Up There

By Jeff Scott on December 24th, 2008
Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Up there is a great casual game where your goal is to direct the balloon through obstacles to the sky and beyond. Beautifully imagined and wonderfully designed, this is a great example of simplistic gaming goodness.

Your goal in Up There is to direct the rising balloon past obstacles through 5 different levels to allow it to escape. It’s a simple but frantic game to play, but obviously not a simple game to make.

The controls are simple, tilt right or left to direct the balloon through the stacked obstacles. You have to keep up with the scrolling obstacles — if the balloon falls off the bottom of the screen, the game is over.

There are some great little game design touches here. The way the balloon string flows. The way the scroll slows down when you get near the bottom of the screen or speeds up when you are near the top. The nice transitions between the levels. Great little touches that make this a great game.

This is, without a doubt a well designed game. Everything that is in the game is fantastic. But it is a little short on replay value. There’s only one real game play method — and it does get a little repetitive after a while. I’m not saying that there should be power-ups (balloons with lasers?) or anything like that. Just an observation.

Here’s a video from the developer that is shortened to show all five of the levels in the game.

I really like games like this. It’s well designed, fun, not too involved, and you can tell that a lot of love went into the creation. Very highly recommended.

Up There

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $0.99

Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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Released: 2008-12-21 :: Category: Games