A virus has infected the world's computer network, which effects all electronical devices on the earth. However, a special program called "Panic!" is designed to counter the effects of the virus and restore the network back to working order. You play Slap the Boy and his sidekick, Stick the Dog(they're not actions, it's their names) who set out to restore the network back to working order.
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Really funny, actually. Now to figure out how to progress.
Absolutely wild that a game like this could not only get all the go-aheads to become a full retail release, but also manage to get localized for an english market. The fact that it did though is raw as fuck
This is like the least gamey video game to ever game the videos. You basically use a cursor to push a variety of buttons in a variety of different rooms, and that's it. Some buttons take you to a different room, some buttons destroy a world landmark, and most buttons just play a very inconsequential gag. There is zero way to know what button will do what, so push away and hope for the best! There is an in-game map to show how deep in the madness you are, and provided you remember (or write down) which buttons take you where then the game is a cinch. That being said, the core second-to-second gameplay is essentially just russian roulette, and while that sounds horrible on paper, idk the games short and amusing enough to make it work. Most of the fun just comes from seeing what the fuck kind of weird shit is gonna happen, and it's a great game to show to friends just to see how they react.
I assumed that this game served as a tech demo for Data East to understand using the sega CD hardware or something, but apparently this is the only game they made on this system and mobygames lists the director and primary graphics credit as only having worked on this sole game and nothing else so maybe this game is the result of a passion project, who knows. The sheer amount of dumb characters, animations, setpieces, and one-off jokes definitely gave me the impression that they wanted to make something that could only be done with the space of a CD-ROM disc at the time, and by god, they succeeded. Ain't no way in hell you could have fit this on a game cartridge. Honestly give it a try and very quickly you will find out whether or not you'll be into it.
This is like the least gamey video game to ever game the videos. You basically use a cursor to push a variety of buttons in a variety of different rooms, and that's it. Some buttons take you to a different room, some buttons destroy a world landmark, and most buttons just play a very inconsequential gag. There is zero way to know what button will do what, so push away and hope for the best! There is an in-game map to show how deep in the madness you are, and provided you remember (or write down) which buttons take you where then the game is a cinch. That being said, the core second-to-second gameplay is essentially just russian roulette, and while that sounds horrible on paper, idk the games short and amusing enough to make it work. Most of the fun just comes from seeing what the fuck kind of weird shit is gonna happen, and it's a great game to show to friends just to see how they react.
I assumed that this game served as a tech demo for Data East to understand using the sega CD hardware or something, but apparently this is the only game they made on this system and mobygames lists the director and primary graphics credit as only having worked on this sole game and nothing else so maybe this game is the result of a passion project, who knows. The sheer amount of dumb characters, animations, setpieces, and one-off jokes definitely gave me the impression that they wanted to make something that could only be done with the space of a CD-ROM disc at the time, and by god, they succeeded. Ain't no way in hell you could have fit this on a game cartridge. Honestly give it a try and very quickly you will find out whether or not you'll be into it.
this would have sold gangbusters if it was released in the peak lol random years
It's goofy and charming in the right dose, even far more bold that many edgy games that came out later and even today.
I always thought Panic! was one of the trippy non-games that later became so common on the Playstation, but this feels much more like Nintendo's brand of odd odyssey. My elevator pitch here is, "what if WarioWare was an escape room?" Panic! has the absurdist minimalism and hilarious ambiguity of WarioWare, but through a point and click adventure lens. There is a massive tree of mini-scenes you are stumbling through (I love the pause screen that shows you the map, it gives a sense that there is some deep order behind the madness), and the puzzles swing between nonsense and understated logical brilliance.
It's a wonderful ride of a game, an experience that I think anyone could pickup and play to some extent, so in that way it's one of the more accessible highlights on the Sega CD.
It's a wonderful ride of a game, an experience that I think anyone could pickup and play to some extent, so in that way it's one of the more accessible highlights on the Sega CD.
I installed the Sega CD BIOS today and tested it out with this game. Hard to call this much of a "game" necessarily, you just press buttons and goofy things happen. Not too far off from a browser game, or something like the Homestar Runner website, but with a lot more content overall. There really is a surprising amount of stuff to see here, and it can be completed in anywhere from 20 minutes to multiple hours.
I think this is a lot of fun, just doing fuckall and watching nonsense take place, but I can see it not really working for everybody. I really like it because it reminds me of a lot of the things I played when I was very little, like on the old Nick Jr website for example. I must've been 6 or so when they rebranded and changed the website and I remember crying like a bitch about it. They also changed the fries at Wendy's that year, twas a rough time.
I think this is a lot of fun, just doing fuckall and watching nonsense take place, but I can see it not really working for everybody. I really like it because it reminds me of a lot of the things I played when I was very little, like on the old Nick Jr website for example. I must've been 6 or so when they rebranded and changed the website and I remember crying like a bitch about it. They also changed the fries at Wendy's that year, twas a rough time.