Up There – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: Veiled Games Corporation
Version #: 1.0
Date Released: 2008-12-21
Developer:
Price: 1.99
User Rating:
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One of the major factors that distinguish the iPhone/iPod Touch from its competition is the beautiful quality of the graphics. Combined with the ability to run programs, it makes the device into a pretty good gaming machine. Sadly, I don’t think the makers of portable gaming machines have anything to worry about quite yet.
There are two major limitations to the iPhone/iTouch that make it impossible for the machine to truly dominate the gaming industry. The first involves the motion-sensing nature of the device. When it comes to the touch screen and tilting of it, the iPhone/iTouch can only work with certain types of games that involve certain types of rules. While games can be programmed to account for this, it can never duplicate the better control of having buttons or some other sort of device console. The second limitation is that, first and foremost, the device is a multimedia player (and phone, in the case of the iPhone). Therefore, games are only a subset of what the device is meant to do and it cannot allocate the sort of memory resources that pure game consoles can in order to play a game. This leads to simpler games with simpler rules.
All this brings me to the game Up There by Veiled Games. The game is simple. You are given a helium balloon that is released from a cage in some sort of abode and have to navigate it to freedom using the tilting of the device through a barrage of impediments such as bookshelves and wooden planks. Upon completion of the game, you are asked to give your high score which, via a data or Wi-Fi connection, is stored on their system and can be compared with the high scores of the other global players.
The graphics of the game are superb. The motion of the balloon is smooth and doesn’t seem computer-generated. Sadly, this is where my compliments of the game end.
My major issue with the game is that it’s too simple and ends too quickly even if you escape the house (which isn’t shown very clearly as it seems at the end that one is still stuck in the confines of it). Unless you want your game to be over very quickly, it can wear thin (I acknowledge that it’s possible that I am simply not good enough at the game at this stage to escape the house and further the play). Another complaint is that the screen can possibly move more quickly than the balloon which makes the player lose the balloon off-screen and not know how to tilt to get it moving further. Yet another flaw is that the game only works in portrait and not in landscape mode, which I consider a serious lack of planning by the creators.
I think the game has potential. If the designers perhaps create a more involved story about the balloon with longer potential play and involve different environments in which the balloon could escape, it would make the game more interesting. For now, I think there are better things to spend $1.99 on.
Game-playing on the iPhone/iTouch still has a ways to go, but it’s getting there.
O U R T A K E . . .
