Solely Up! is a sport the place “it’s important to get as excessive as doable.” And no, not like that—it is a low-budget indie platformer about climbing to the highest of a bizarre, floating construction manufactured from railway tracks, big slices of fruit, floating islands, and issues far bizarre than that. And proper now, almost 150,000 persons are watching it on Twitch.
The highest channel on the Solely Up! class proper now belongs to xQc (and sure, that xQc, the man who bought $100 million to stream on Twitch competitor Kick lower than every week in the past), who on the time of writing has 71,000 folks watching him play. However as you may see from the class entrance web page, he is removed from alone:
The idea of Solely Up! is easy: You might be Jackie, desperately attempting to flee the poverty of the slum during which you reside. To take action, you embark upon a journey impressed by the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, climbing ever upward into the unknown.
“The world has undoubtedly gone loopy, although it has by no means been regular, however perhaps now’s the prospect for you,” the Steam web page states. “Disaster is a time for motion and decisive steps… besides it is scary, as a result of each step can set you again far.
“Generally it’s troublesome to decide on the correct path, however don’t be afraid, you may all the time repeat, we study from errors.”
Mechanically, Solely Up! is kind of easy. It is performed from the third-person perspective, you may stroll, run, soar, or mantle onto issues, and you may’t die: Even if you happen to fall from miles up within the sky, you will lose progress however not your life if you land. Predictably, it is a bit of janky: There are some pretty apparent clipping errors, and the voice performing is repetitive and decidedly not nice.
As recommended by the Steam retailer web page, I might really feel the sport reaching for some stage of profundity, but it surely principally simply got here off as bizarre. At one level, for example, I reached a disembodied practice platform within the sky: Jackie stated, “My grandfather labored right here for 60 years, after which he died.” Later, upon assembly a pleasant canine, he stated, “What a pleasant canine. Your grasp is not coming again. Go discover a new one.” It appears clear that English is not the primary language for developer SCKR Video games, besides a number of the in-game commentary struck me as weird.
The response on Steam can be “combined,” with simply 65% of the consumer critiques coming in constructive. One of many chief complaints (which I wholeheartedly agree with) is the dearth of a save function: If you happen to give up the sport or crash out, it’s important to begin over from the start in a brand new session.
There’s additionally unhappiness with Solely Up’s adjacency to NFTs. You are not shopping for NFTs in-game (so far as I’ve seen, anyway), however numerous photos from the Goblintown NFT collection, for example, may be seen in places all through the sport. The title of the sport additionally seems to be a play on “Up Solely,” a reasonably well-known phrase on this planet of NFTs which amongst different issues was the title of a once-popular NFT-related podcast. NFT app Flooring additionally just lately launched a brand new function known as—you guessed it—Up Only mode.
Extra overtly, the participant character’s jacket has the Goblintown emblem on the again (and the identify emblazoned throughout the entrance, though it is difficult to see), and there is truly a Goblintown masks you may placed on in the beginning of the sport.
There is not any seen disclosure of a connection, so most of that can most likely go unnoticed by most gamers, however clearly there’s some sort of connection, with Goblintown additionally now promoting official, real-world Solely Up! hoodies and t-shirts, at ridiculously inflated costs. I’ve reached out to Goblintown and SCKR Video games to ask in regards to the nature of their relationship.
ᵢₜₛ dₐ gₒbbᵢₑ ₕₒₒdᵢₑ fᵣₒₘ @SCKRgames #onlyup!https://t.co/AU60qSeIK0 pic.twitter.com/mbB8EITAzlJune 21, 2023
It feels sketchy, and but there’s one thing in regards to the sport that’s additionally oddly alluring. I completely detest video games which might be designed solely to make me indignant, like Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy or the upcoming follow-up Child Steps—I believe I performed Getting Over It for about 5 minutes earlier than I punched my canine and formatted my arduous drive—and let there be little question, that’s completely what Solely Up! Is all about.
Nevertheless it’s additionally sort of stunning in its strangeness and ease. There are various moments the place the best way ahead is not clear, so I used to be compelled to cease and study my environment pretty intently, and perhaps I am seeing one thing that is not likely there however I felt a strong childlike fantasy vibe that actually gave me that “let’s simply see what’s across the subsequent nook” feeling. Falling is extremely irritating, though it isn’t too arduous to catch your self on the best way down if a construction is close by, however I additionally discovered that with a bit of care (Solely Up! additionally has “gradual strolling” and “gradual movement” choices, so you may actually creep alongside if it’s essential), I did not fall a lot in any respect.
I do not assume it is a good sport, and I’ve doubts in regards to the sturdiness of its reputation on Twitch, and there is an plain dodginess to the NFT facet. Regardless of all that, I can see why folks watch (and play) it. If you happen to take pleasure in streamers who get mad and yell and scream and freak out, Solely Up! undoubtedly has the potential to set a few of them off; and if you happen to’re within the temper for a quiet, easy, “what’s subsequent?” journey which will or could not make any sense when it is throughout, it might be that, too.
For the file, there may be an finish to Solely Up!: Newly-crowned king of Twitch Kai Cenat performed via it from begin to end final week—a stream that, in line with TwitchTrakcer, is what touched off Solely Up’s sudden surge in reputation.
Kai Cenat beat Solely Up on solely his third time taking part in the sport😤🔥🔥*VOLUME WARNING* pic.twitter.com/sshtZqybg1June 16, 2023
