Review: Ufouria: The Saga 2

destructoid.com:

With Sunsoft working on their rather strange revival, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that they’d eventually get around to Hebereke. It was probably the company’s most prolific game series, after all, stretching across several games throughout the ‘90s.

The series never really came to North America, but a few were localized for Europe. The first time we saw it on this side of the ocean was when the first game was released on Wii Virtual Console under its European name, Ufouria: The Saga. That was, unfortunately, locked at running at the PAL’s 50hz, which made it run faster on modern displays.

For the rest of the games of the series, they strangely never returned to the original formula of quasi-Metroidvania. The series went through racing, puzzle solving, and even arena fighting, but never back to sidescroller. That changes now, as Hebereke 2, er, Ufouria: The Saga 2 is the closest the series has come to the original formula. End review.

Ufouria: The Saga 2 (PC [Reviewed], Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Tasto Alpha
Publisher: Sunsoft
Released: February 28, 2024, March 1, 2024 (Switch)
MSRP: $24.99

Okay, so if you’re not familiar, Hebereke… I mean, Ufouria: The Saga, is a gated exploration game where you journey to find new friends and abilities to make progress in other areas. It’s fine. It’s a decent sidescroller, if a little bit underwhelming and simple. However, its personality made it truly memorable.

Hebe… Ufouria: The Saga features four characters that you could swap between. The main character is a penguin named Hebe, but he was changed to a snowman with the fantastic name, Bop-Louie, in the European version. He was joined by O-Chan, a person in a cat suit, Sukezaemon, a ghost in sunglasses, and Jennifer, a deep sea angler fish.

The setup in Ufouria: The Saga 2 is a bit different. You still try and assemble your party and unlock skills to proceed to new areas, but the game world has a much simpler layout. It boils down to an initial hub area that