Up, Up, and Oops!

The pitch

Climb floating paths in this fast-paced 3D arcade action game. Read the path, choose the correct direction, and move before the tiles collapse. Progress through increasingly challenging levels in Classic mode, aim for your highest score in Endless mode, or race against up to six players in Online Race. Earn stars, unlock new characters, tiles, and titles, and compete on the all-time leaderboards.

Controls & how it runs

Climb the floating path by choosing the correct action for the next tile. If the path continues straight ahead, jump forward. If it turns, press the direction in which the path continues. Make your choice before the gauge runs out. In Classic mode, clear every step to unlock the next level. Each level becomes longer and more difficult, and your next run starts after the latest level you cleared. You can earn rewards for reaching new steps even if you fail, and you may watch an advertisement to double the reward earned from that run. In Endless mode, climb as high as possible and aim for a new high score. Classic and Endless give you three lives. After losing all three, you may use one available revive. In Online Race, compete against 2–6 players for two minutes. Reach a higher step than the other racers to finish ahead of them. Falling returns you to your latest checkpoint, placed every 20 steps. Desktop Controls: W or ↑: Move upward. S or ↓: Move downward. A or ←: Move left. D or →: Move right. Spacebar: Jump forward. Mobile Controls: UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT Buttons: Move in the selected screen direction. JUMP Button: Jump forward in the direction your character is facing.

Getting a run going takes exactly one press: Press start, up top, and the game boots inside this page — nothing downloads in the background and no form wants your details before the first jump. The cabinet is drawn for a flexible screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for arcade cabinets

• Treat your first run as a scouting mission. Arcade cabinets hide their cruelty in the second minute, not the first — learn where the difficulty spikes before you start chasing numbers.
• Small scores compound. Grab the easy pickups on every pass instead of gambling the whole run on one heroic line; heroes respawn, banked points don't evaporate.
• Watch the edges of the screen. In classic arcade design the next problem almost always enters from somewhere you weren't looking — build the habit of scanning the borders.

Up, Up, and Oops! — quick-fire questions

Does Up, Up, and Oops! cost anything to play?

Not a token. The cabinet is free from the first run to the five-hundredth — no wallet, no sign-up, no toll booth hiding three levels in. The adverts around the page are what keep the floor's lights on.

What sort of game is Up, Up, and Oops!?

It stands on our Arcade row — that's the family it plays most like. The pitch above is the publisher's own rundown of what it throws at you and what it hands back.

Can I play Up, Up, and Oops! on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Up, Up, and Oops! is an HTML5 game: hit the start button and it boots on this page, and shutting the tab sweeps the cabinet clean behind you.

Before you wander off

Personal best banked, or still chasing it? Either way the full Arcade row is powered on and waiting — The main floor: 415 cabinets of pure arcade stock — the quick, the loud and the gloriously unfair. If it beeps, flashes and dares you to beat a number, it lives on this row.