Name: Mugly
Debut: Donkey Kong Country Returns
Mugly is named after the fact that he is ugly. I have a few problems with that. One, I disagree! He is not ugly. He is endearing. His name could have been Mendearing. Move the position of the A, and his name is Meandering! That's a real word. #words
My other problem is, it's mean to call him ugly. He's just creature. Even if he wasn't just creature, it would be mean. As Knack, from Knack, taught us all those years ago, ice is nice. That means that nice is ice. And ice is coool!
Something else cool is eating plenty of fruit! Since fruit is healthy, it is good to eat obscene amounts of it, as Mugly does. When confronted by the Kongs, he simply looks at them, then continues eating bananas. He's just a snacker, serious about snacking! Why foster animosity when you can eat some mellow yellows? Well, a reason to do that is to be declared the boss. So poor Mugly gets hypnotized and beaten up, for the crime of "having a bite to eat". This soul is the saddest of all...
But clearly the team loved Mugly! Even though they named him rudely, they clearly loved his design, and his animations, enough to use them again! This is Thugly, who may have an even worse name, because not only does it imply he's ugly, but a thug, as well. What does he do before he's hypnotized? He eats bananas. These lumps of beast are innocent! Why must we fight them, instead of some truly vile creatures like Very Gnawty?
The main reason I wanted to present these two to you is that, while their horns, claws, and other features make them seem rather reptilian, they've always struck me as big amphibians! Kind of like Rhinesuchids, the ol' crocodilian-like amphibian ancestors! But lumpier, like a modern frog.
Mugly appears in Tropical Freeze, making a cameo in an unlockable diorama! See him? He's frozen in there! How sad. Good thing here in Cartoons World, animals can be entirely encased in ice, and end up entirely unharmed. They might even use it for time travel...! Mugly's latest appearance is in the HD version of his debut game, which begs the question: is it better to be entirely frozen and incapable of doing anything, or to appear in a mid remake of a game that already got a port to another system? This is what goes through the mind of the humble wood frog before it allows its tissues to freeze for overwintering.
