Level Up! Review

Level Up! is a flash animation action/platformer game designed by Newgrounds.com user titch007uk and written by Newgrounds.com user KaynSlamdyke, with additional art by Newgrounds.com user GigasDragon. The music for the game includes Forgotten Ruins {X} by Sephirot24 and Newgrounds Theme - Video Game by PrettyMuchBryce, with additional audio by TripleFox. This action game was submitted to Newgrounds.com on November 25, 2009 and won a Daily Second Place award on November 26, 2009.

Game Background

You are walking around your backyard when this boy crashes into your fence and breaks it. You find out that he has no memory of anything except that he must collect gems. The game begins with the goal to collect these gems.

Game Controls

Use arrow keys to move around.
Press down near NPCs to interact with them.
Press x to jump when you learn this ability. You will learn more moves as you play through the game.
Press c to access the game menu.

Gameplay

Level Up! is unlike most platform games in that almost every action you do can be leveled. You can level anything from jumping to standing still to healing to taking damage. As you play through the game, you will discover more and more things that can be leveled.

The stated objective of the game is to collect gems. Running through or near gems will collect them automatically. Also, while you play the game, you will notice that you start to level up different skills. Your stats can be seen my accessing the menu.

At the top-left is your health displayed as hearts. Each heart holds four hits. Getting hit by enemies will cost you health. At the top-right is a few things. The percentage refers to how far you have progressed in the game. The time indicates how long you have played. You are given a limit on time until your game character becomes tired and goes to bed. Each minute in game-time equals one second in real-time. The value below the percentage tells you how many gems you currently have. The 5 colored boxes are as follows:
R = running ability
J = jumping ability
H = healing ability
F = fortitude
C = collecting ability
Each will fill with color as you progress the corresponding skill. It should be noted that these are not the only skills you can level. The max level for these skills is 5.

When you have only one hour game-time left (which is equivalent to one minute real-time), the time will turn red. Once time is up, your game character will go to bed. During her sleep, she will experience a nightmare, in which she must survive in order to retain all skills and experience gained from the previous day. If she fails to survive in her dream, she will lose all skills and will have to re-level everything the next day. During the nightmare, she has all the skills she gained during that day.

Review

Level Up! is a very addicting game. Part of what makes it so addicting is the many different skills that can be leveled up. This keeps players interested in continuing the game. The game concept and story line are also intriguing. Because there is so much to do in the game, there is a good amount of game time built into the game, with a special ending for players who complete everything. Unlike other games that take a little longer to play, Level Up! is able to hold players' attentions throughout the game.

Level Up! scores a 10/10 for creativity and addictiveness.