Narrative adventure game 'To Hell With the Ugly' comes to Switch May 30th, 2023

La Poule Noire, co-producer and ARTE France, co-producer and publisher are proud to announce that their next game, To Hell With the Ugly, will be available on May 30th for Switch, and it’s priced at 19.99€/$19.99. To Hell With the Ugly will be the first of ARTE France’s games to be released on all consoles at the same time, celebrating 10 years of involvement in video games.

Adapted from the novel by Boris Vian, To Hell With the Ugly is an adventure game that follows the story of Rock Bailey, a young man whose only redeeming quality is his remarkably handsome looks. When he is mysteriously kidnapped and tortured outside a jazz club, he sets out to uncover the truth behind his abduction, with turn-based fights and investigations along the way.

Players must explore LA’s darkest corners, gather clues by interviewing locals and interact with the environment. But sometimes, the only way to get the information they need is through fist fights, involving timing and precision.

To Hell With the Ugly is the very first of Boris Vian’s novels to be adapted into a video game. Set in the 1950s, the game will let the player discover the streets of a fantasized Los Angeles, where Boris Vian never even set foot when he wrote the book. La Poule Noire chose to use a semi-realistic style for their characters in order to magnify certain character traits, in a striking depiction of the American city with vibrant and intense colors.

Investigation, street fights, car chases: all the ingredients are combined to recreate Boris Vian’s fantasy vision of Los Angeles.

Provocative and burlesque, To Hell With the Ugly is a parody of American noir novels and navigates between detective fiction and anticipation. It denounces the cult of appearances through its gorgeous looking hero and a worrying clinic with eugenicist practices.