Last updated on December 14th, 2025 at 04:00 am
Upstream Struggle – Action Game Review
Upstream Struggle is a Action/Racing/Entertainment game from Jack LaLonde, first launched in 7th September 2020.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 9,705+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Upstream Struggle Stand Out
In Upstream Struggle, you play as a salmon swimming upstream to return home (except right now it's just endless, oops). Dodge enemies for as long as you can to unlock new fish.
This Action game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Upstream Struggle is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 23rd January 2023
Recent improvements include:
- Brand new movement system for the fish based on inertia
- New attack pattern for the bears
- New fish designs
Download & Availability
Upstream Struggle is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Upstream Struggle on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love this game!! We love the simplicity in its style, and its amazing gameplay. Id love to see more.
Gives Crosby road vibes, love it.
We found this through tiktok when you were forst making your new game and Im addicted to upstream now!!!! We love the tiktok fish and cant wait for next game.
We like it we found it from TikTok good game good guy that made game.
We love the concept. Its a adorable game. It can be challenging but how doesnt like that? Keep up the good work :).
Ok so yes we follow the guy on TikTok, but that has nothing to do with our rating. This is a great game that could have some improvements but overall for how long he has been working on this, it is great.
We love this game we found it on TikTok its so fun.
First of all, we just want to say this game is awesome. Second of all, we saw this game on TikTok and it's actually really fun. Thirdly, we just have one question… You dont have to make any changes to the game but Im curious to know…. How come the bears dont keep chasing you once you get to the next level? Wouldnt they keep coming in real life bc they r hungry? Idk we were just wondering but yeah really cool game.
We saw this on Tiktok and had to give it a try. We love it! A few of our suggestions are to possibly make two different trails you have to go down, one leads to a treasure chest and the other doesnt. The treasure chest could have from 25-75 coins. We also think that in the customization department, hats would be awesome to buy. We love this game, keep up the good work.
Pros This game has little to no ads with simple yet challenging gameplay. It also has no inapp purchases, which in an age where EA and big mobile game companies charge a bunch, is a nice break Cons we wish there were more unlockable fishes but thats something that can be implemented easily into the game.
It was so good when it came out but the developer just doesnt care about it anymore it hasnt had an update for almost 2 months and quite frankly has just gotten boring.
There havent been any updates for a month. The game gets old.
This is the best game we have ever played thats all we have to say.
This game is so fun and we play all the time great job making this.
We came from TikTok and we love the game it obviously needs some fixes but considering it was only made in a week its amazing.
You should add power ups you can pick up like every 15 or something like that any number is fine.
We love this game, its addicting and fun! There is one thing we dont really like. The bugs. There is a bit of bugs. We were playong today and we died for no reason. We were at the score 49. But other than that this is a VERY fun and addicting game. : ).
The game is super fun to play and grinding for the skins makes it way more fun. It gives you purpose and provides tons of playtime plus you can play it on the go whenever you want. It does have a few bugs but over the updates they have shown up way less often. The guy who made the game has been sharing this thoughts and the finer details of the updates on his tik tok and it gives the game a more lively community. We play it all the time and we definitely recommend it. :).
We love the game and everything in it but could you add jump button instead of just flicking please thats all its a great game though.
Its good however change up the coloring make it more fast pace but not too fast. Add music thats not repetitive, and we think it would do fine.
Been here since day one, followed him on TikTok and saw the game being built. Love how is improving every week. Keep up the good work, and if you are reading this. Please add a shark skin, great white would be amazing.
So we like this game and we are from TikTok your game is great and very addictive and we spent a couple hours on this and we think there should be a build mode.
The game was fun and not fun it got boring after a wile but for something made in a little time we like and think you should get it.
We gave suggestions before and after playing for a while we have a few more. First we want to list some of our favorite things in the game Only ads if you want to revive or get 100 coins, often when people play games and they are overloaded with ads they get annoyed. Thats one of the main things we see on other games reviews Power ups, in one of the small ponds that you have to jump to get to, you could put power ups like super speed, higher jump, extra life, etc. We said this in our last suggestions but HATS HATS HATS. We think you should be able to buy hats along with fish skins VARIETY Different animals besides just bears! Different birds! Logs you have to jump over! Rocks! TUNNELS! MUSIC STAYS OFF IF YOU TURN IT OFF BEFORE BONUS LEVELS!! Like said above, PEOPLE GET BORED and have short attention spans. ESPECIALLY children who are the main demographic for the game. Thank you for reading! We hope this helps.
Ok we love the way this game looks and the idea of it. The fish are adorable, and just its very eye appealing to us. The BEST thing is games like these usually bombard you with ads, there are no ads unless you choose to watch them. Download this game, its great.
Okay, we love this game! But we have a few suggestions 1. Make it like a ravine so you cant go on land. When you go on land youre really slow but then you cant really get back in water. 2. Make the fish more maneuverable. This would make it a lot easier, and more enjoyable. 3. Auto-Jump. This would make it a lot easier because we dont have to focus on around us, AND having to jump. Auto-jump would make it better in general because when you jump the joystick stops working and move. 4. For some of the levels the bears are blocking the path making it impossible to get by, ending your game right there. Maybe space them out or for those parts make the stream wider. You did great for only 7 days of work! Keep up the great work, man! This game has so much potential! Cant wait to see if you make more games in the future.
We actually just really enjoy playing it. Its kinda of easy, but there are challenges. Its also really good for zoom calls if your bored.
You should add like a net thing to make it harder and also the hawks are op and maybe add more ways to get coins.
This guy literally pretty much did a one man job of creating his game and even self promoted himself in the beginning the game was a bit complicated to understand since he didnt put rules but now it looks like a professional app company made it we dont play it to much but we respect this mans grind keep it up.
From tiktok this actually really fun.
This is such a fun game we rescanned it we hope you enjoy this review we have hope in this game gl.
GLIZZY Creator response: Im glad your enjoying the game.
Very fun game we particularly love the newest update except the bears seemed to stop moving and we were wondering if that was intentional also we think it would be cool if the fish was a bit deeper in the water.
We saw your game from tik tok and downloaded it on the release date and have been playing ever since. But one thing we think would be pretty cool is having like a dying mechanic like you get reeled up by the fishing man or getting swatted by the bear, but its up to you Thanks.
We used to only play it like once a in a while but now we play it all the time all we would say is we think a banana skin would be funny.
This game is grate and we love the simple graphics but good design and is addictive we wanna play all day but cant so we would recommend getting it.
Great advertising we wouldnt of found this without tictok.
Can we please jump over the bears or something.
This game has so much potential but please fix the jump button whenever you click it it send the fish in a different direction, but besides that the game is great.
We were playing the game today when we had a issue controlling the fishes direction and some times the fish would jump without us tapping the button.
The flick jump is hard to control other than that its fun.
We have a suggestion, you dont have to listen but we have an idea to make the game better. Instead of jumping whenever you release your finger from the screen, instead you could have it where we have to swipe to jump. Hear us out, whenever we let go of the screen, we jump and that can sometimes be annoying when Im right at the edge and will die, or end up on a fishing rod, or the eagle eats us. We think that by having us swipe up it gives us more control on the direction we jump and when we jump.
We had fun but as we kept playing it just ends up very repetitive other than that its a great game.
When you jump your fish automatically turns to the right for some reason.
This game is TOO much of a struggle. You would think its easy but NO! Sometimes we cant even get past the bear and we got to 7 and there were two bears in our way that we couldnt get past. We just wanted a game that not TOO much of a struggle. Is that too much to ask for.
Its a really cool and fun idea. Unfortunately it is very glitchy and laggy. The controls are very hard to use. A joystick and button would be easier or a jump button. Sometimes the swiping to jump doesnt work. The game also crashes a lot.
The game is very boring and you barely get to do nothing the fish looks a Glizzy in the game makes us so mad we hate the game dont play it.
If we could give it negative stars we would. Only reason anyone plays it was from tiktok. Would never recommend. Repetitive and boring. Deleted within first 5 minutes of installing.
We got it when it first came out was super fun. It then he ruined the game its just not the same anymore and he stopped putting effort into it.
We saw the reviews on this game and we thought that since they were so good we might as well give it a shot. After playing the game for 20 minutes we were already bored. The game is a constant repetition of going up a waterfall and avoiding obstacles. There is no change whatsoever in each waterfall you climb, they are all exactly the same. Also, the jump mechanic in this game makes no sense. The only time that you have to jump in this game is to get coins at the coin waterfall, which is difficult to even traverse. We found that when we played this game the only times we would die would be at the coin waterfall. This game is not good yet, however, we can see how the developers can improve the game. It has a simple concept that can be made much better. One example would be to make each waterfall random, or at least make it so every single one is not the same.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.0
- Size: 36.59 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Jack LaLonde
Last updated: 23rd January 2023 | Genre: Action, Racing | Developer: Jack LaLonde