When the Bears of Perfection Island went on holiday to Paradise Island, Naughty Bear was not invited. Naughty Bear manages to secretly travel with the other bears, duct-taped to the exterior of the bus. With a list of bears who wronged him in hands, Naughty is ready to make them pay, one by one...

Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise is a fun, twisted game that sees you play as the not so cute and cuddly Naughty Bear. He has a problem with the rest of the bears in the woods, and when they go on vacation without him, he tags along without them knowing and then sets about killing them one by one in gruesome, ironic ways.

The game is fairly straightforward. You play as Naughty Bear and have to navigate each level and kill your target bear in a certain way. So, for example, one bear who is fond of gardening (and has created a giant bear eating plant) must be fed to his own creation.

There's a lot of sneaking around involved (you can't let other bears spot you or they will warn any security bears nearby (who are armed with strong weapons). If you are spotted and a bear gives chase, you can either fight them to the death, or run and hide in a wooded area. The later is usually the most effective, as you can then wait until they lose interest, sneak out and grab them. You can then drag them back into the woods and kill them, take them to any nearby special object and kill them in amusing ways, or you can kill them where they stand. If you kill them in the woods this means that your presence stays a secret, but if you kill them in plain sight any bear that wanders past will be scared (which gives you extra points, but could see them running to a nearby phone or escaping the island in one of the vehicles). You also get extra points if other bears witness the kill, an attack or the screams of the bear you are killing.

You can also disguise yourself by taking a bear into the woods and skinning them - emerging from the area looking like the bear you've just killed. This has the effect of disguising you to some of the other bears. Any bears you see with a heart over their head indicates that they will think you are the bear whose disguise you are wearing. So it's easy to walk right up to them and kill them. As long as no other bears see you then you should be able to get away with the disguise for some time.

In your environment there are weapons you can pick up and use as well as other more powerful ones you need to destroy - as the other bears can use these items to attack you.

Once you've killed the target bear in the desired way, you can leave the level and progress to one of the new ones you have unlocked. Or you can revisit older levels and complete some of the mini missions (like finding the golden key and unlocking the hidden room or collecting all of the hidden invites and destroying them.)

As funny as this game is, I thought that it would get old very quickly - I mean, come on, there are only so many times you can laugh as you rip apart a cute stuffed bear. But, surprisingly, the joke never gets old... and just when you're starting to tire, along comes another level with new bears, traps and weapons.

At the low retail price, this is certainly a game I'd recommend, but you can try out the free demo on Xbox Marketplace first.

8

Darren Rea