Sometimes you just need that old-school arcade hit of pure, focused, fast-paced gameplay. The team at Flying Rat Studio feels this too and have been working hard on their latest project, Pit Panic, reviving this simple notion: you have to get to the top.
Pit Panic takes place in a pit. It might not take much of a syntactic leap to assume that there might also be some panic along the way. It’s an old-school arcade experience, evoking memories of classics like Mr Driller, Dig Dug and Spelunky, while wrapping it in an utterly charming 2026 skin.
You are an adventurer. You can tell immediately because you have a backpack. This happy little guy probably knows what he’s gotten himself into, because he’s already at the bottom of a pit, the Aztec temple is collapsing above him, and he’s geared up and ready to climb. The Hook is above all in your arsenal of tools. This device can break blocks from a distance, lets you pick up items to throw, such as bombs and jars, and can collect items or keys to help you progress.
There are real risks and rewards at work in Pit Panic, as you have the option to trade health for power-ups or return coins you’ve collected from gold blocks. You can expand your moveset this way, for example by performing a double jump to make it easier to climb higher, while still opening things up in one direction. Your little adventurer is surprisingly spry for a guy with a huge backpack and a mechanical claw, but you’ll need every one of his tricks to keep your race going, and it gets trickier and more frenetic the further you go.
You must plot your own route, carefully choosing which blocks to break and which to leave alone. Some blocks are permanent, while others, like the rickety crates, will break after a while and you will have to wait for them to respawn. There are also much more dangerous blocks to avoid, either being filled with explosives or falling on top of you when you remove the block below them, instantly crushing you and sending you back to the start.
This can sometimes be a misleading experience. You can climb the ranks and chart your own route through the level. But danger lurks! After accidentally triggering the temple – I had done quite a few accidental things on my first attempt – the area begins to fill with water, forcing you to move much faster as you try to outrun the rising water. That would be the “panic” of the title, wouldn’t it?
Everything here is made by hand. The levels are non-procedural and the team has put together a mind-blowing 1,100 stages to play your way through. When my first run ended in an ignominious flattening, I wanted to try again immediately, which is exactly what Flying Rat Studio wanted. Luckily for me, I was able to hop on a Steam Deck while someone else tried out the PC version, and I felt perfectly comfortable on the portable rig.
There are four different biomes to navigate, and the bright, attractive visuals hide a daunting challenge, forcing you to make split-second decisions that may or may not pan out. With daily leaderboards and future plans for a level editor that will put design tools directly into players’ hands, Flying Rat Studios is clearly hoping to create a thriving community around the game, one that it absolutely deserves.
Pit Panic is going to release on just about everything, with a demo arriving soon, leading up to the game’s full release in July. If you’re ready for an old-school arcade hit, Pit Panic is just what you need.
