How to Play Balled Up

Balled Up is a one-touch arcade climb from Appydos Studios. One control, one goal: keep climbing. The full game is on Google Play; the App Store follows soon. Try the free browser demo here first.

The controls

One touch is the whole control scheme. Each tap sends the ball upward, and the ball keeps bouncing on its own. There is no joystick, no swipe and no second button. The skill is in when you tap, not how much.

Tapping constantly fights the bounce. Tap with it — one tap per bounce — and the climb settles into a rhythm you can hold for much longer.

Clean landings

A clean landing means hitting a floor flat and near its middle. Clip the edge of a floor and you lose height and rhythm, which usually costs you the next floor too. When the climb starts feeling frantic, aim for two or three deliberate clean landings to reset it.

Floor-skipping combos

Skipping a floor instead of landing on it chains a combo and climbs considerably faster. It is also the riskier route: a missed skip drops you further than a missed landing. The strongest scores come from choosing skips where the floors line up, rather than trying to skip everything.

Hazards

Branches and world-specific hazards sit between floors and end a good run quickly. Read two floors ahead rather than watching the ball, and hold a floor for one extra bounce when the route above is not clear yet.

How each world changes the climb

Woodsy

Wooden towers, branches and a forgiving pace. The standard ball makes this the best place to learn the bounce rhythm.

Venus

Hot rocks and sun-baked towers. The larger ball leaves less room between floors, so mistimed taps are punished harder.

Orange ball climbing icy ledges between snow-covered walls in Balled Up's Icy world.

Icy

Glassy ledges and a smaller ball. Steering matters more here — keep taps short and aim for the middle of each floor.

Woodsy, Venus and Icy are playable in the browser preview. Stony and Watery are part of the mobile game and are not in the preview.

Ready to climb?

The browser demo is free. Try the demo and see how far your rhythm takes you. Ready for the full game? Get it on Google Play.