Game: Upin & Ipin Universe
Genre: Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 (Also on Steam/Epic (Windows) and PS4/5)
Developer | Publisher: Streamline Studios | Streamline Media Group
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 7+
Price: US $39.99 | UK £31.69 | EU € 37,69
Release Date: July 17th, 2025
Review code used, with many thanks to Plan of Attack.
I’m not familiar with the five-year-old twins, who feature in Upin & Ipin Universe. Based on a very popular Malaysian children’s TV series, the game follows the adventures of brothers Upin and Ipin in a fictional kampung (village).
I’m looking forward to learning more about Southeast Asian culture as I play Upin & Ipin Universe, so will Upin and Ipin be a delightful duo, or a terrible twosome?
The Start of the Upin & Ipin Universe
Upin & Ipin Universe starts with a cutscene, following the escapades of the rooster, Rembo. As Rembo runs around Kampung Durian Runtuh, you get to see some of the activities you can help Upin and Ipin complete. In single player, you play as one of the twins, but can swap between them. In co-op mode, your gaming buddy plays the other twin.
Tok Dalang asks the twins to try to catch the rooster. This is an interactive tutorial, so as you run after Rembo, information notes appear on the screen explaining how to move and interact. The notes are several pages long, so they do disrupt the flow, but the instructions are clear. The tutorials can be turned off in the settings, although I could never find a way of re-reading the notes.
Apart from Rembo getting stuck on a rock at the end of the jungle path (which required a restart of Upin & Ipin Universe), I encountered a problem which would plague my entire experience of Upin & Ipin Universe: the camera positioning.
By default, the camera is set to recentre, but even with that option altered, you have limited control over the view. So consequently, having leaves, tree trunks, rocks, or boxes in your line of sight is a common occurrence. Even if you can see, playing the mini-games in single-player mode can induce nausea, as the camera bounces around trying to keep up with the CPU twin. Playing in co-op mode was sometimes impossible, as the camera struggled to determine which twin to follow.
Anyhow, with Rembo eventually caught, the twins head home to rest. You are then left to find quests, play mini-games and explore the Upin & Ipin Universe.
Exploring the Upin & Ipin Universe
When you first start Upin & Ipin Universe, the map doesn’t have any place names on it. As you explore and venture into the buildings or yards, then you’ll be told whose house you’re at or which building it is and the name will appear on the map. Active quests will show as a yellow star on the map, and other activities will show as exclamation marks.
One of my hopes for Upin & Ipin Universe was to learn more about the Southeast Asian landscape and culture, and I wasn’t disappointed. The scenery is wonderful; dense, lush vegetation, with dirt tracks leading into the tropical jungle. The numerous cooking stations give an insight into the cuisine, and the farming, fishing, and critter spots introduce the flora and fauna.
As well as the map and quest log, the pause menu also contains the catalogue. This is a list of all the items, fish, critters, plants, cooking recipes and posters you can find. There are lots of things to collect as you wander round the village, just interact with the sparkling spots. Sometimes it might be seeds, other times it could be a poster from the TV series, and you might even find coins to spend in the local shop.
What Can You Do in the Upin & Ipin Universe
There is a main quest in Upin & Ipin Universe, but to be honest, I struggled to find the right NPC to activate all of the parts. The twins would encounter NPCs wandering around, but these characters would just stare blankly ahead (which was slightly scary) and didn’t want to speak.
There are various activities to complete, either as part of a quest or just for fun. One of the first tasks you’ll encounter is to work on a farm patch, either for the twins’ grandmother, Opah, or Mei Mei. In co-op play, this activity is great fun, as one can sow the seed and the other can water. There’s no magic fertiliser to speed up harvesting; instead, you use butterflies, moths or bees to pollinate, which in turn, increases growth.
Across the village, there are critter-catching areas. When you enter the area (likewise for all the mini-game activities), the camera angle changes to overhead. You collect a net and then bash the bushes to encourage the various insects, reptiles and other creatures out into the open to be captured. Timing is everything in this game, you need to be in the right spot to activate the net when the critter stops moving.
Fishing in Upin & Ipin Universe is one of the hardest I’ve encountered. You need to catch some critters to use as bait. Different baits will attract different fish. Select the bait, then interact with the water, moving the guidance circle to where there are bubbles. Interact again to cast the line and start reeling in. You then need to keep the yellow horizontal bar over the (initially white) moving slider long enough to get the fish to shore. However, the interact button moves the yellow horizontal bar in jumps, and the bar drops slower than the slider. It really wasn’t enjoyable, but luckily, you only use the bait when you catch a fish.
There are lots of outdoor cooking spots in the village and you can cook in Opah’s kitchen. First, you select a recipe, most require ingredients (gathered from around the village), although there are some which you can cook straight away. Various icons appear around the cooking area, and you have to collect the ingredients and move to the next spot to process it. Some ingredients will require help from the other characters and you’ll need to collect the processed item at the right moment. What should be a fun mini-game is made stressful as you have a very tight time scale in which to complete it. If you are successful and produce a perfect meal, you might unlock other recipes.
Gameplay
The general controls are intuitive and can be viewed via the options menu. The control appears on screen as you wander near an interact spot. There is no touchscreen functionality, and the quality of the graphics is not as good in handheld mode as it is in docked. The characters are all voiced, as well as subtitles appearing on screen. Unfortunately, some of the grammar is incorrect, like “those critter”, or “where he grow”.
Apart from the annoying camera angles, I encountered various other issues. Moving large blocks around to try to gain access to higher places was problematic, as the object being dragged would bounce around. Initially, I couldn’t move between main and side quests, although this corrected itself once some tasks had been completed. Several times, I couldn’t access the pause menu at all. Various NPCs would appear and disappear on the spot, and one of them decided to just rotate in front of me. The quest log didn’t record tasks if they were completed whilst other activities were active.
The game autosaves when you complete tasks, but the best way to save progress is to sleep. It can be a little tricky to get the interact icon to appear, but you can sleep at any point, forcing a new day. There are three save slots, so you can have multiple playthroughs.
There are twelve time slots in Upin & Ipin Universe, and time will progress every few minutes, as well as when you play a min-game. At night, the village gets very dark, making it quite difficult to work out where home is!
Conclusion
The graphics in Upin & Ipin Universe are beautiful and give a real flavour of a Southeast Asian tropical village. Riding the tandem round the village was a definite highlight.
Unfortunately, the uncontrollable camera and timed mini-games made playing Upin & Ipin Universe a frustrating and stressful experience. For a game based on a children’s animated TV series, it didn’t portray the childhood fun I was hoping for.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure 
Do you like our content?
Subscribe to our daily news and never miss a review!