Review written by Jonsev

Particle Panic is basically a puzzle game of the Tetris genre. In reality it is more akin to a game called Columns which appeared on the Sega GameGear in the early 90’s, but it involves objects falling which have to be skilfully arranged in order to score points, so you get the general idea.

Specifically, Particle Panic has a scientific theme, where you take on the role of a scientist who is charged with arranging the four different varieties of particle – defined by colour (red, yellow, brown & green) – into groups of four, so they are adjacent, in order to cause a chemical reaction. When you achieve this, causing them to explode, they are removed from the playing area, causing the other particles, which were resting on top of them to fall down and fill the void. In the same way as making lines in Tetris provides more room in the playing area, the chemical reaction creates space, to ease play and keep everything under control.

Both score and excitement are increased by the fact that when you cause a chemical reaction, the particles that were previously separated now come into contact with each other. If the result is that 4 or more connect with one another, then they will also explode, leaving the potential for a huge chain reaction, which will achieve a bigger points total. For seasoned players it will become possible to plan far in advance for cataclysmic reactions, and some heavy scoring, but this Nirvana is far from easy to reach!

Quite apart from the fact that even on level one the game is fast paced, and even with some practice it is difficult to keep up no matter how good you are, the developers have thrown a spanner in the works by way of ‘contaminants’ identifiable as black particles. These are randomly dropped into the gaming area, and can utterly ruin all your cleverly laid plans for a chain-reaction. This causes havoc, as the only way to remove them is to create a reaction around them, which means that you have to think and move fast in order to get rid of them before the next lot arrive!! All in all there is plenty of action to keep even the most demanding puzzle-gamer interested and challenged.

There are really only two words to describe the graphics of Particle Panic: simple but effective. This is by no means a criticism either. As this is ultimately a puzzle game then the last thing you need is annoying animation in the gaming area that is completely pointless and also a distraction – as happened in the N64 game, Puzzle Fighter. The colours are vibrant, and the particles themselves are what can only be described as ‘cute’. There is the seemingly pointless feature, which is dubiously called an ‘advanced’ feature, where you can turn animation of the particles on or off, which only seems to have the effect of making the particles rotate as they fall. This has no effect on the game though and we would be forgiven for asking ‘what’s the point?’. Basically, the graphics do there job about as well as we could expect; simply and effectively.

The sound is in keeping with the graphics in the sense that it is again, simple and effective. It doesn’t intrude on the game-play in any way, and the noises that the Particles make when they explode is again, like the particles themselves, cute. That said, the theme tune that plays whilst you are actually playing the game is incredibly annoying and after about five minutes I found myself turning it off.

The most important aspect of Particle Panic, being a puzzle game, is of course the gameplay. Quite simply, what is it like to play, and is it any fun? To take the second question first, the answer is ‘only in small doses’. On the final analysis Particle Panic is very similar to a game that you would find on a mobile phone. It is great for playing on a bus, or a train when you’ve got ten minutes to kill, but that’s about it. This lack of addictiveness, which is what makes a puzzle game great, is for the most part due to the control interface, which is tricky to use, basically because it’s unresponsive.

The problem is compounded when the lack of a precise control system causes you to make unforced mistakes, which ruins your carefully planned ‘chain reaction’. This gets tedious after just one or two games. This is quite simply a fundamental flaw in the game, as a puzzle game that has a poor control interface is never going to be good, regardless of how well presented it is, as Particle Panic undeniably is.

The one redeeming feature is that it costs less than $6 dollars – about £3.50 for any Brits out there – and so if you can put up with a somewhat annoying control interface, then you will get a game that is quite enjoyable for about ten-minutes on a bus or train on the way to work. The bottom line is that Particle Panic is a well-presented game that is good value for money, which unfortunately is let down buy its poor user interface. There are surely better games of this genre out there but if you’re a die-hard fan, or want something cheap and cheerful to pass the minutes on the bus, then you could probably do a lot worse than Particle Panic.

Pros:

• Inexpensive

• Well presented

• A good substitute for Snake et al.

Cons:

• Annoying jingle, which plays ad nauseam

• Unresponsive control system undermines the game

• You won’t want to play it for more than about 10 minutes

Overall Score: 5/10

Many thanks to DR Creations for providing us with our review copy.

You may wish to search for more reviews of games from DR Creations. Alternatively, you can view all the reviews written by Jonsev.