I thought about it, and I decided we needed one more explormer this year for Indie Game of the Week's penultimate 2021 entry. It's definitely been their year - Metroid Dread, Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Nights, Unsighted, F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch, Grime, Astalon: Tears of the Earth, etc. - though I won't be discovering any of those until next year and beyond. This week's map-based mayhem comes courtesy of Blue Eagle Productions, a.k.a. Paul Schneider, with their 2014 release Super Panda Adventures.

Now, you'd be forgiven for looking at Super Panda Adventures and figuring it for some low-quality product given the crude visuals, which seem to rely heavily on a certain paint program that comes with most versions of Windows. In that respect, the game doesn't offer the most promising first impression. I was happy to discover, then, that it has a solid, combat-focused foundation and a relatively uncommon structure for its genre to set it apart. The story of Super Panda Adventures begins as a not particularly subtle Kung-Fu Panda riff (the protagonist is literally called Fu) and then expands into absolute nonsense about robots invading from outer space, so it's best not to worry too much about the particulars. What's notable is that the game's narrative splits into multiple smaller arcs regarding NPCs you'll encounter a few times, each of whom sends you to complete tasks for rewards. Some vanish for half the game, like Fu's Elvis impersonating Uncle Bob, only to reappear much later on with new tasks. Each of these quest chains culminates with one of the game's big upgrade items, however, so they're all worth it (and in fact necessary) to pursue. The benefit of this format is that there's usually several goals you can pursue at any one time, ideal if you find yourself bouncing off a particularly tough stage or boss since you can always come back with more experience levels and gear.

I would've said Super Panda Adventure's structure was something I hadn't seen before in a game of its type if I hadn't also recently played the similar Super Win the Game, another 2014 release (IGotW #236). Rather than one enormous contiguous map like many explormers, Super Panda Adventures splits itself into multiple stages connected by an overworld map. Most stages can be visited as soon as you have an objective there, but it's unlikely you'll be able to explore the entire area on the first visit: you'll need the right upgrades for that. Given each stage is relatively small, there's no in-game map to peruse - sometimes a dealbreaker when it comes to defining what qualifies as an explormer, but in this case I can understand doing away with implementing the many separate maps the game would need. I found myself bouncing between previously-visited stages whenever I picked up a new traversal upgrade, wanting every advantage possible going forward, and eventually started taking notes when I realized these revisits were using up too much time. An added wrinkle is a key system: each stage has three keys for color-coded doors, some of which are tied into the core progression - for most stages, you're there to pick up a vital item or defeat a boss or meet an NPC to move the plot along - but most are hiding away valuables and their keys are not always so easy to find.

The game has an emphasis on combat, giving Fu three types of weapon to wield soon after his adventure begins: his sword, powerful and capable of crits but limited by its very finite range; the shuriken, which act like boomerangs for some reason and can perform long damage chains at the apex of its throw if you judge the distance right; and spells, which include fireballs and a hammer that can smash through certain blocks. You can get by mashing your way through most fights with minions though the game gets a lot easier to manage if you take advantage of defensive options like the shield, which funnels damage to a separate health bar when active. Bosses need a bit more caution, since they'll drain your health fast even if you take the time to grind a bunch of levels. Speaking of which, experience isn't usually something dropped by enemies: most of the earned XP will instead come from XP items scattered around the environment (the bigger earners are naturally in harder to reach places) or gained through combo bonuses. You can also buy XP directly, as there's not much else to spend coins on besides health refills. Skill points earned upon levelling then go towards various passive perks, like added damage for each weapon type, more health, more armor, mana regeneration, longer post-damage invincibility periods, and so on. I didn't level up anywhere close to enough times to max out these skills, so there's some player determinant prioritizing required. It's not the most sophisticated combat system I've seen in an explormer but all its frantic hopping around avoiding projectiles while utilizing multiple ranges at once does give it a certain arcade appeal, as do common explormer upgrades like a ledge grab and gliding for the platforming half of the equation.

There's a number of elements of Super Panda Adventures that feel incongruous to the "expanded Flash game" attitude of its presentation. The first is a suspiciously good soundtrack by one James Dean, who I'm sure has heard all the jokes already so I'll just say that if they're not recognized as a Giant of the freelance Indie soundtrack scene they ought to be. Here's the richly elegant track that introduces the game and almost sounds like something from You Only Live Twice, though my favorite track - a desert theme that has a great bridge - sadly doesn't appear to be uploaded anywhere. There's also some pretty intense drum and bass on that soundtrack too to balance the softer stuff, and on the whole it's a little unexpected to have such a quality soundtrack backing an MS Paint panda hopping around fighting robots disguised like Groucho Marx. Definite Plok vibes to the complete package (in case you needed a refresher). The other unexpected element is the game's length: I had something like eight hours on the timer once it was over, with around twenty decently large levels in total each with multiple paths and secrets to find. It's not like it felt unnecessarily padded either: while there weren't too much geographical variance, the slow escalation of puzzle, platforming, and combat difficulty meant it earned that longer runtime. It felt like every other minute I was playing Super Panda Adventures my face was doing that meme of the woman drinking Kombucha and then grimacing followed by tilting her head in surprised approval. For all the (somewhat hypocritical) barbs about the graphics they're entirely functional; they're not the draw of the game and they shouldn't need to be, even if the bar continues to rise precipitously as bigger talents get on board with this whole map-and-upgrades throwback phenomenon. I don't think Super Panda Adventures stands out as particularly noteworthy, especially some seven years later, but I can't say it didn't impress me occasionally.

Rating: 4 out of 5.