Fables and fairy tales are part of growing up. Some of them we will always remember reading or having them read to us. That’s why Hans Christian Andersen: The Ugly Prince Duckling is one of those games that will take you back to your childhood years.
This point-and-click adventure takes place in the 1820’s Copenhagen and puts us in the shoes of a young Hans Christian Andersen. Hans is a poor boy just trying to make a living, something that reflects his actual life back then.
Fact meets fiction when Hans comes across a spoiled princess, a magic tinderbox falls into the wrong hands, and goblins and trolls roam the streets of the city. It’s up to Hans to save the princess, find the tinderbox and get things back to normal.
The gameplay is fairly simple, just like in any adventure game. Your cursor has different instances for the actions you can take (walking, looking, giving, taking, pushing and pulling). There is a journal where you keep track of your quests and using the mouse scroll wheel you can go through all the items in your inventory and select what you need. However, this quick selection method has a drawback, since sometimes if you have certain items selected in specific situations, they will automatically be used. For example, having your purse as the active item when you encounter beggars will make you lose money.
The core of the game focuses on social climbing, just as the real Andersen would have done. You begin with a lowly tailor’s apprentice job, finding quests and solving puzzles to eventually progress to the next chapter, which is represented by an area of the city with higher social status than the previous one. When you complete quests successfully, Hans earns some money and gains respect. As his social status improves, you will notice how people react to him differently. If once he looked like a beggar and people would threaten to call the police on him, later on they will be welcoming and respecting.
As you enter a new zone, you will notice Hans looking in a specific direction, which is a clue for you to look for things in that area. This means that you won’t be looking all over the screen to find clues or something to interact with. Everything is pretty straightforward and there isn’t much thinking involved. There are some puzzles, most of them inventory-based, some a bit more logical.
A few action sequences are involved as well, such as dodging the goblins and trolls, but they’re really not that hard to avoid.
Famous characters of Andersen’s stories will be present to either help him out or ask for his help. You will find references to The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Tinderbox, The Little Match Girl, The Swineherd, and The Chimneysweep.
The presentation of the game is beautiful. The backgrounds are extremely well rendered, there is a great deal of detail in the textures and the characters are colorful and seem somewhat taken out of a puppet show.
Unfortunately for me, the game had no widescreen display option (in fact, it only has two resolutions available), so it didn’t play properly and part of it was off the screen. It also insisted on messing with the desktop properties.
The music is excellent and the voice acting is professional and nicely done, although you will notice the voice not matching the lip movement in a few occasions.
The major issues with The Ugly Prince Duckling are the loading times and the character movement. Hans is only able to walk in straight lines and he will never walk around any obstacle on his own, which becomes extremely aggravating and sometimes makes you miss important clues.
The Ugly Prince Duckling is an enchanting tale that balances Hans Christian Andersen’s life story and his fairy tales, and it would have made a perfect game for children if it weren’t for the awkward and sometimes frustrating pathing.
Special thanks to Suzanne MacGillivray and Dreamcatcher Interactive for providing a copy of this title.