Let's Play: Huggy & Friends

Oh goody. A month after Halloween, just as the nightmares were finally winding down, we decided to play through one of the most terrifying Minecraft Marketplace add-ons to date. Foolishly, when we read the name Huggy & Friends by Spark Universe, we thought we were in for a delightful romp/sickeningly twee Minecraft experience, wherein we picked flowers and sang awful songs about friendship. 

Hahahahahahaha no. Huggy & Friends could be only described as the best kind of playable nightmare – but even that doesn’t do it justice! An experience so horrible yet thrilling that we’re grateful no cameras were rolling (well… not IRL ones) to capture our horrified faces and high-pitched screams. And now that our hands have finally stopped shaking, we’re ready to tell you all about our journey with Huggy & Friends!

We create a new Survival world with the add-on begrudgingly activated and immediately notice that we’re holding a letter with "Open me" written on the envelope.

Things are looking up! Because this must be a letter inviting us to a swanky boat party. Or an all-expenses paid holiday to the Bahamas. Hooray!

Oh. Well this is less good news. Apparently, several monsters are after us! If we’re to have any hopes of surviving, we’ll have to find something called a ‘videotape’ (wait, why are we pretending to be young enough to not know what a videotape is?) and play it on a TV to find out what to do. 

Now, we’ve never successfully built a TV in Minecraft. There was that time we tried to build a TV out of TNT and creepers but we don’t talk about that. We decide to worry about our pursuers later and focus on building a home before nightfall.

That’s when we get our first (and last?) pleasant surprise – we seem to have a magical extendo-hand!

Nice! Now we can high-five you from across the room without having to get up! Apparently, we only have one hand due to some ‘experiment’. Cool, cool, please spare us any details. 

Cheered up immensely by our blue flying fist, we get to work acquiring enough wood to build the usual rubbish Minecraft starter home. So focused are we on playing lumberjack that we almost don’t spot this… figure on the horizon.

New… friend?

We try waving hello – something that we’re super good at now our hand can stretch to the sky, by the way – but the figure doesn’t respond. And seconds later, they appear to blink out of existence entirely. Awww, they must be shy! Bless. 

We get back to the important business of stealing wood from trees. But then we see the figure again, a little closer now, and… No. No no no no no no.

NonononnonononononononononoabsolutelynotnuhuhNO

That pathetic whimpering sound you just heard? Er, it only sounded like it came from us because it’s our ringtone. And we like to keep our phone in our mouth. Y-yeah!

Speaking of sounds, after getting too close to this horrible blue stranger, it suddenly snaps out of existence again, and this is followed by some of the most sinister audio we’ve ever heard in the once-lovely Overworld. We’d type out a description for you here, but our fingers are still weeping. 

Forget the house! It’s time to run! Run and ARGHHHH.

OK, so we may have immediately run and fallen into a deep cave with no exits. We can now never judge a horror film protagonist ever again. More importantly, we seem to be trapped down here. With a monster on our tail.

We wander down the cave, trying to ignore the loud heartbeat sound that’s getting faster and faster. M-maybe it’s just the wind? If you’re reading this, the wind, and it was your heartbeat, then perhaps you should talk to your doctor about your cholesterol levels?

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ahem. Excuse us. Just clearing our throat. Now, where we? Oh, yes, of course - ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Unbelievably, we did survive this far-too-up-close encounter. Because we ran away so fast that we stumbled into a block of lava, and that’s what defeated us instead. Task failed successfully!

Respawning, we decide to run in the opposite direction of the death cave and try our luck elsewhere. Hey, a village! Because in horror films, nothing ever goes wrong in an isolated village in the middle of nowhere, right? Don’t answer that.

That’s what inspired us to bravely cower in this pig pen. Or at least that was the plan. But the pig already living there was having none of it.

Let us in, you swine!

Oh, who are we kidding? Even if that horrid pig was willing to share its home, we’d be sitting ducks in there at best. So we make the difficult decision to wander the Overworld, in search of videotapes and TVs that will free us from this nightmare.

A few more fleeting glimpses of our old blue ‘friend’ later, followed by some healthy sprinting and screaming into the nearby forest, we come across… a security camera? 

Wow, someone really wants to keep their melon secure, huh. Well, can’t say they’re wrong, as seconds later we were scoffing delicious stolen watermelon. 

We come across a few more security cameras as we explore the forest. Not wanting to be rude, we finish our watermelon and wave cheerfully to them!

This, shockingly, turns out to be a bad idea. The camera goes crazy! And then THIS comes to say hello.

OH COME ON NOW.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough (it is! It is bad enough!), this monster is also joined by these:

What happened next? Nothing. Because if you think I’m playing even one second more of this nightmare then you’ve severely overestimated our professionalism and underestimated our wimpyness. If you’re made of braver stuff, then Huggy & Friends can be found at Minecraft Marketplace or by clicking this line of green text. 

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to do something less terrifying. Like, for example, throwing ourselves in a tarantula tank. See you next month!