Aqua Panic! Review

Fans of video games are no strangers to the old-school Lemmings franchise. These kinds of puzzle games have been around since the dawn of the industry and it's good to see that tradition alive and well with Eko Games, the developer of the PSN title, Aqua Panic! What started out as PSP title (Downstream Panic!) has now been brought to the PlayStation store. But how well does the game play and is it worth purchasing?

The story is very simple: a large number of fish have been swept out of the water by a huge hurricane and they have been stranded in various locations. It's your job to guide them safely back to the sea. Along the way, you will encounter enemies like sharks and birds who would love nothing more than to gobble down your fish companions as well as dangerous vegetation like mushrooms and thorny nuts. And that's about it.

However, the simplicity of the story line is more than made up for in the gameplay. Aqua Panic! is a classic 2D puzzle game. Each level features a maze that players must navigate the fish through in order to return them to a small opening in the water (the opening is surrounded by hungry piranha-looking fish). Failure will result in loss of fish. Different levels require a certain number of fish to be saved in order to complete it, so there is some margin for error, but it isn't very large. By using tools like bombs to open a new pathway, plants to block certain pathways, harpoons to kill enemies, etc., you will quickly find just how much thought will have to go into the successful planning and navigation of a level.

The first few levels in Aqua Panic are very simple but rest assured, that doesn't last for long. The difficulty curve ramps up exponentially in a short period of time. There are 80 levels in total, and despite the game being a downloadable title, you're looking at a considerable time sink to get through them all. The addition of gates that must be opened to allow the fish to access new areas, teleportation devices, and clouds that can hold your fish to be dumped out later will provide players with hours of puzzle solving. You'll often find yourself spending more time planning how to accomplish the level than actually initiating the plan.