Wobble Up Review

Colorful Platformer with Deformable Terrain

Do you enjoy puzzle games but wish you could smash and destroy the difficult parts? Well, the developers at Skygo have just what you’re looking for. Skygo’s Wobble Up is a visually vibrant platformer for Android that lets you customize the layout of each level by squishing malleable surfaces.

You play as a little monster who must navigate through dangerous levels while collecting crescent moon shaped orbs. That’s your mission, plain and simple. Alter your path forward by jumping in any direction to lift obstacles out of the way, shatter walls, dig holes to avoid enemies, redirect killer laser beams or unlock passages.

While you aren’t required to collect all the orbs on each level, you’d be missing the full experience of the game if you didn’t try. Plus, it feels too easy when carelessly breezing past the obstacles, like ordering a fancy meal and immediately scarfing it down.

The appealing visuals are what attracted me to this game at first glance. Each set of levels is displayed on branches of different colored trees in the main menu. The levels correspond with the color scheme of their respective tree. Everything is bright and bold with a lovely glowing effect.

Sculpt Your Way Through Levels

All those hours playing with Play-Doh as a child will come in handy. You’ll need to scan obstacles carefully and plan a few steps ahead before making a move. Each level presents its own set of puzzles that you will need to carefully execute to pass. As fun as it may be to bust your way through the levels and squish all the walls and platforms in sight, you may very well cut yourself off or block your own escape route. Fortunately, you are equipped with a handy reset tool that allows you to return altered terrain to its default state and start again. Enemies make each puzzle more challenging. You’ll have to avoid them while simultaneously proving yourself as a master architect.

A Bit Clunky

Upon launching the game, Skygo conveniently provides you with two control layout options. They’ve made it easy to adapt the game to your preferred play style. Unfortunately, regardless of the layout you choose, the mechanics are too rigid and clunky to develop a flow. There’s a short but noticeable delay between pressing the buttons and seeing your character move. Your motions are abrupt and jerky. The physics and movement feel more natural on larger levels when the camera zooms way out and there’s plenty of room to move around. However, when you’re navigating close quarters, even the slightest extra bit of “oomph” will get you in trouble.

This isn’t to say it doesn’t add a bit of challenge to the game. It’s just unfortunate that it is more of an issue with the mechanics than the level design. I would have liked to see a more gradual transition between idle and full speed movement, especially when moving in the air after jumping.

Ads Galore

You would expect a free mobile game to display ads here and there, but they are frustratingly abundant in Wobble Up. Ads flood your screen between levels, anytime you start up a new level, and roughly on one out of every three deaths. Luckily, you have the option of purchasing the game to eliminate the ads. However, compared to a number of free indie games currently on the market, the sheer volume of advertising is overwhelming.

A Decent Casual Gaming Experience

Overall, I had a love-hate relationship with Wobble Up. Any challenging platformer will surely leave you pulling your hair out at one point or another, but the frustration with Wobble Up comes from a lack of balance. The stunning visuals shine while the gameplay is lacking. Despite that, it was still a pleasurable experience, and an innovative take on platformers. This game has a lot of potential, and Skygo is actively adding more content, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that things get smoother as they progress.