Aqua Panic is the same game we played under a different heading, as Downstream Panic for the PSP, a few years ago. Playing on a small screen didn't showcase the graphics nearly as much as playing in high-def on the iPad, but the graphics appear not to have changed much, if at all. The design ethos for Aqua Panic is colorful and fun, but the fish you're trying to save tend to slip by too quickly to really be appreciated. They are mostly just smiley icons that either find their way to the bottom of the level safely, or get chomped between the bright, white teeth of some really big fish. The water effects are really what Aqua Panic is all about, since you have to closely monitor the flow of water to ensure you get those fish down safely. Learning to visually "read" each level is an important part of winning, and over time, you start to see the places where water will spill over and where it can be diverted. The interface is kept clean enough, with just a few places at the top right and bottom left where you'll regularly get involved. The placement of power-up items isn't intuitive, but you can always glance at the targeting reticule to see which item you have equipped. There are some great clues in the audio that tip you off when your fish are missing their mark and being eaten. You'll be able to quickly divert and examine failure points in the level, thanks to these devices.

When all the fish in the world are trapped and need to be rescued, it's up to you to keep them out of harm's way. They're actually swept up by a giant typhoon or waterspout, and deposited in little water bubbles that you pop to free them. Aqua Panic takes advantage of the iPad's portrait viewing angle to showcase each level, a series of ledges your fish will dribble down to reach their goal once you release them. Waiting at the bottom are a line of big hungry fish, but there is always a safe spot where you can dump your little fish.

Aqua Panic is about taking advantage of the landscape and strategically using items provided at the beginning of each level to rescue a certain number of fish. Single-level replays and a Survival Mode can be unlocked as you progress through the game, but the first levels are strategically placed to educate you on the game's mechanics. Gravity and the flow of water around fixed obstacles won't be your only challenge in the game. Hungry predators and tricky gateways (introduced first as snails that rotate to let water through) must be dealt with, and you can use your growing inventory of items to address impossible geography. The mix is a nice one, and keeps Aqua Panic from getting old fast. There are coins you can collect through the game, placed in areas of the level you can only reach by using your wits and special items. This becomes a sidebar to the main action and improves replay considerably.

It isn't that Aqua Panic is such a hard game, but we disliked the way it forced a trial-and-error style of play on us. If you're a puzzle-game wizard, you may be able to predict the flow of water through the level and place your items perfectly to avoid sacrificing even one fish. Most people won't get it exactly right, because even if you read the general trend correctly, misplacing an item by even a fraction will result in water being diverted and you losing fish. The play style that this encourages is to just to hit the Start button right away and watch how your fish get murderized. You can then start to engineer a solution from the bottom up. It may or may not be how the developers intended it, but we wanted a few more intuitive systems in the game. Once the combinations of items gets complex enough, Aqua Panic is out of reach for younger gamers. It's a bit too cute for older (or cooler) gamers, so that leaves a gap. If you can look past the saccharine exterior, the depth of gameplay and replay value is great. Even when you think you've designed the perfect level, there will be that one item that wasn't placed exactly in the right spot that hangs you up. There are also real-time triggers that have to be controlled (like the snails), so it isn't like every level is a fire-and-forget proposition. It's perfect for a young player who has a parent or older sibling to go to when the level of challenge gets too knotty.

Touch turns out to be a decent interface for Aqua Panic. We can only vaguely remember the PSP controls, but these kinds of games always had you cycling through items with the face buttons or the shoulder buttons, while the Analog Stick would be used for placing the targeting reticule. On the iPad, decisions have to be made about how many buttons to recreate, versus how many to adapt to touch. In this case, everything was adapted to touch. The upside of this is that you don't have any distraction on the screen with virtual sticks or buttons. The downside is that there's a learning curve on the controls. The two most common things are scrolling up or down, and moving the target to use an item. Items are really a three-part proposition, since you have to select the right item from a list, then move the target to the right spot, then use the item. This is all done through tapping and touching, and works reasonably well. It would have been smarter to have a contextual menu that appeared on the screen when you double-tapped or did a squeeze/pinch gesture, to keep things close to the action. Scrolling works through a two-finger gesture, with the iPad being smart enough to register this as different than the single tap or slide used for items. It takes some getting used to, but Aqua Panic does use the iPad interface smartly to adapt the more complex console interface to a screen. The game as a whole was improved in the transition, even if the visuals and gameplay are unchanged. Not every game will benefit from being ported to iPad, but Aqua Panic is one that will likely find an expanded audience as a result of the move. Instead of becoming a repository for shovelware, how nice to think the iPad may breathe life into quirky sleeper titles like this one!