Game review
Get Back Up
6.8 / 10
- Developer
- David Durham
- Publisher
- Independent
- Released
- 1 January 2019
- Platforms
- Web browser (desktop and mobile)
- Genre
- Arcade
- Monetisation
- Free, open source, no ads and no in-game purchases
- Players
- Single-player only
The short version
Get Back Up is a one-button infinite climber in the Doodle Jump mold: hold to charge, release to launch an egg up onto the next platform, don't fall. The single mechanic genuinely is touch native — holding and releasing a real touchscreen tap was confirmed to charge and launch the egg exactly as the mouse version does, through identical game logic rather than a bolted-on gesture. What keeps this out of the "very good" range is something the touch test surfaced directly: the game locks its canvas to a fixed portrait aspect ratio scaled to fill the screen's height, and on a modern tall phone that math overflows the screen's width, visibly clipping platforms and UI text off both edges — confirmed by comparing the identical build on a phone-shaped viewport against a desktop window, where the same scene renders complete and correctly letterboxed instead.
Biggest strengths
- The core hold-to-charge, release-to-jump action was confirmed working through a real simulated touch press rather than assumed from the code — the egg's score advanced after a touch-driven jump, using the same charge/launch logic the mouse path uses
- No platform gate of any kind; the `isTouch` flag found in the source only swaps a line of instructional text ("TOUCH SCREEN TO CHARGE" vs. the mouse equivalent) and never disables or reroutes input
- Genuinely charming pixel art for a 13-kilobyte competition entry — a soft wood-and-leaves palette, a likeable egg protagonist, and a clean BEST/score HUD
Biggest weaknesses
- "The canvas resize logic sets `cv.width = cv.height * ratio` using the game's fixed 480:720 design aspect, which assumes a phone roughly 1.5x taller than it is wide. A modern phone viewport (390x844, about 2.16x taller than wide) forces a canvas notably wider than the screen, and with `overflow:hidden` on the page, the excess gets clipped evenly off both edges rather than the game fitting to the screen's actual shape. Confirmed directly: the identical build renders complete and centered on a desktop window, but the title screen and board edges are visibly cut off on the phone profile this shelf tests against."
- A single hold-and-release mechanic with no variation carries a short-session arcade climber, not a game to return to repeatedly — the registry's own discovery notes correctly predicted a 6-7 range rather than higher
- Competent rather than distinctive: this is a solid entry in a genre (Flappy Bird/Doodle Jump style one-button climbers) with dozens of close cousins already
Who it's for: Fans of quick, disposable arcade climbers who want a few minutes of score-chasing
Our recommendation: A charming, honestly-scoped js13k entry; worth a quick round, but the phone viewport clipping and thin single-mechanic loop keep it below the bar for this shelf
6.8 / 10
Built in thirteen kilobytes for js13k 2019's Mobile category, Get Back Up commits to a single idea: hold your finger (or mouse button) down to charge a jump, release it, and watch an egg launch upward onto whatever platform is above it. Land clean and the climb continues; miss, and you fall. It's the same skeleton Doodle Jump and a hundred other climbers share, executed with enough polish — a warm wood-grain background, rounded leaf-green platforms, a properly squash-and-stretch egg sprite — that it reads as more finished than its file size suggests.
A genuinely touch-native single mechanic
Because the entire game is one action, touch support either fully works or the game doesn't work at all, and this was tested rather than assumed. A real simulated touch-and-hold, released after a short charge, advanced the on-screen score exactly the way the same action does with a mouse — confirmed by reading src/core.js, where tDn() and tUp() compute the same position data and call the identical game.msDn()/game.msUp() functions the mouse handlers call. There's no separate, thinner touch implementation to fall out of sync with the "real" version, and no isTouch gate disabling anything — that flag only swaps which instruction text displays.
Where the phone test actually mattered
Get Back Up's canvas resize function sets its width from its height using a fixed 480:720 design ratio — built, reasonably, around a phone shaped roughly 1.5 times taller than it is wide. Tested directly on this shelf's standard phone profile (390x844, roughly 2.16 times taller than wide), that math produces a canvas wider than the actual screen, and with scrolling disabled on the page, the excess simply gets cut off evenly on both left and right edges — confirmed by loading the identical build in a desktop window, where the same scene renders in full, correctly centered and letterboxed rather than clipped. In practice enough of the play area survives that the core loop stays playable, but the title screen's logo and the outer edges of wide platforms are genuinely, visibly cut off on the exact class of device this shelf is built to serve.
Should you play it
For a few minutes, sure — it's a pleasant, well-made example of a genre that lives or dies on feel, and the feel here is fine. But between the real edge-clipping on modern phone screens and a single mechanic that doesn't ask much of a return visit, it lands short of what this shelf is looking for rather than clearing the bar.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The core hold-to-charge, release-to-jump action was confirmed working through a real simulated touch press rather than assumed from the code — the egg's score advanced after a touch-driven jump, using the same charge/launch logic the mouse path uses
- No platform gate of any kind; the `isTouch` flag found in the source only swaps a line of instructional text ("TOUCH SCREEN TO CHARGE" vs. the mouse equivalent) and never disables or reroutes input
- Genuinely charming pixel art for a 13-kilobyte competition entry — a soft wood-and-leaves palette, a likeable egg protagonist, and a clean BEST/score HUD
- Clean MIT licence, properly credited, and completely free of analytics or third-party trackers
Cons
- "The canvas resize logic sets `cv.width = cv.height * ratio` using the game's fixed 480:720 design aspect, which assumes a phone roughly 1.5x taller than it is wide. A modern phone viewport (390x844, about 2.16x taller than wide) forces a canvas notably wider than the screen, and with `overflow:hidden` on the page, the excess gets clipped evenly off both edges rather than the game fitting to the screen's actual shape. Confirmed directly: the identical build renders complete and centered on a desktop window, but the title screen and board edges are visibly cut off on the phone profile this shelf tests against."
- A single hold-and-release mechanic with no variation carries a short-session arcade climber, not a game to return to repeatedly — the registry's own discovery notes correctly predicted a 6-7 range rather than higher
- Competent rather than distinctive: this is a solid entry in a genre (Flappy Bird/Doodle Jump style one-button climbers) with dozens of close cousins already