Only Up!

Occasionally, a random game will crawl out of the woodworks and become a major sensation thanks to the world of influencers. In the past, we've seen this be the case with Among Us, and even more challenging titles like Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, and it's in the spirit of the latter that we have another massively popular title making the rounds. Known as Only Up!, I've decided to take on the challenge this soul-crushing platformer offers to see how it shapes up.

First things first, this isn't a game with a massive production budget. It's very rough around the edges and often looks like it's being held together by tape and staples. You'll find areas that you can get stuck in, buggy situations, weird interactions, and a whole slew of other bizarre encounters that will instantly remind you that this game lacks the polish of a more well-funded project and the finesse of a veteran game developer at the helm. But, with this being said, you don't come to Only Up to appreciate the performance or its refined nature, no, rather you come for the unique challenge - and Only Up really doesn't lack on these grounds.

The idea is incredibly simple. You must climb to the very top of an increasingly complex and hazardous structure. To do so, all you really can rely on is a jump mechanic, sprinting, and an automatic mantle. There's no shimmying or ledge grabbing, you either make the jump or you fall, and if you fall, there's usually nothing to stop you from falling and falling and falling until you find yourself on the ground and facing the challenge of starting from scratch. Only Up has no checkpoints or places to pause and come back after a break, you simply have to complete the task at hand in one go, and it is about as thrilling, nail biting, and frustrating as that may sound.

The platforming isn't thematic and well-put together like a Tomb Raider or an Uncharted, it's janky and off-putting by design because SCKR Games isn't looking to offer a steadily paced platformer here. No, it wants you to be on the edge of your seat every single moment and stressing and sweating over whether the jump in front of you is possible or whether you've navigated into a deadend. This is another key aspect of Only Up, as there's no single right answer for most of the platforming problems. You have to find your own way through the madness, and sometimes the path you choose might be far more complex than others or will simply not provide the solution you desire.

The beauty of Only Up is how it presents like some weird fever dream. The stages of the upward platforming battle each have a theme, be it western, oriental, industrial, mountainous, space, outright unexplainable weirdness, and more. Each stage also harbours its own secrets, be it tricks to quickly move through a stage or instead prank-like effects that will attempt to send you back to square one. In a way, it feels very Snakes & Ladders when it comes to the secrets within Only Up, as some will be massively beneficial and others will punish you, and the thrilling bit is that you can never really know what you'll get until you activate the secret.

Only Up is a great example of the creativity that lies within the depths of Steam. This isn't a hugely ingenious title that is doing something we've never seen before. It just offers demanding and intricate platforming in such a rudimentary and well thought out manner that it stands out among the rest. If you're the type of player who seeks out challenges in video games, be it demanding titles like Getting Over It, or by taking on Soulsborne's on the hardest possible difficulty, then Only Up is not a game to miss as you'll find a lot to love here. And at the same time, if you're more like me, and generally prefer games that don't make your blood pressure rise to dangerous levels, then I'd still suggest giving Only Up a try just to see what all the fuss is about. It will, without a doubt, leave a lasting impression on you, and that's not something a lot of modern games can attest to.