Twitch streamer takes on Only Up using recorder as controller (updated)

While many streamers are currently busy playing big new releases like Diablo 4, a less highly-anticipated title has also been getting a lot of attention on Twitch and YouTube recently.

The game in question, Only Up, challenges players to climb up piles of precariously placed objects in a manner that often leads to frustrating falls. Naturally, the kinds of people who’ve already beaten Elden Ring using Bop-Its, dance pads, and mind control love it.

The latest interesting twist one of these hardened streamers has decided to add to their attempts to climb to victory is controlling the action using a musical instrument, which, as you can imagine, has made things a bit more chaotic.

Do you think you could beat Only Up by playing a sweet melody?

The instrument in question is a recorder, which, to be fair to streamer gv_mimi, should work a lot like the Ocarina they’ve previously used to beat The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

They kicked off the first stream of the run by explaining that their character’s range of movements would be activated by them playing notes with different frequencies, which would then be picked up by an audio input program.

In practice, this made for a stream that feels like a slightly more melodic version of fellow streamer Larxa’s run through the game using voice controls, especially during the climbing sections that allowed gv_mimi to play longer notes in order to trigger lengthier movements in a specific direction.

Naturally, it featured plenty of falls, with the streamer utilising the same checkpoint system as a lot of similarly unorthodox Only Up challenges, in order to avoid getting stuck near the bottom of the pile of objects.

Following just over three hours of musical mayhem, gv_mimi had managed to make some good progress, clearing some sections made up of pipes and trains.

“That went pretty well,” they said after calling it a day, adding: “The fact that we have checkpoints is probably the reason why I feel more comfortable with this. If I didn’t have checkpoints, this would be ridiculous.”

Update: Following ten days of relentless climbing, gv_mimi has now managed to complete this remarkable run.

Regardless of how many times you’ve fallen to the ground in Only Up so far, make sure to follow us for more coverage of some interesting streamers and guides to the game.