Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure review

Vandalize for justice

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Fighting

  • +

    tagging are immensely fun

  • +

    Smart

  • +

    trippy storyline keeps you hooked

  • +

    Unlockables keep tagging fresh

Cons

  • -

    Keyboard controls are a nightmare

  • -

    Graffiti legends aren't great actors

  • -

    4-minute load times? Boo to that

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By all rights, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure should be terrible. The latest in a long line of mostly dismal "urban" games, it's packed full of brand logos, but still aims for a guerilla image. It's been delayed for years. And if that weren't enough, it's the brainchild of a fashion designer.

So it's a shocker that Getting Up not only does its "street" atmosphere up right, but actually puts together a competent beat-'em-up/graffiti experience. Playing like an inner-city Prince of Persia, Getting Up stars Trane, a teenage art-thug out to make a name for himself in the big, near-future dystopia of New Radius. To earn respect, he'll need to drop spray-painted tags on ridiculously hazardous areas, with short pauses in between to smack the tar out of riot cops and rival taggers.

Trane tears through each stage like an acrobat, jumping off walls, shimmying across ledges and climbing up drainpipes to slap his name on hard-to-reach places. Jumping and tightrope-walking feels a little stiff, but navigating the urban landscape is a lot of fun when the camera isn't getting stuck behind walls.

More info

GenreAction
DescriptionThis probably won't do for graffiti what the Tony Hawk games did for skateboarding, but it does make it look like a lot of fun.
Platform"PS2","Xbox","PC"
US censor rating"Mature","Mature","Mature"
UK censor rating"16+","16+","16+"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.
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