Only Up. is a game where you have to "climb as high as you can." It's a low-budget indie platformer about reaching the top of strange floating structures made of railroad tracks, giant slices of fruit, floating islands, and far stranger things than that. And now nearly 150,000 people are watching on Twitch.

Currently, the top channel in the Only Up. category belongs to xQc (yes, that xQc, the guy who got $100 million to stream on Twitch rival Kick less than a week ago), and as of this writing, 71,000 people have watched him play have watched him play. But he's not alone, as you can see from the category's top page.

The concept behind Only Up. is simple: you are Jackie, desperately trying to escape the poverty of the slum where you live. To do so, you embark on a journey inspired by the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

"The world has definitely gone mad, it was never normal, but now may be your chance," the Steam page says.

"A crisis is a time for action and decisive steps... Every step you take has the potential to set you back a great deal, except the scary ones. 'Sometimes it's hard to choose the right path, but don't be afraid.'

Mechanically, Only Up. is very simple. Played from a third-person perspective, you can walk, run, jump, cover things, and never die: even if you fall from miles up in the air, you do not lose a life upon landing, but you do lose progress. As expected, it is a bit messy: there are some fairly noticeable clipping errors, and the voice acting is repetitive and clearly not good.

As the Steam store page suggests, I felt the game reached a certain level of profundity, but mostly it just seemed odd. For example, at one point I reached the platform of an insubstantial train in the sky: "Jackie said." My grandfather worked here for 60 years and then died." Later, when I met a friendly dog, he said, "What a nice dog. Your husband is not coming back. Go find a new one." It seems clear that English is not a native language for the developer, SCKR Games, but even so, some of the commentary in the game seemed odd.

The response on Steam was also "mixed," with only 65% of user reviews positive. One of the main complaints (with which I wholeheartedly agree) is the lack of a save feature: if you quit or crash the game, you have to start over with a new session.

I am also dissatisfied with the relevance of only-up and NFT. While there is no in-game purchase of NFT (as far as I can tell), various images of the Goblintown NFT series, for example, can be found throughout the game. Also, the game title seems to be a play on "Up Only," a fairly well-known phrase in the NFT world and once the title of a popular NFT-related podcast; the NFT app "Floor" also recently announced a new feature called "Up Only Mode," which allows users to purchase NFTs from the game's website, and then use them to purchase NFTs from the game.

More overtly, the player character's jacket has the Goblin Town logo on the back (the name is also emblazoned on the front, although it is hard to see) and a Goblin Town mask that can be worn at the start of the game.

There is no visible disclosure of the connection, so most players probably won't notice, but Goblintown is currently selling official real-world Only Up. hoodies and T-shirts for ridiculously high prices, so there is clearly some connection. We contacted Goblintown and SCKR Games to ask about their relationship.

While it sounds sketchy, the game also has a strange charm. I absolutely hate games like Bennett Foddy's "Getting Over It" and its follow-up "Baby Steps" that are designed just to piss me off. After playing "Getting Over It" for about five minutes, I think I beat my dog and formatted my hard drive. It's all about.

But it's also beautiful in its strangeness and simplicity. There are many moments when the way forward is not clear, forcing you to stop and take a closer look at your surroundings. Falling is incredibly frustrating, but if there is a structure nearby, it's not too hard to catch yourself on the way down, but with a little care (Only Up. also has "slow walking" and "slow motion" options, so you can really creep along if you need to You can do that), I didn't fall very far at all.

I don't think it's a good game, and I question its continued popularity on Twitch. Despite this, I can see why people watch (and play) this game. If you like angry, screaming, panicked streamers, "Only Up." could definitely piss them off.

Incidentally, Only Up. has an end: newly crowned Twitch champion Kai Cenat played it from start to finish last week, and according to TwitchTrakcer, this stream triggered Only Up's surge in popularity.

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