Polar Panic, a PS3 game review


As far as silly game ideas goes, I would have never thought one might include a polar bear. Polar Panic is a game published by Valcom Games, developed by Elconic games for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for their download services.

At it’s core, Polar Panic is a puzzle game. There are three different game types, one of which is the only clear puzzle mode, but each add an interesting new twist on the same game. The main focus is on using blocks of ice to either take out Hunters or to get where you need to go.

The puzzle mode itself is quite entertaining. 50 Levels, seems a bit like a minute number considering each level doesn’t take an extremely long time to accomplish, but they’re all quite entertaining and perfecting your times on each level can make up for that limited number.

In the story mode there is some frustration in only being able to use ice(and occasionally a box of explosives) to take out the enemies when they have things like flame throwers, guns, and… wooden clubs. There isn’t a lot wrong with the game mode, but it is far more frustrating than the Puzzle mode. The lack of the ability to start a level over until you beat the chapter is something I’m not incredibly fond of either.

There isn’t really much story to go on, but there really doesn’t need to be. You’re a polar bear, an evil company kidnaps polar bears and you have to bring down that company saving your family and fellow Ursus maritimus by pushing blocks of ice. With a game that’s not entirely unlike Bomberman you really don’t need much more than that for a story. The story does come with an interesting art style and some good graphics though.

The third game type, survival, is a pretty simple mode not unlike the story mode in it’s aim. Four people can play this game type locally, and focuses on little more than survival and killing hunters with blocks of ice. The small changes that make this game type different also make it somewhat more entertaining than the story mode.

It quickly becomes apparent that being a polar bear means very little in the game because you, your razor sharp claws, and the muscles that come with being a polar bear, mean nothing to small man block of wood. I understand the choice for this, it just becomes a slightly funny that a giant bear rippling with muscles and destruction gets felled by a wooden club.

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