Naughty Bear Panic in Paradise Review takes you through a Naughty Vengeance.
What a naughty bear…
The original Naughty Bear was released in 2010 and it was a game you either hated or loved. It had a wacky premise where you play as a bear named Naughty who is seeking vengeance on his fellow stuffed bears because they didn’t invite him to a party. The original had all sorts of technical issues and frankly, it just wasn’t very good. Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise comes to us 2 years later as a downloadable game instead of a boxed retail product. Did the switch over to downloadable help Panic in Paradise or is it just more of the same?
The main problem with Naughty Bear Panic in Paradise is its repetitiveness. Each level is a small sandbox where you have to find a certain bear and kill him in a very specific way. The death animations are fun to watch but it quickly wears off after you see the same thing over and over again. The game combines stealth, RPG, and action mechanics in an effective way that gets tiring over time. You collect coins and points as you progress each level that you can use to purchase costumes that alter your stats as well as weapons that allow you to deal more damage and level Naughty up. These RPG elements aren’t exactly necessary though since the stealth in the game make it extremely easy to get through levels without much problem. Alerting bears gets them to chase you but hiding in the woods makes them completely forget about you after a few seconds, which allows you to sneak up on them and do with them as you wish.
There is a good amount of levels, each with its own target. Environments get re-used in later game stages and glitches and other visual problems are consistent throughout the experience. The graphics dont see much of an improvement from the original and the animations start to get repetitive after a few hours of playing. The sound cuts in and out as it pleases and at times is barely noticable, you can easily play this game on mute. The sound of horrified bears will haunt you if you play the game for long enough. There was more than a few times where I had to restart the level due to bugs that wouldn’t allow me to progress. Another issue in the game is the simplicity of the combat. You have a light attack and a heavy attack and not much besides that. You eventually unlock a stronger version of each but I found myself just mashing X to get through the game and I didn’t have any problems at all.
Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise had an opportunity to be something special. The premise of the game is unique enough, it is just sad that they couldn’t take more time to polish it up and fix some of the combat issues. The low price point and the fact that it is downloadable might be enough for some of you to enjoy your time with it but most of you might want to pass on this one. I give it a 6.5/10