Review: GoatUp (iOS)

Now GoatUp is a strange game, but would you expect anything less from Jeff Minter and his long running Llamasoft line up of games? Recently, Jeff has been releasing some great games for ios devices including, Minotaur Rescue, Minotron: 2112, Deflex and most recently GoatUp.

NES Castelian

GoatUp is a quick pick up and play game all created with a retro graphical style you have come to expect from Jeff. The object of GoatUp is to either tilt or press to move your goat along grass lined paths which are situated and stacked around a column, very similar to the NES game Castelion. You have to move your goat left and right to graze off the grass uncovering all sorts of crazy bonus items which will appear and land on the grass which you have to eat up quickly before that level disappears off the bottom of the screen. There seems to be a never ending supply of bonus items to discover from Berzerk robots to pianos, cupcakes and more. In addition to moving your goat left and right to graze on the grass and scoring bonus items you have to ever so often jump to higher grassy platforms as the lower platforms are quickly disappearing from view off the bottom of the screen.

GoatUp turns into one of the best Greed games around as you have to decide if you want to go for the revealed items and eat them up for points or continue to jump to safer higher ground. In addition you have to kiss billy goats on various levels that will then ultimately add to the number of “kids” that will start trailing you for the duration of the game. Then keep on leading your family of goats higher and higher to keep gaining more points and gathering items.

This is very addictive as you want to uncover all the crazy items Jeff has hidden in the grass as well as add to the number of kids following you. Upon completion of the game you will be shown your score as well as the number of unique items you have found, the highest platform you reached how many goats you kissed and the most “kids” you had following you. As you beat any of your previous scores your highest scores are retained in a Lifetime stats area.

All in all this is a very addictive and fun game that you definitely want to pick up for $1.99 in the itunes ap store. How high can you go and what other retro gaming secrets has Jeff hidden within GoatUp?