​Onwards and Upwards (DX) is a cute little game where-in you attempt to continue – as the game suggests – onwards and upwards, both. You control the plucky little pink-haired child, Lily, as she navigates various stages using her skills at floating, whipping, and jumping. 
The levels are pretty fun and easy to understand where to go next, though you do have to wait sometimes which can be a bit of a pain if you fall from above, however, there are ample enough save points that your progress is rarely hampered. There are some devious challenges to be found while you play, though – requiring you to quickly master the skills you have at your disposal to surpass the next challenge to come your way. 
As this is a platformer, I will note that the controls can feel a little floaty at times and it can be hard to trigger the float (or at least understand when the float will trigger). When falling (especially from grappling) it seems that just holding the button will trigger float but when jumping you have to double-press which causes a bit of confusion during play. You do get used to it after a while, but it would have been nice to have it more consistent. 
One issue I did have was that there was no easing into the game by giving you the information about the base buttons to use – that is, how to glide or jump. I had to look at the actual documentation instead of having that information in the game itself, which is weird because the grappling was explicitly shown in-game. I suggest doing the same for the float as it is not understandable without explanation. 
The difficulty was a little mixed – especially in the beginning. There were a few points where you were expected to be able to use your skills with perfection almost immediately – the area that comes to mind is the second or third cloud grapple where you need to be pulled up and then glide immediately to the left and land on a high ledge. If that ledge had been adjusted to be a little lower it would have been a bit more manageable especially as at that point, you’re still getting used to both the float and grapple skills, so combining them straight away with little lee-way was a bit mean. 
The visuals of the game are bright and colorful and quite cute. I didn’t question what I could and couldn’t interact with or stand on, which is good for a platformer. There was no time that I wondered what I was looking at and while the graphics are simplistic, they are also fitting. The game shows what it's about early on and is very straightforward about presenting itself as a simple but challenging platformer. 
Sound design is a bit of a mixed bag. While the tunes did fit, they tended to hurt my ears with their chiptune sounds. At this stage in game development, there’s no need to limit yourself to ear-destroying tinka tink songs that hurt more than help stage design. I understand the aesthetic that the developer was aiming for, but the sounds were more distracting than anything and I had to turn them off completely to continue to play. That may be a personal preference, but I feel it’s one many would share – there’s no reason why the game could not have a bit of a smoother soundtrack to it. After all, many games in the NES era had good music that didn’t break the eardrums, so I’m sure the developer could find something less painful to fit. 
I didn’t find any bugs in the game when I played – it seems like they’ve been crushed quickly and effectively. That’s very appreciated as there’s nothing worse than a platformer where you can get pushed down and through a block you’re standing on, resetting your progress, or the like. ;p 
Overall, I enjoyed the game. It had some very difficult parts to it, and I feel that some small adjustments to the early areas to allow a little more leeway to learn the skills before throwing harder challenges is in order, but I think this has a lot of promise and potential.