Though the core of its message is something most of us should be able to get behind, there are some flaws in the delivery. First of all, the actual gameplay (a small shmup-style thing) may be neither challenging nor complex, but the facts that there’s no penalty for failing a level, that levels are fairly short, and that you get to keep any money you pick up makes the game itself take a backseat to the upgrade system. The game is uninteresting, but it’s not bad, and it doesn’t get in the way.

Secondly, the upgrades actually really mean something in this context: the more you upgrade, the more ‘splodes appear on the screen, and you get the basic satisfaction of blowing up loads of things at the same time. It’s highly doubtful that the game would’ve worked at all if it had started out the way it ends up fully upgraded and then never changed, but since the upgrade system has been made to literally make the game more fun, you get the joy of seeing the game improve as you progress through it. Perhaps what the creator was trying is to show that rather than games starting out fun and becoming even more fun as you progress, they start out poor and only achieve the level of fun they should have been from the start once you’ve upgraded fully – this has certainly been true for some games, but I would say that’s less a problem with upgrade systems as such than the result of poor execution.

Most importantly, the point of Upgrade Complete is to upgrade everything by the time you finish – in fact even once you complete the final stage, you haven’t completed the game until you’ve upgraded everything you can upgrade. That works for Upgrade Complete because it’s a game explicitly about upgrading everything, but in any other game it would be a poor design decision in my humble opinion: the point of an upgrade system should be to make the player choose between different options for character advancement or equipment loadout – by unlocking more upgrades, skills, or equipment as the players progress, you ensure that their options at the beginning of the game aren’t too overwhelming; then you open a steady trickle of new options so the players can slowly familiarise themselves with their options for customising their experience. You should never let the player buy every upgrade in the game, because it ultimately eliminates the element of choice and personalisation.

Since Upgrade Complete is a really rewarding game, what it inadvertently ends up demonstrating is that games can be fun without solid core gameplay as long as they give you a great sense of accomplishment and progress. That probably wasn’t the point. No matter how weak the satire is, however, Upgrade Complete is certainly worth playing for its wit and its humour. Give it a shot, it’s free, it’s short, and it’s hilarious.