Level Up!

Level Up! is a game created by Titch007uk, and released on the Flash Portal on November 25, 2009. The aim is to max out all of your character's abilities and find certain items to help her along. You have a time limit before she has to go to sleep each day and face the shadowy figure that haunts her dreams. The story takes her through to an end to be followed in the forthcoming sequel, Gather Up.
==Story==
The game's story starts simply, but it gradually grows more complicated. One day, a nameless girl, the game's protagonist, wakes up to find that a handsome boy has crashed into her fence. He has an extreme case of amnesia, and can't even remember how to jump. He asks the girl to look for gems scattered around the world. While exploring, she meets a variety of characters, many of whom ask her to complete tasks in return for abilities. Every night though, she dreams about a powerful shadowy figure, who wipes her memory clean and takes away all of her levels after defeating her. Every time she defeats it, she goes to sleep later. Eventually, she becomes powerful enough to access a computer, which unlocks her memories. Apparently, she once strove for power, beyond what was possible in the world. The boy was the Deity who stood in her path, and the Shadow in the dream was her own frustration. The game ends on a cliffhanger, when the boy ambushes the girl.
Despite the serious premise of the game, the story is usually quite lighthearted. The various characters are talkative and eccentric, make constant jokes, and frequently break the fourth wall while giving tutorials or discussing the world around them. Only during the nightmare and the final scene does the story become serious.
== Design ==
Level Up! has a fairly unusual design for a Flash game. It combines aspects of traditional platforming games, Role Playing Games, and Metroidvania action adventures. The player starts without any levels, skills, or gems, and must gather them by traveling the world. Levels are gained by doing simple actions. For example, one starts running faster after running a lot, jump higher after jumping more, and so on. Several special skills can be learned by completing missions for various characters. These usually involve collecting a certain number of gems. These abilities involve jumping in midair, regain health while moving, and running at unnatural speeds. This is similar to shooters like Upgrade Complete!, in which players had to collect money to upgrade their ship. One major goal of the game is to be able to defeat the shadow that haunts your dreams. Otherwise, all of the levels are lost. However, the skills and gems remain, making those levels easier to regain. The game automatically saves upon activating a checkpoint.
== Gameplay ==
Unlike in many Flash games, the Protagonist of Level Up! has absolutely no offensive abilities. The character is controlled using the left and right keys to run, the down key to interact, the X key to jump, and the C key to access menus. Generally, the game's challenge comes from avoiding enemies, searching for gems in the large environment, and finding the best way to level up. The progress toward each level up is shown in the boxes in the top, right corner - so if you particularly need to jump higher you can just jump until the box fills up and you level up for jumping.
== Shadow Guide ==
The Shadow's energy is stored in dark crystals. In order to hurt it, the players must collect them. However, they are only dropped after it is hit by its own meteor attack. The Shadow is the only character other than the protagonist who can level up. This means that as the fight goes on, it will gain new abilities and increase the power of older ones. Therefore, it is necessary to defeat it as quickly as possible. One of the shadow's attacks is to throw flaming swords around it. Eventually, the best way to avoid this is by jumping directly on top of the enemy. It can also leap up and slash at the girl, but this can also be avoided by running and jumping away. The meteor attack is easily recognized, since the Shadow will stand still and meteors will rise in the background. Shortly afterwards, dark circles will appear on the ground, where they will hit. If the Shadow stands there, they will lose crystals, which can be gathered to decrease its health. Later on, it will start summoning fireballs, which stay on the ground. It will also eventually begin to use a large energy attack, which starts from the center of the area and goes towards the edges.
If the player has high healing and fortitude levels, as well as the regain ability, it becomes relatively easy to defeat the Shadow. They only need to stand on one of the two outcrops on the sides of the screen. They will become essentially immune to the Shadow's later abilities, and since the Shadow will chase them there, it becomes easy to hit them with the meteor. However, the player will have to be careful to avoid getting hit by the projectile attack, and a high jumping level will also help them to avoid attacks. Also if you get defeated by the black shadow you will lose all your memories from the day before you got defeated.
==Medals==
TIME WASTER - 5 points: Play to day 7 and beyond.GEM COLLECTOR - 5 points: Collect 100 gems.GEM HOARDER - 10 points: Collect 400 gems.MOVING THE MAIL - 10 points: Find all the checkpoints in the level.GEM CONNOISSEUR - 10 points: Collect all giant gems.GEM ADDICT - 25 points: Collect every red gem on the level.MAD SKILLS - 25 points: Buy every skill.DASHING COURSE LEGEND - 25 points: Beat the Super Dashing Course in under 25 seconds.FOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE - 25 points: Fill out every entry in the Codex.INSOMNIAC - 50 points: Complete the game without ever sleeping.HEARTBREAKER - 50 points: Defeat Nightmare with only 1 LOVE level.GRINDING MANIAC - 50 points: Max out every single level type.OBSESSIVE - 100 points: Get 100% completion.
== Presentation ==
Level Up!, which was made with Flixel, has graphics reminiscent of a fourth generation console game. The sprites, though pixelated, are bright and colorful. The main character has a wide variety of animations, and each of the game's characters, though not the enemy creatures, is unique. The exception is the final cutscene, which has a more traditionally drawn design. The game's soundtrack comes from several different musicians. Sound effects consists of beeps and whistling noises, which were also common in fourth-generation games.
== Reception ==
=== Newgrounds ===
As of May 2011, Level Up! has over 1,300,000 views and an average review of 8.9/10, and earned the Daily 2nd Award, the Weekly 4th Place. It also won the November Monthly Contest, qualifying it for the Newgrounds Tank Award for best game in 2009, which it won. Furthermore, Level Up! is featured in three collections: Adventure Games, Flash Portal History, and Flixel. If the clamor for the sequel after the Tank Award is anything to go by, the audience were still full of support for the game although there were lots of protests to Level Up winning over Toss The Turtle.
=== Elsewhere ===
Outside of Newgrounds, the reception was somewhat less positive. Mofunzone's rating for the game was only 7.1/10, with many reviewers criticizing the difficulty of the Shadow and the high cost of losing against it. On Kongregate, the game has over a million plays, but players criticized the fact that the game often crashed. jayisgames.com criticized the game's bugs and slippery movement, although the game was generally praised.
== The Sequel ==
The sequel, Gather Up! is being created and can be followed on the Development Blog, which includes playable alphas, where the player is controlling The Boy, who is now armed with a choice of guns. The alpha features a fairly deep fighting system than the original game, despite having automated jumping and climbing, suggesting that the sequel will be a more combat oriented experience. However, the project seems to currently be on hold, due to Titch's job as a game designer. Sadly, it has never been finished, and Flash is dead, so you have to use Flashpoint. If you get 100% in Level Up! though, you can play one of it's demos by going to the base of the computer and pressing down.
== Links==
*Play Level Up!
*Awards Ceremony
Category:Flash games
Category:Video Game Parodies
Category:Platformers
Category:Action Games
Category:RPG
Category:Tank Award winners
Category:Teen
Category:Games With Medals
Category:2009