There are certain types of video games that I look forward to playing and those are the ones that allow me to play an Adventure-Style Game side by side with my sons, Nikolai and Caleb, ages 7 and 5, respectively. The new video game Up for the Nintendo Wii from THQ, based on the Disney-Pixar movie of the same name is one of those games. So, right off the bat this game had something going for it. And then with our family being big time Disney-Pixar fans, well it goes without saying that this game was starting out in the plus category. Then we started playing the game…

UP All Ready???

When we received the game I handed it to Nikolai to put it into our Wii and play with it for a while to get his ‘wings’ while I made dinner. Eventually I was able to sit down and Nik ‘restarted’ the adventure and before I knew it, we were literally in a Dog Fight in biplanes piloted by dogs around a huge dirigible and a house floating on the wings of a million colored balloons and I turned to Nik and asked him if he restarted the game yet. He informed me that this was the start of the game. Now I should point out that we hadn’t seen the movie yet, so I was a little confused by this quick introduction to the characters by way of… Well, actually no introduction at all, just a sudden pressing into service. Eventually we succeeded in winning the Dog Fight and were rewarded with an Old News Reel Montage of the beginning of the adventure. And then the game began, at the Beginning. So, does this abrupt start to the game deter from the fun? Well not really, just a bit of a surprising beginning to come from the likes of Disney and Pixar where it’s all about story telling.

Move FORWARD

The game UP follows the movie somewhat, but with more adventure-like elements. For those of you not familiar with the story of UP, it is a bittersweet tale of Carl Fredricksen who is trying to fulfill his late wife’s dreams of having a their home overlook Paradise Falls in South America. Joining Carl in his goal of floating his house to its new home the help of millions of balloons are Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer, Dug, a talking dog, and Kevin, a multicolored prehistoric bird. Trying to stop Carl and capture Kevin are the legendary adventurer Charles F. Muntz and his pack of talking dogs. Now do you need to have seen the movie to play the game? Well, not really. We got pretty far before seeing the film, which we eventually did and may I say that it was really well done. If you get a chance, I highly recommend seeing the 3D version, which was eye candy without an onslaught of items coming out of the screen to ‘tag’ you. The game also features the voices of the actors from the film, which is always a nice touch.

Go RIGHT

UP uses a multi-character playing element which means that you play a group of characters which have different abilities and you switch back and forth between controlling the actions of the characters to solve puzzles and move past obstacles. This means that you can play the game in two modes, either by yourself and pushing the Z button on the nunchuck to switch between characters, or you can two-player co-op where you and a friend tackle the game together. The latter version is game that I play with Nik and Caleb. Of course playing this way only works well when we’re mentally in sync, however in most cases it can lead to arguments and blame when things don’t go right, we’d die and have to start the sequence all over again… You’d be surprised how often this happens.

Go LEFT

The character Carl comes with his own special abilities; he has a Hearing Aid that he can use to scare off enemies, he can make Balloon Animals to distract enemies, and he can use his Cane like a grapple to climb walls and other objects. Russell has a Bugle, which he can use to scare and stun enemies, a Water Bottle, which he can use to replenish health, and like a true Wilderness Explorer, he has a rope to help Carl climb obstacles. As for Dug, well since he’s a dog, he does dog things like doggy paddle, sniff, and dig up bones. This makes more sense when you play the game.

Move BACKWARD

Game play is pretty user friendly with pop up character icons and vocal suggestions to hint at what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and how to accomplish the task. This fact makes it easier for younger players to have a good time with the game. The world of the UP game is, like the movie, very visual, which is nice, and it contains just the right amount of game interaction to keep it exciting without being over-stimulating. In other words, it’s nice on the eyes.

Going DOWN

Now as I pointed out, the controls for the game are rather easy and straightforward, however there were some parts of the game that were a little frustrating. These parts required the players to be in the right place at the right time and then move exactly in accordance to the game action. If and only if all steps were followed precisely could you move on. Trust me when I say that some of these spots can be hard for an adult, having experienced a few of them. Persistence will usually get you through these tough spots, I only wish there was a better way of letting the player know that he was on the right track. Luckily, dying doesn’t mean starting the whole game all over again as the game saves progress after key events.

Overall Impressions

UP is a charming game that extends the adventure of the movie and can be a fun game to play ‘together’. So with that in mind, Nikolai has decided to give the game 100 Thumbs-Up out of 100 because it’s a funny game, especially when you can distract the dogs with balloon animals and thrown squeaky toys… Squirrel!!! As for me, I found it a fun family game to play so I’m giving it 7 Dancing Elephants out of 8, not perfect, but pretty close.

Parting Thoughts

Now you’d think that playing the game with Nikolai would naturally imply that he’d have his Old Man play the part of the ‘old man’ in the game. Actually this was not the case, as I was always stuck playing Russell. Weird.