Space Lift Danger Panic! (Nintendo 3DS) Review

The narrative portion of Space Lift Danger Panic! is told through small bits of text that appear at the beginning of each stage in the story mode. Here, players learn of the Ceranthian people, the denizens of planet Space-StarX5. The story bits that are gradually doled out do a surprisingly solid job of covering a lot of Ceranthian history, with each stage completed bringing players closer to understanding the Ceranthian's current plight. That plight is what drives the actual gameplay featured, wherein the Ceranthian citizens need to be saved from certain doom.

There's not much point in going into great detail regarding the story for this review considering it's not a lengthy experience and unveiling much will likely spoil the experience. However, it is worth mentioning that the story is well-written, succinct, and feels akin to a sci-fi short story. Outside of the solid soundtrack, the story feels like the most important aspect, which is surprising considering that the game appears to be nothing more than a tapping time-waster at first glance.

Space Lift Danger Panic! is primarily built around two modes, Mission Mode and Survival. Mission Mode acts as the campaign, or story portion of the game. This is divided up into forty missions, with the first five acting as tutorials that introduce players to the tapping controls, collecting coins, and saving the Ceranthian's from falling to their deaths. From there the missions introduce the aforementioned story elements, which preface each mission selected.

Survival is somewhat self-explanatory, serving as an endless stage of falling Ceranthians, which applies a score to the number caught and uploads that to online leader-boards, which are divided into overall players and friends, and, quite honestly, are not heavily populated on the 3DS.