Metareview - Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
by Christopher Grant 
{ Feb 16th 2006 at 10:45AM }
Marc
Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is the latest urban action game. A mash up of Jet Set Radio,
Prince of Persia, and Grand Theft Auto, there is hardly consensus on the controversial title. A look
at some notables:- Gamespot (87%) -
"It's easy to look at a game that has a non-gamemaking fashion designer's name right in the title and assume that
it's going to be some sort of flashy, style-over-substance licensed product, but Atari, The Collective, and Ecko have
effectively teamed up here and put together a game that has plenty of flashy style, but is a quality game underneath
all that flash."
- 1UP (70%)
- "The worst thing a decent action game can suffer from is bad camera control, and this malady afflicts Getting
Up... The game strikes a nice balance between fighting and tagging. Although frequent, the fighting winds up being
secondary to advancing the story line. In some missions, it even works out better to evade authorities and simply
complete your objective."
- GamePro (50%) - "Focusing the majority of gameplay attention on the actual art of writing, rather than on a hackneyed up-from-the-streets story, would have been a good start. And, regrettably for Ecko, development just couldn't work the kinks out of the shoddy Getting Up game engine. Frame rate consistently dips to horrific lows, and many in-game objects and actions break frequently during gameplay."
See also:
Australia knocks down Marck Ecko's Getting Up
More Joystiq coverage of Getting Up
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
pete @ Feb 16th 2006 11:01AM
Is it just me or have there been absolutely *no* new games worth mentioning/discussing/touching since the Xbox360 launch? Not that I'm fiending or anything, but this game-lull has me gnawing on old Nintendo cartridges in a closet (while self-flagellating, naturally), in anticipation of the next worthwhile adventure. /SIGH/
KilgoreTrout XL @ Feb 16th 2006 11:02AM
That's uncharacteristic of gamespot to lead the pack in scoring- they normally know how to put the hate into a game.
neunen @ Feb 16th 2006 11:04AM
id really like to see a good graf/action or adventure title for the revolution, i think that would be amazing.
you could even shake the controller like you would shake a can of spray paint.
soooooo, if any developers are reading this article.... get on that
The_Predator @ Feb 16th 2006 11:06AM
I played this game very early on in it's development, it bored the shit out of me. Gameplay elements seemed 'broken', sometimes moves would work as described/expected, sometimes it wouldn't and you drop back down to a platform to start over again. And well, there just wasn't anything about it really seemed to reflect 'grafitti culture' as expected. There was fashion labels, industry logos, commercial hophop records, and well, killing armoured grunts? Nothing to do with art or expression. It is worse than Crime Life.
How is it now it's released I wonder? Any better? None of those reveiws are saying anything I didn't learn from the Pre-Cert.
JD @ Feb 16th 2006 11:12AM
I don't understand Gamespot's score on this one. I played the beta and thought the game was pretty weak.
Even according to Gamespot's review "Actually painting in Getting Up is a pretty easy process that doesn't take a whole lot of skill." If this is a grafitti game and painting doesn't take a whole lot of skill, what's the point?
The whole thing felt more like a Tamagotchi game than anything else. Move here, stand here, press a button. Repeat. Some of the fighting moves looked cool, but overall it felt like the fighting was there because all urban games require fighting (e.g., if GTA has it we've got to have it).
I think there's a good idea waiting to happen here. Imagine an online game with multiple people fighting for tagging territory with everyone capable of designing their own tags in real time. Instead, Getting Up shows me where to paint and the only thing I can do is hold down a button and jiggle the cursor a couple of times.
C. Grant @ Feb 16th 2006 11:27AM
Pete, welcome to January/February. The goal is to get it out by Christmas. Gamers are still working on their Christmas games, so the following month or two is traditionally slow.
Mike Street @ Feb 16th 2006 11:57AM
I think it's a great game and I think they did a good job on making something orginal, fresh, and fun. They need to stop hating on the game. This is probably the only urban theme game that's come out that's actully worth playing.
Jago @ Feb 16th 2006 12:38PM
"Original, fresh and fun"?
I'm sorry but "A mash up of Jet Set Radio, Prince of Persia, and Grand Theft Auto" is not original.
I had an instructor in the past who was on the development team for this game and when he first told us about it, it basically sounded like Jet Set Radio with a hip-hop theme.
Yay for another lame urban/hip-hop themed game (/end sarcasim/)
Kworn @ Feb 16th 2006 12:49PM
Thats because Gamespot has supported this game from day one!
They have got a back hander on this one trust me. They have covered this game soooo much in the past. Chexk out the content on there site. Also they advertise the game all over there site!
kilo113 @ Feb 16th 2006 1:03PM
yeah, it's true that gamespot has been giving this game a lot of coverage for a while now.
from the looks of it, this game does seem a little too much style over substance, and i think for any graffiti game it would be hard to beat jet set radio since it's much more fun to to play a character skating to areas and bombingwriting or whatever.
who
ps. a revolution graff game would be nice!
Rocketboy @ Feb 17th 2006 7:08PM
Style over Substance... Humm.. it sounds like a perfect fit for the hack that is Marc Ecko.