If you enjoy puzzles and mental challenges of various kinds, the Switch has plenty of them in the eShop of all sorts. Ranging from more casual fare, to those that emulate escape rooms, to ones that simply do things their own way, the Switch indie scene has you covered. In the case of Things Too Ugly, while there isn’t much in the way of excitement, since you’ll generally be working at a desk to do your investigating, you’ll absolutely need to use your intuition to uncover the somewhat nasty secrets hidden in the folders in front of you.

In terms of pacing, depending on how quickly you’re able to uncover the clues that are often in plain sight in front of you, it will likely vary wildly from person to person and puzzle to puzzle. Just be warned, this isn’t a game that has an interest in holding your hand or giving you any clues or insights beyond what can sometimes be the cryptic information already in front of you. Being thorough and carefully looking over everything, then being willing to pause and look for opportunities to use whatever you’ve been given to work with is generally the only way forward, and if you don’t have much in the way of patience this probably won’t appeal to you much because at times it can be grueling trying to figure out how to proceed. The thing is, if you’re up for the challenge, it may be precisely what you’re looking for.

Now, I will note one particular feature I wasn’t fond of, and it’s one I could see being an obstacle for enjoyment to people who aren’t able to block out multi-hour play sessions easily. The expectation here is that you’ll sit down and play until you complete the game in one session. Now, one saving grace is that you could simply leave the game running and put the system to sleep, allowing for a break, but no ability to save progress of any kind is a tough pill to swallow. I don’t doubt that determining precisely what you’ve accomplished, and where you truly may be on the road to working things out may be troublesome, but even an imperfect means of saving would be better than none. All that said, if the single-session requirement, and lack of support aren’t a concern, this could be a challenging way to spend a handful of hours or so.