Push Panic is a Match-3 puzzle game that will make you curse, mutter, and snarl– favorably. The rules are remarkably straightforward. Once you have them down pat, you’ll say, “Wait, that’s it?” And you’ll wonder how developer Barry Kostjens scraped up the chutzpah to sell a seemingly kindergarten-level exercise in color-matching as a game.

Once you’ve cleared the first level of Classic Mode, however, you’ll be humbled. Push Panic is no pushover. It calls for quick thinking and quicker reflexes. Multiple gameplay modes keep you from becoming bored, and the constant push to better your score will keep your eyes fastened to the iPhone.

Just when you think you’ve nailed everything Push Panic has to offer, Openfeint will assure you that you are in fact a pansy, and that all your friends are scoring higher than you. Are you going to take that?

To score in Push Panic, you must clear away the similarly-colored blocks that pour from the top of the screen. Touching a block marks it, and pushing a marked block again clears away all the blocks you’ve branded. Then you do it again, and again, until you’ve cleared away the requisite number of blocks to advance. Bonus blocks modify your score by letting you double your points, link block colors, or clear the screen with a bomb.

Push Panic

PROS

• Frantic block-tapping gameplay.
• An elegant mixture of pacing with power-ups that tempt you to wait one second longer.
• Color eye-candy visuals and smooth effects.
• Live online score comparisons.

CONS

• ‘Classic’ mode is too slow to progress; hard to use as a practice tool.
• Buggy ‘slowdown’ issues with iOS 4.1

People Also Viewed :