A Fat Bird Looking For Love - Up in the Sky Video Ryview

Up in the Sky, by Szyadam.

Watch the video here:

Read the review below:
Hi Everybody! It's Ryan from ryviews.com, and today I'm reviewing Up in the Sky, by Szyadam.

Up in the Sky is a launch game, much in the style of Hedgehog Launch and Into Space. It's a vertical game where you gain altitude by flapping your wings and picking up stars. There's quite a bit of strategy layered into the experience, but the in game hints help guide player through the finer points of the game. For example, you get a better speed boost from stars if you aren't using power when you hit them, so you want to use the upward momentum of previous stars to rocket you into other stars if you want to get the most effective use of your power.

The game's controls are quite nice. I didn't have any serious complaints about them. You can keep flapping as you descend, even if you're out of power, although it's admitted at a diminished rate. That's a tremendous improvement over Hedgehog Launch, where once you ran out of fuel it was lights out and you fell straight down. Obviously, the game's choice of animal plays a role in that.

The upgrades are fairly well laid out and quite satisfying. There is a healthy mixture of effects, although like many launch games they all basically just mean you'll be in the air longer. The inclusion of lumbering enemy birds is a nice touch, as is the ability to equip a helmet to defend yourself, although I can't find a way to activate the damn thing without clicking on it with the mouse. And in an otherwise fully keyboard controlled game that's an extreme nuisance.

This misses out on the flare of Hedgehog Launch 2, as all the stars seem identical, there's no color differentiation or other strategic factor in that sense. No radar, no cool gadgets. But all in all, the core gameplay works and I felt like the game progressed at an acceptable pace. I never felt like I was doing unnecessary grinding and I didn't get bored until right up close to the end.

I'd recommend this to any launch game fans, it's a quality entry into the genre.

For the Scorecard, I'd give it a time value of 9, a money value of 10, originality of 6, since it borrows heavily from Hedgehog Launch and Flight, ryplayability of 8, it would be 10 if not for that damn helmet (Which, by the way, had little to no description when you buy it), and fulfillment of 8, because the upgrades were well balanced. That gives a total of 8.2.

Category	Score
Time Value	9
Money Value	10
Originality	6
Ryplayability	8
Fulfillment	8
Final Score	8.2

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Until next time,

Ryan