows up on the other side of some vents crawling, now the player knows they are absolutely not safe
Chases you through a couple sections of vents
Loud jumpscare plays when Huggy catches you
Personally, I think Huggy Wuggy defines genre expectations and that’s why he is so powerful as a horror creature. A tall, lanky, seemingly lovable toy made to be as terrifying as possible while also following the player into an area that they would traditionally deem ‘safe’ or at least unreachable
Light explodes and turns off in the Poppy room
Extra
Made with unreal
The game has a launcher before the actual game asking to choose between chapter 1 and 2 if its been purchased
This launcher appears to have been made with Unity instead of Unreal
Overall
Very short ~2 hour game which was originally launched at $5
A good game in its own right, had a few world sections that spoke volumes about the place the player was located in
Very few puzzles, but I guess it can be classified as a horror/puzzler
Not many scares in the game either, once Huggy shows up it’s 2-3 really big scares and a couple of chases
I think ratcheting up the tension was what made people really terrified of the first encounter with Huggy, it was set up very well
Personally, I don’t think reducing the price to 0 was the right call, but it’s their biz
Localization seems to have carried the game very far, good choices
Suspiciously absent are asian-area languages: Japanese, Chinese, and Korean
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