Topsy Turvy takes a simple platform puzzle game approach and stretches it for all its worth over its 40 levels. While the results aren’t perfect, the tricky app does make for an enjoyable and cheap challenge.
The challenge of the game comes as the player attempts to maneuver his or her character over sparsely designed levels to reach a flag that will open up the next course. Along the way, players will find levers they can pull that make additional platforms appear, but other than the ability to jump, completing each puzzle is more wit-based than tool-based.
When so many games end up relying on additional power-ups and items, it’s almost surprising to find a game that lets players truly test their mettle. But that feeling of beating a level on your own merits is put to the test in Topsy Turvy, thanks to some rather thankless controls.
While the levels might be sparsely designed, they still do have traps. These traps are in the form of what appear to be thorny bushes. Touch a thorny bush by walking or jumping into it, and you have to start the level over. While this doesn’t exactly represent a huge inconvenience, it happens more often than it should because your character doesn’t always seem to jump when you ask him to.
It’s hardly an app-breaker, and I don’t mean to make it sound like the controls are completely unresponsive, but for a game that aims to do so little, the controls should be tighter.
That said, the levels are well-constructed and challenging nearly from the get go, so anyone who loves puzzles with a little bit of platforming action mixed in would probably find something to like about this upside-down adventure.
