Marc Eckos Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure review

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.