UP Video Game Review

I was barely expecting much out of the game. I just randomly saw it on the PS Premium Classic and decided to give it a go as a quick easy game to beat before I move on to other stuff and while not mind blowing in any way was at the very least a serviceable "one day" beat title of sorts. The PS5 version is an emulated PSP version just to be clear. I was expecting to drop this quickly but I surprisingly didn't.

The best way of describing the UP movie tie in game is that what if ICO and the Lego games had a baby? You pretty much get this game. You have the dynamic between Russell and Carl where you need to escort each other and do various puzzles to progress as well as platforming like in ICO while constantly switching between characters like in a Lego game. It also uses somewhat of a follow cam like both games.

The game overall, does the whole serviceable kids game thing through and through. The puzzles and platforming while not overly challenging does require a monicrum of thought to progress rather than just holding forwards.

Up is also never montonous either, the game basically has the same 3-5 ideas but they are mixed around enough to the point where nothing gets too stale. For example, there are traditional levels where Carl and Russell have to help each other get past obstacles in order to progress, there are levels where you ride a raft and you have to avoid various obtacles like alligators, whirlpools and monkeys throwing projectiles at you, then there are levels where Carl and Russel are strapped on to their house and you have to time the jumps to reach the platforms, there is Crash Bandicot like boulder chases with Russell, you have parts where you control dug and Kevin to solve puzzles and so on, the game regularly has stuff like what I described as well as other ideas to the point where it never gets one note and dull.

Issues are that the more fast paced scripted platforming sections can be buggy and be more demanding by comparison to the rest of the game. The raft rowing sections in particular had a super awkward turning speed that I am surprised people could've beaten with the PSP analog nub. The Crash style boulder chases can be pretty demanding compared to the rest of the game since so much of it is hard to predict what will happen next and then doing trial and error to predict which parts will kill you. PS5 rewind to mitigate a lot of this frustration however.

It does seem to follow the movie pretty faithfully from what I can gather, it's been years since I watched it but overall, for what I consider to be a super random game purchase, I had a good time, the game doesn't excell at being anything more than a movie tie in game in order for the publishers to cash in off a popular film but it could've been worse, much worse.