Pang Adventures is the latest game that brings the Pang brothers back to life, developed and published by the French studio DotEmu. You may not have heard of the Pang brothers, especially if you are under 25 years old, but for those that remember them and enjoyed playing any of their former adventures over the years, then you will be pleased to play with them once again on the new generation of consoles.
Originally released back in 1983 by the name of Cannon Ball, it has acquired some new names along the years, such as Bubble Buster and Buster Bros. The adventures of the Pang Brothers have also seen five sequels since the early ’90s, including the newest Pang Adventures. Although the game has acquired various names over the years, the core of the game itself has always stayed the same. You and a friend stand at the bottom of the screen while you cooperate to pop as many bubbles as you can. Once you pop one, it splits into two smaller ones that eventually will get so small that they finally disappear upon you popping them. The objective is to pop all the bubbles on screen before the time ends. Pang Adventures can either be played solo or in local co-op.
The game is divided into three modes: Tour Mode, Panic Mode and Score Attack. The first one, Tour Mode, acts like a campaign. You will be traveling around the world clearing out stages and after each location is clear you will then face a boss. There are a total of ninety levels plus six bosses. Panic Mode gives you three lives and the only objective is to survive as many waves as you can, with a total of 99 waves. This mode also features Xbox Live leaderboards which is always a good feature as you can battle with your friends and see who is able to survive longer and score more points. The third mode, Score Attack, is only available after you complete the Tour Mode, and it will give you three lives to complete the entire campaign without any continues, so once you run out of lives you will have to start it from scratch. Score Attack is a mode designed for hardcore gamers, since beating the game with only 3 lives isn’t exactly an easy task to do. On both Score Attack and Panic Mode, you will be able to refill your life meter by achieving a certain score milestone while playing them.
Although you always start any level or game mode with the same weapon, a grappling hook, there are a variety of weapons and power-ups that you can catch during the stages. Those weapons and powerups go from flamethrowers to ninja shurikens, time stopping and even shields that grant you extra protection against the deadly space bubbles.
In terms of controls, Pang Adventures uses basic controls. You can move your character left or right using either the D-Pad or the left analog stick, and you use almost any other button to fire your weapon. Pressing the Y button will quickly restart the level.
Both graphically and in terms of soundtrack the game looks and sounds great. The game is full of colorful and appealing background art that changes from location to location, and in Panic Mode it uses a more psychedelic environment. The character’s animations are smooth, and even the various objects that appear in some stages are well made, giving you a sense of joy, especially if you know the game from its early years. The soundtrack relies on an upbeat tune with satisfying sound effects.
Summary
Pang Adventures is a challenging blast of nostalgia from the past that brings enough new mechanics to give the Pang series a fresh feel without taking it too far from the spirit of the original concept. Co-op is a lot of fun and it certainly helps in some parts to have another player on your side. Fans of the series will love Pang Adventures but for newcomers, it may be seen as a bit repetitive after a while.
João is a games journalist, Senior Editor at XDA Developers. They contributed 156 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: previously reported for Neowin before joining XDA Developers in 2021, where he leads coverage of Windows, Microsoft, and hardware.