Up in Flames Review

From Chillingo, the same team that brought the adorable games Be Together and Cut the Rope, comes another game so cute you’ll just want to pinch its cheeks and pat its bottom. First impression of Up in Flames is that it’s an Angry Bird clone; however, while it does share some similarities, Up in Flames stands on its own when explored deeper.

Baff the Dragon pulls on his superhero cape (made out of a curtain), when his Dragon friends are kidnapped by yetis, sharks, and wolves. He uses his ability to breathe fireballs to free his pals from their crates and burn his enemies to ashes! Yeah, for such a cute looking game it gets pretty violent, what with all the animals getting incinerated.

The game features the standard three stages with 25 levels in each. The bad guys start off in the mountains, skip over to the beach for the second stage, and end up in the chilly arctic. The graphics are bright and colorful, making it easy on the eyes and clouds the fact that the player is, indeed, setting fire to some cartoon wolven asses. The dragons’ design plays on human’s inability to resist tiny versions of big things -- like babies, puppies, and those mini soda cans. These are mini dragons and they're so darn charming it'll suck you in before you have a chance to resist. However, the cute designs can produce conflicting feelings when taking out the bad guys. How can something so adorable be so bad? Should you burn them or not? Ahhh!

Up in Flames isn’t just a pretty picture, but also requires some brain usage. It’s a physics based game in which the player controls the trajectory and speed of each fireball. Similar to Angry Birds, you sling shot the fireballs into a fortress of enemies, dragons, crates, rocks, etc in order to burn everything down and free Daff’s dragon friends. It also turns into a puzzle by having to figure out exactly what to bounce the fireball off, which thingy you need to release, and how to knock over everything. There are springs and dynamite to help keep your fireball going, and certain dragons will assist by spitting the fireball off in a predetermined direction. If you free all the dragons and burn all the foe animals with the allotted number of fireballs, you'll be able to move on to the next level.

Overall, it’s a great physics based puzzle game. The controls are responsive and spot on, and the level/character designs are very pleasing. There’s very little in the way of extras though, only a few costumes to unlock and/or purchase with money. And, a player can run through the levels really quickly reaching the end of the game before they know it, but there will inevitably be more levels soon. Up in Flames is a fun but quick puzzler that physics fans will enjoy.

App Store Link: Up in Flames for iPhone & iPad | By Chillingo, Ltd | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.0 | 49.2 MB | Rating 9+