Platform: PS3 (also on Xbox 360)

Developer: Behaviour Interactive

Publisher: 505 Games

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 & Up)

Official Site

Score: B (80%)

A much more improved update to the original Naughty Bear (one of the great guilty pleasures for me this console cycle), Naughty Bear: Panic In Paradise adds more of everything fans asked for plus whatever wackiness developer Behaviour Interactive (formerly Artificial Mind & Movement) cooked up to make this a bigger and better game experience. While the visual style is the same (deceptively plain for the most part), the amount of content here is staggering, particularly if you’re a gamer who has to unlock every single piece of gear and uncover every secret. Add in a budget price point and you’re getting a ton of game here for not a lot of loot, always a good thing in this day and age.

The wafer-thin plot about poor Naughty being snubbed by his fellow bears by not getting an invite to a big bash is only the latest excuse for Bear to set off on a rampage through some massive maps that involve dispatching stuffed ursines by the boatload, usually one at a time, with extreme prejudice. Well, as “extreme” as you can get with an E10+ rating, no blood or rough language. Actually, the lack of gore and swearing didn’t stop Behaviour from showing off even more shockingly brutal (bloodless) kills that involve lots of shoving bears into hot charcoal grills, decapitating or otherwise dismembering them and even blowing holes in them on occasions where their own guns are turned against them.  Despite all the fluff flying about, the game is pretty hilarious on a near-constant level if you’re wired into its finer points (and you can appreciate all the pop culture and other references).

Customization is a huge key to the gameplay and with hundreds of outfits, weapons, hairstyles and more, there’s an enormous amount of replay value to be had here. There’s a great “RPG-like” addition to the game where each element of your chosen costume and gear adds or subtracts from Bear’s skills, so picking the proper getup can help or hinder your progression. Some missions will require you to wear the face and clothing of a previously de-stuffed foe, allowing you to get up close and personal to targets as you try to get them into areas where you can take them out unmolested. You’ll find out VERY quickly that the AI doesn’t take too kindly to you being open about your killing sprees. Despite intentionally being dumb as rocks when not alerted (as I noted in my preview, you’re dealing with stuffed toys here, so as a default they’re all about as on the ball as Winnie the Pooh on a honey bender), once you’re spotted, expect to be sniped, knifed and otherwise keelhauled unless you’re very, very good about locating hiding spots in the “woods” scattered throughout each map.

Controls are solid and responsive for the most part with only camera control becoming a problem in tight spots where you can’t seem to get a good angle. A good thing to do (in fact, it’s HIGHLY recommended for every map) is explore every inch and make note of hiding spots, enemy patterns and escape routes. Doing so makes the tougher maps a lot less frustrating. This isn’t a run around and kill everything that moves game at all, although once you get good at knocking off enemies, you’ll be racking up coins galore to spend on better gear. There are secrets and in-jokes scattered all around the different areas, but you’ll need to e well-versed in pop culture to catch everything. I’m an old coot, so I got a chuckle at even the corniest of things Behavior stuck into maps.  As usual with these gags, your mileage will vary in terms of the laughs you get.

On the presentation side, the game looks and sounds fine throughout (it’s not competing with anything but the original game I’d say), but there seems to be a random sound glitch when Naughty unleashes his scary “Booooooooo!” on unsuspecting enemies. Sometimes the sound isn’t there at all (oops!), but all the enemies react accordingly each time (a good thing). If you’re paying attention (and in this game, you should be), you can go on about your killing and chasing down frightened bears with relish even if you don’t hear that fright noise. There’s a nice selection of tunes here that have a mix of tropical vibes along with suitably effective music for Naughty’s sneaking about and bumping off baddies.  The game could use a patch to stabilize a few things, but overall if you liked the original, you’re going to be all over this sequel like it’s water in the desert.

My only real gripe here is it’s a download only release over PSN and Xbox Live, meaning there are going to be a lot of people who aren’t able to access this one at all because they don’t have or use PSN or XBLA. Granted, in a perfect world, this would be on a disc with the first game included as a bonus for a nice price ($29.99 sounds about right), but I guess we’ll have to hope the digital version does well enough that 505 Games sees fit to think about getting this out as a retail release. It’s also too bad this wasn’t available as a cross-platform download on the Vita, as Sony’s handheld can certainly use more games that take advantage of that functionality and PiP seems like it would be a perfect fit. I can see a third game coming on the horizon that improves upon the changes here even more, but we’ll see what happens with sales of this one, as that’s the big decider, right?

But that’s neither here nor there – the big, burning up in a hot bar-be-que grill question is should YOU buy the new Naughty Bear game? I say yes indeed, as it’s something that’s going to grow on you if you’re new to it and if you loved the first game, this one will surprise the heck out of you with how much better it is in every aspect.