The first holiday I went on with my family I can remember three things. I nearly drowned because I wouldn’t let go of the lilo, I fell off and my granddad carried me on his shoulders as we sang Monty Python songs and I played a hell of a lot of Pang in the arcade across the road.
I can’t even remember what country it was that I went to, but I can remember those bouncing balloons and my determination to destroy them all and save the world. I didn’t do a very good job. I was only about five years old, so that’s my excuse. Over the years I would play various versions of it briefly, but I never properly sat down with it and try to do a complete run. Cue Pang Adventures the newest game and the first in the series developed by Pastagames, the team behind Pix the Cat. Adding a few new items to the Pang formula of old and putting a bit of a spin on some of the balloon types it does a great job in feeling familiar whilst trying something new.
I feel this is an important thing for Pang. As a five-year-old I was able to pick it up and understand what I needed to do, even if I lacked the skill to do it properly. If the new game had tried to add in a bunch of moves like dodging or jumping it could prove to be a bit too confusing. It is a rare case where changing very little has actually worked in the games favour.
You move from left to right and fire your harpoon gun thing whilst dodging the balloons and getting various power ups to make that an easier task. Sometimes it will rely on your skill, sometimes it will rely on your timing and sometimes it will add a bit of verticality to the levels. One thing I did notice though is the gradual way the game teaches you its mechanics through its main story mode.
It doesn’t throw every balloon type at you at once and the balloon type you have to battle against in a stage helps prepare you for the boss fight at the end of it. Each boss fight will feel like a challenge, but it is a challenge you’ve been prepared for thanks to the games design. This is particularly handy when playing through the game co-operatively with someone that hasn’t played Pang before.
In one afternoon I played through the entirety of the story mode with my girlfriend, who had never played Pang before. The story mode is just shy of 100 levels and we kept going back for more despite that. This in part due to the game being very quick to let you replay a level if you fail it. The lack of a loading screen is key for keeping you in that “just one more try” loop.
It is a more forgiving experience in multiplayer compared to singleplayer. You have a chance to revive your teammate if you can get to them and it was definitely my preferred way of playing the game. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy playing through it singleplayer, it is just that I felt it was a wonderful couch co-op experience.
If you playthrough the story mode, you unlock the other modes in the game. One is Panic Mode, a game of endurance where you try and survive in one level whilst destroying as many balloons as possible to rack up the highest score. The other is Score Mode, which is much like the classic version of Pang. You try and get to through the story mode, but you only have a certain number of lives to do it in. Both these modes come with a scoreboard, so you can see how you stack up against your friends and the world.
Overall Pang Adventures is a fun game that stays true to the original whilst adding enough new elements to make the experience feel fresh. The graphical style is cute and the gameplay is addictive enough to keep you coming back for more, especially if you’re a fan of old school games. Some gamers may be put off by the limited controls, but for those that are willing to get invested in the way it plays, you’ll be in for a treat that will provide you with several hours of fun.
- You can watch me play through some of Pang Adventures below.