Game Reviews

Parachute Panic

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Parachute Panic
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Jumping out of an aeroplane is one of those things I always tell people I'd like to do in a vain attempt to sound interesting, even though I have no intention of ever doing it.

If skydiving with a qualified instructor strapped to my back and the proposition of landing safely on the ground is too much for me to bear, the chances of me doing it aiming for a moving ship, avoiding attacking sharks and UFOs, while picking up fish and storks to keep me alive, is especially remote.

Parachute Panic is far from an accurate replication of what actually happens when you jump out of a plane, of course. Both in terms of application and visual style, FDG's air dive is, in crude terms, more akin to Doodle Jump in reverse.

Ships away

Instead of making your way up into the sky, your job is to guide a series of parachutists to safety on board a number of ships waiting in the sea below.

At your disposal is the ability to launch each man's parachute – via the '5' key – blow them left or right with gusts of air, and fight off impending alien attacks and so forth by hammering away on your keypad before they manage to hammer you.

The process of dropping towards safety is a journey fraught with danger, with storm clouds amassing with said UFOs to zap your men into oblivion when in range.

Add in the fact that the ships you need to guide your men towards (often several are available at a time) move back and forth with startling regularity, and you have a game where death is a question of when rather than if.

Jumping for joy

The fact that game over can come so readily – the end happening if several men fall to their deaths at once – makes Parachute Panic a game you want to try several times over in a matter of minutes.

Notching up a high score always seems attainable at the start, despite the obvious hazards that lay ahead.

Such perils have featured in previous versions of Parachute Panic, and it's to FDG's credit that play remains so faithful. Though a touchscreen undoubtedly feels a more suitable set up for Parachute Panic control-wise, using a keypad instead is a more than adequate alternative.

As such, Parachute Panic on mobile is the same proposition it is on any other format.

Like Doodle Jump before it, expect the number of minutes you spend playing it to wrack up, even if your score doesn't.

Parachute Panic

Delivered in almost faultless form, Parachute Panic's death drop is as addictive as it's ever been
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.