Sometimes You Just Have to Hit a Guy With a Goat

I’ve been playing some rather complicated mobile games lately, deep titles requiring strategic planning and inventory management to navigate epic tales of adventure. I’ve been managing cities, maintaining farms and gathering massive armies to vanquish my foes. It’s nice to kick back with a game that only demands I tap the screen to jump. Something simple. Something goat-y.

Stop humming “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

The first game from Brazil’s The Balance Inc., Goat’em Up is a delightfully simple game about what happens when an irritable mountain goat meets the world’s worst yodeler. The goat starts running, obstacles get in his way, he eats hot peppers to speed up and eventually he launches the offending singer into space. Do this across five stages in each of the game’s three locales—the Alps, Egypt and Japan—and a winner is you.

There’s a little more to it than that. Hopping on obstacles adds them to a photo album of your travels, so there’s a collectible element to it. There are yodeler costumes to unlock, as well as achievements to earn. But really it’s all about getting to the world’s most wonderful victory screen…

…while avoiding the world’s best failure screen.

Sometimes simple is best. Goat’em Up is one of those times.

Goat’em Up – $.99 [iTunes]

Goat’em Up – $.99 [Google Play]