Official Review
Previous games in the series of short and colorful 3D platformers have had a mantra of 'easy to pick up, difficult to master', and if you've indulged in any of them and have been hankering for something a bit more 'difficult to pick up, aching to master', well you've struck gold here, sunshine.
Toree's Panic Pack is a collection of three smaller games aimed squarely at the experienced small yellow bird pilots of the world. You've got Toree Genesis, a delightful little three-stage romp; Toree Jumbled Jam 2, which introduces four more, far longer stages than those in Genesis; and lastly Toree Missions. We'll get back to that last one in a bit.
All the seven new stages present in the first two games rank you on your speed, have a spray of stars to collect, and Genesis even hides three 'Shards' in each of its stages, allowing you to unlock Super Toree, bearing fantastic speed and more responsive turning and movement.
And this is where Toree's Panic Pack (and every Toree game, frankly) comes into its own. You'll likely blast through once to reach the goal, another to collect all the stars, and myriad more to achieve that glorious S Rank. A single playthrough of these two may only take you half an hour, but Toree is just so much fun to control, it's nothing but a joy to go back and clear these bite-sized bonus challenges.
As we alluded earlier, though, this ain't your grandma's Toree. Toree Jumbled Jam 2 especially ramps up the difficulty to degrees not yet seen in the series and, by Jingo, are they satisfying to finally master.
Toree Missions on the other hand… let's just say the skull next to the final row of six is absolutely on point. There are 24 missions in total requiring you to complete tasks such as defeating all the enemies, collecting all the stars, or navigating sporadic platforms in low gravity. They're reasonably simple to begin with, but their difficulty only ever increases as you progress. You'll need to be a true Toree master to best these stages.
Some of the stages in this collection don't feel quite as refined as those found in Toree 3D or Toree 2, and the game's arcade-like nature means it won't hold your attention for hours and hours on end, but what Toree's Panic Pack sets out to do, it achieves with ease. It's a fun and fast 3D platformer with surprising replayability (i.e. a Toree game), a rock-bottom price of entry, and a heaping barrelful of charm to fall in love with.
