Well I went out to hoping to get Lemmings but the release date had been put back so I ended up exiting the shop with EXIT. And I'm glad I did. It's a lot better than it first sounds.
The game is played on a 2D layout and is based around Mr ESC and his attempts at being a superhero by rescuing people trapped in buildings. Hazard to get past include fires, flooding, electrical faults, high platforms, wide gaps, locked doors and doors that only open one way… to name the main ones. To get around these problems Mr ESC needs to find things like fire extinguishers, keys, planks, ladders, ropes, pick axes, sprinkler buttons, and the help of other people.
The characters that are being rescued can be used to carry out tasks that may need more than one person. And different characters have different abilities and limitations. There are four groups of people. Children need help climbing up and down high drops but can crawl through small gaps and walk along fragile platforms. Young adults are needed to help pull older adults up high steps. Older adults can push big boxes out of the way but need the aforementioned help climbing. And last of all, injured people need to be carried or pushed on a stretcher. Apart from injured people they can all carry out tasks such as going and getting required equipment, using that equipment, or even just standing on a pressure pad that keeps a door open.
You need to carry out the tasks needed to escape in the correct order and as fast as you can. Sometimes it's obvious what needs to be done, but not quite so obvious how to actually do it. For example, you may have moved a large box out of the way but find you can't get back onto the floor above to get the key required to open the next door. Or you might have run out of available fire extinguishers and can't progress any further. Whenever this happens you need to start the level from scratch. This is where some people may get more than a little bit fed up. You see, the pace of the game can be slow. Too slow in places.
Whilst climbing ladders or stairs it seems to take far too long. However, I found it sometimes added to the sense emergency. You can't waste time going backwards and forwards trying to figure things out. Instead you just have to get on with the job and keep trying the level until you've finished it. Then you try it again in an attempt to finish it in a faster time to get a higher score.
The slow pace is more than made up for by the graphics though, which are very stylish, simple, cartoony, bright and easy to look at. This is accompanied by some fantastic animation for the games characters. Anyone who remembers the original Prince of Persia on the PC from around 1990 will know what I mean when I say it's like that, only more detailed. The characters themselves are very basic looking like they have just been cut out of black paper. They fit in with the whole style of the game though and because they are just black and white, they are very easy to see amongst the brightly coloured surroundings.
There are 100 built in levels to complete and with the Wi-Fi connection more are to become available. I have not been able to use the Wi-Fi yet so I don't know what they are like, but the built in ones have a good learning curve and enough variety to keep you coming back for more.
The relatively slow pace may put some people off and having to restart the whole level just because you miss-timed a jump or may annoy others. But I think EXIT is one of the better puzzle games on the PSP and it's just a little bit different from the norm as well, which is becoming too rare an occurence.
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