When I reviewed Upsi Runner I felt that it was a little too retro for my tastes.  On the other hand, Upsi Looper seems to have hit a much better balance than its predecessor. I’m sure the concept has been around forever (I believe I played a version called Doubleback on the TRS-80), but Upsi Looper manages to present the genre with simplicity and class at the same time, and helps bring a classic to modern gamers in a nice little package.

The basic premise is that you must run into or circle objects to score points. In Regular and Expert mode you have three lives to gather as many points as you can, and in Fruit Fest mode the screen will fill with fruit for 60 seconds, and you play until all the fruit is gathered. Either way, the game is all about points. You can either run into a fruit or draw a circle around a fruit to score points. However, if you circle more than one fruit at the same time you will score more points per fruit than collecting them individually. In Regular and Expert mode there are also “bad guys” – a couple of which you will recognize from Upsi Runner – that can only be circled to be cleared. Again, circling multiple critters and / or fruits at the same time nets you more points per item collected. Finally there are skulls, which can only be removed by circling bombs.

Lizard Got Your Tounge?

The controls are as simple as can be – tilt the device to make the line go where you want it to. You do have to be a bit conscious about your physical position, however. If you’re leaning back a bit, you might lose sight of your screen as you’re tilting the device to get the line to the top of the screen. I also find that if you managed to move the line exactly opposite of the way you were traveling, it’s sometimes hard to tell where the beginning of the line is as it’s tracing over itself. This isn’t too big of a problem unless you’re heading into a pack of villains, since colliding with villains instead of circling them takes away a life. These were the only real quibbles I had with the controls, and the positional thing is really more a matter of good posture than anything else (though the game may not play so well while lying in bed!)

In addition to points there are 24 different achievements to earn by playing the game. These range from something as simple as playing 10 games to more challenging objectives like exploding 5 skulls with one bomb. My personal favorites were the ones dealing with distance traveled while playing – quite creative! There’s certainly enough variety in the achievements alone to keep you busy for some time, especially if you’re like me and forget what the criteria are so you just happen to come by them on accident!

Catch A Couple Smiles

The graphics are about at the same level as Upsi Runner. In fact, a couple of the sprites were borrowed from that game, it would seem. And to be fair to to Upsi Runner, the backgrounds in that game are more interesting than the one here. I still don’t really care for the fonts, either. For some reason, though, all that doesn’t really seem to bother me with this game like it did with the other one. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve come to expect more from platform games, but the simple look actually works for Upsi Looper. The sound effects are okay, and actually work well with the concept of “popping” the objects. Music, as before, is not present. So unfortunately I’m listening to River Of Dreams – the only album on my iPod – as I’m playing the game and typing this. Oh well…

Shen Mansell clearly has a heart for game making, and that’s most evident in the fact that he tries to make every game better than the last. In the case of Upsi Looper, I feel like he has succeeded. It would be cool to see the game receive a bit of a facelift some day, and at least one musical track would be nice, but the simple, solid game play and many achievements to earn make this a fun game despite the “nice to haves”. After spending some time with this I’m certainly looking forward to his next outing, Gum Drops.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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