Pretty Girls Panic! (Nintendo Switch) Review

Ever played Qix, or its many variations, clones, and rip-offs? This was an arcade-style game that was (and kind off still is) popular in the Japanese market, where the purpose was to unveil a picture by drawing lines in the screen in order to close "sectors," and thus unlock that part of the picture, while also being careful to not let enemies touch your line. Needless to say that this formula was used for a many a reveal-the-girl titles, which makes it a perfect candidate for the 'Pretty Girls' line of casual-friendly titles.

Long story short, Pretty Girls Panic! is Qix. How good of a Qix game it is, though? Well, a comfortingly painted by-the-numbers one, without any particular innovations to talk about. There's a bunch of critters that move around, each one in its own way, and there are power-ups that can temporary make the main character (octopus Japanese chef?) move faster, stop time, or become invincible. Pretty standard stuff, with not much in the way of variety, which means that it can get a bit repetitive after a while.

The secondary objective besides… well, completing a level, is to reach the highest possible score, by playing faster, unveiling large portions of the screen, and not losing lives. The real secondary objective, of course, is unlocking girls and outfits. In that regard, this has lots of girls to unlock, with about two additional outfits per girl, with the only flaw being how unimaginative these outfits are, at least compared to something like Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire, which offers a more fulfilling menu of tropes. The pictures themselves are also a bit low-res, but that's just a minor nit-pick.

It should be noted that the final three or so girls can give you hell, with multiple foes that rarely give you some breathing room, which can lead the impatient player to lose lots of lives, and even games if not careful. These levels can be annoying, because they force you to unveil the picture underneath in a painfully slow manner. Thankfully, this retains the "franchise's" super casual-friendly approach, with the Easy mode providing more lives, and fewer, as well as slower enemies.