For the rock band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

, see Panic! at the Disco

Panic! at the Disco

Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...

.

Panic! (known as Switch! in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

) is a video game for the Sega CD that involves pressing numerous buttons in order to transverse a young boy or his dog through a complex labyrinth. The game was originally released in Japan, and had some risque "gags" that were assumed to be edited out if the game ever got a North American release. However, in 1994, Data East USA

Data East

also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy...

 decided to publish the game in North America, renamed but otherwise un-cut. The game was also released for the PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 in 2002.

Gameplay

During the intro, the game explains that a virus has infected the world's computer systems, and the player (a boy who has been sucked into his TV) must carry an antidote to the central computer to fix it. To this end, the boy must traverse a grid of levels, pushing buttons to advance.

Gameplay for Panic! is very minimalistic, and likely the reason of its very low sales figures. Each level is presented as a new area with a mechanical device of varying utility and sanity, and a set of buttons to press. Each button causes an animation and/or teleports the boy to another room. Sometimes the buttons are booby-trapped and cause the destruction of a variety of monuments, including famous ones (like The Great Wall of China) and not-so-famous ones (a grass hut or a doghouse). The grid also features a few game over

Game over

Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...

s on the grid, marked by flashing skulls on the map. The buttons themselves have no indication on what they do unless pressed, which makes gameplay little more than trial and error

Trial and error

Trial and error, or trial by error, is a general method of problem solving, fixing things, or for obtaining knowledge."Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again."...

: players who enjoy the animations might frustrate over constant teleporting. It is also possible to backtrack into previous levels, and buttons once pressed are not marked, unless they were booby-trapped.

Reception

Panic! was one of only 12 games in GamePro

GamePro

GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...

history to earn a score of 1.0 or lower. It should be noted, however, that a few other magazines at the time had given the game positive scores for its surrealist humor. Notably Game Players

Game Players

Game Players was a monthly video game magazine founded by Robert C. Lock and published by Signal Research, in Greensboro, North Carolina. The original publication was titled Game Players Strategy to Nintendo Games...

magazine, describing the game as being made "for people on drugs, by people on drugs."

Richard Leadbetter, editor of Mean Machines Sega, awarded the Japanese version of the game a score of 90%.

External links

• Panic! at Hardcore Gaming 101
• Panic featured onClassicGaming
• Panic on Everything2