Push Panic Review

UPDATE: Push Panic is FREE today only, 1/12/11 - Go grab it!

I'm just going to play this for five more minutes then go to bed...oh, is it really 3am already? So sets the scene for Push Panic - a title that thoroughly deserves great fortune and success.

Push Panic burrows into the typical puzzle urge. It's simple yet ramps up the difficulty quickly. Not in a way that means you feel cheated by any means. Instead it just becomes increasingly frantic yet compelling. A cascade of different coloured boxes come flooding down the screen. You have to tap all the boxes of the same colour then double tap on the final one so as to clear them all. It's down to you how frequently you want to do this. It's all about pay off. Do you clear just a few at a time but quickly, thus ensuring the screen is clear but gaining a lower score? Or do you wait till they amass in large number then clear them and gain a high, yet risky, score? In practice, it's a combination of these two that garners you the best success. Each level requires you to achieve a certain score to gain a bronze medal and be able to progress to the next level. Obviously, the urge to continue to play earlier levels in order to gain the gold medal is very strong.

Besides this Classic Panic mode, there's more on offer. Score Panic provides an endless amount of boxes to clear, all in the name of achieving the highest score possible. Color Panic is similar but with a slight twist - you're only allowed up to 8 blocks of the same colour at any one time otherwise it's game over. Time Panic is the classic time attack mode providing you with 180 seconds to achieve the best score possible.

As you can tell, high scores are the driving force behind Push Panic. sensibly there's the provision for both OpenFeint and GameCenter support offering you a whole range of different achievements to aspire to as well as providing you with plenty of competition.

Push Panic is ridiculously good fun. It's intense for sure but that's what makes it a cut above the rest. Push Panic provides quick bursts of fun that are equally as enjoyable if you play it for an extended period. The various power ups and score barriers required to progress add a slight element of strategy to proceedings so that Push Panic never suffers from the monotony that other, similar titles can have. It's terrific simply put. You'd be a fool to miss out at such a great price.