NAME: Light It Up by CrazyLabs LTD
GENRE: Hypercasual, platforming
PLATFORMS: Android, iOS
In my opinion, hypercasuals challenged the norm of what games could be for the global audience while still bringing something fresh to the table. With Light It Up, I got to experience an interesting take on the platforming genre and what it’d be like if it were compressed to two-minute sessions.
In the game, you jump between floating platforms by tapping on the screen — and as the title suggests — “light ‘em up” by making the landing. But there’s a catch — you can jump only twice, and there’s a giant void below, waiting to swallow you if you miss a landing. Activating all platforms counts as a level complete, advancing you to the next level. As you progress, you will come across more complex platforming sequences that bring more interesting challenges. That said, power-upscan makefinishing levels more convenient.
The act of jumping from platform to platform feels fun in itself, so the gameplay is tight. It reminds me of the climber game NinJump by the now-defunct Backflip Studios. Maybe Light It Up could benefit from having an endless mode, so the player can whittle away with the jumping mechanic and pass the time.
Levels also feature collectible stars, which come in three, and result in 100 per cent completion rate when collected. However, you can complete a level without collecting all stars, so you will want to prioritise them before finishing levels.Here, avoiding dormant platforms until all stars are collected invites an implicit layer of challenge that felt like a fuller gameplay experience to me.
But what surprised me was how the physics is not a tacky addition, and can actually affect your progress. When platforms and stars bump into each other, they activate. And when you land on a platform, it’ll move a certain distance depending on where you landed and from what height you jumped. So you can usethis to your advantage to activate other platforms or collect stars that are out of your reach.
Conversely, you will also run into platforms that are clumped together and can explode on contact, sending the pieces flying across all directions. This sounds advantageous, but it can also push stars away from you, making it difficult or impossible for you to collect them. So it’s a live grenade situation that sprinkles more challenge on an otherwise ordinary game.
The game is also visually polished, tactile and seemingly glitch-free. I suppose the added benefit of using minimalist 2D art is how it can disguise flecks of flaws with pleasing visuals. But the UI can overwhelm you with its various elements. While it doesn’t make navigation difficult, it does feel unintuitive and can create a mild gulf of evaluation.
VERDICT: Light It Up is a polished hypercasual that despite its ordinary core loop brings a lot of fun tothe table. I rate it an eight out of 10.
