The 2009 animated film Up also has a Licensed Game that was available on a variety of seventh-generation systems, as well as the PlayStation 2. Every version is basically a Platform Game with at least one level that involves aerial combat.
The tropes list below chiefly refers to the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions developed by Heavy Iron Studios:
- 100% Completion: In addition to finishing all the levels, you'll need to gather lots of badges to unlock over a dozen quest cards, then tackle all of them to unlock additional goodies, such as behind-the-scenes looks, multiplayer characters and stages, et cetera. The quests involve catching a particular amount of each unique native bug, as well as finding rare collectibles.
- Adaptation Expansion: The game expands on the movie by throwing in combat, such as boss battles against a few giant reptiles and more frequent battles against Muntz's dogs.
- Autosave: Occurs frequently as you progress.
- Book Ends / How We Got Here: The first level begins right before a final air battle above Paradise Falls, where Muntz orders his canine air force to attack Carl, Russell and Kevin as they are escaping aboard Carl's flying house. You control Dug as he pilots a plane to fend off the fighters, and the level ends on a literal cliffhanger that's resolved in the final battle, which the last level is all about.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: To defeat the giant anaconda and the crocodile, you have to make good use of what you can find in their lairs - provided that you don't get hurt by them.
- Boss Fight: Three boss fights against an anaconda, a crocodile and The Spirit of Adventure.
- Checkpoint: Frequently found throughout levels so you'll never lose a lot of progress if you fail.
- Critical Annoyance:
- If your health is low, the few remaining bars you have left will be colored red.
- In a biplane battle, if a plane is seriously damaged, it will give off a trail of black smoke.
- In the final biplane battle, in addition to fighting off enemies, you need to protect the house so that Russell, who's hanging for dear life on its unfurled garden hose, can slowly climb back up to safety. Russell will slip down the hose every time the planes attack the house, and if he's getting to the end of the hose and close to losing his grip, the word "Danger" will appear on the lower-right corner of the screen.
- Critical Existence Failure: There are no detrimental effects associated with being short on health.
- Cycle of Hurting: Thanks to a lack of Mercy Invincibility, you can repeatedly take damage from porcupines or thorns and then pass out from losing all your health in a heartbeat.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you fail, you simply restart the game back at the last checkpoint you passed - and checkpoints usually aren't few and far in between. Plus, you have infinite lives!
- Developer's Foresight: Near the end of the ninth level, Paradise Falls, you need to traverse across four small ledges that collapse under your weight. If only one character makes it all the way across and the other doesn't, the game simply resets back to a conveniently placed checkpoint right before these ledges.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!: To win the final boss battle against the Spirit Of Adventure, Muntz's airship, you have to destroy all eight of its engines, four on each side, as well as the two rudders on its back.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Charles Muntz falls to his death in a much different way than in the film. He tries to shoot the balloons off of the house after leaping right onto its roof, but the heroes escape on Dug's plane just as he does so. Another unhappy landing as the balloon-less house crashes down into the jungle with Muntz on top.
- Healing Potion: Russell can collect water canteens that can be consumed to instantly heal you to full health with the press of a button in the on-foot levels.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: After you've disabled the Spirit of Adventure to end the final battle, Muntz somehow jumps onto the house and threatens the heroes with his rifle, but they manage to escape by hitching a ride on Dug's plane. When Muntz tries to shoot it down, he ends up shooting off the balloons on the house instead and plummets to his defeat.
- Kill Enemies to Open: In some areas, you will be unable to advance until all enemies are defeated.
- Ledge Bats: Literally played straight in the ninth level, while you are ascending the tepui to reach Paradise Falls. There is one ledge that only Russell can walk on, and he has to hang Carl on a rope over the ledge while doing so to get both of them across the ledge. The problem here is that there is a huge crack in the wall where bats can fly through and knock Carl off the rope, causing him to lose one health segment from the bats and another one from falling too far out of play if you aren't careful. Double ouch.
- Man-Eating Plant: Appear as hazards, but they look more like bear traps than snakes.
- Mighty Glacier: Muntz in multiplayer, with low speed and high attack and defense.
- Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling into a Bottomless Pit in the on-foot stages only results in you losing one segment of your health meter. So it's not lethal unless you only have one left.
- Averted near the end of the seventh level, "Night in the Jungle", where you must cross a huge pit on a bridge. If you happen to make one misstep and fall off at either end of the bridge, you die instantly regardless of how much health you had left. Interestingly, you have to exploit the pit's lethality to kill some of Muntz's dogs that chase you across the bridge by having Russell sever the ropes supporting one end.
- Non-Standard Game Over: In the last level, if you don't protect the house from the enemy planes, Russell, who's struggling to climb back up while dangling on the garden hose will tell Carl that he can't hold on any longer. Which is the only age-appropriate way to let the player know that Russell is going to fall to his death - and that they've screwed up.
- One-Hit Kill: The crocodile's attack deals lethal damage.
- Shared Life-Meter: Carl, Russell and Dug all share one health meter during on-foot levels. If any of them take damage, at least one segment is lost.
-
That One Level: The final biplane battle is known to be difficult, given that you can easily lose by crashing the plane into the environment, or by crashing head-on into an enemy plane. Fortunately, defeat means that you only have to restart the wave you were on. - Turns Red: The boss fight against the crocodile can be won after you drop two stalactites on its belly, but after just the first hit, bats will begin swarming around, making it difficult for you to drop the second one after stunning the crocodile.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- You can strike a friendly character over and over without penalty in the on-foot levels - the only harm they suffer is that they get stunned.
- You can also lure enemy dogs into man-eating plants to instantly kill them in the sixth level.
- As mentioned above, near the end of the seventh level, you are chased by a few dogs on a long bridge. To continue, you need to quickly make your way across, then have Russell cut one end of the bridge off to send them tumbling to their doom. Talk about an "unfair and mean" way to lose your pursuers, in the words of one of the dogs who meet their end this way...
- In the next level that follows, a boss fight, you have to actually kill a crocodile by impaling it with two stalactites, then hop on its dead body to climb out of a sinkhole and get back to your house.
