Infinite runner titles have come to the fore on mobiles, but by fusing the format with an old-school 16-bit platformer, Nitrome has elevated the genre. Platform Panic begins with a small robot dropping into view, but although the landscape is there to be traversed, there’s no cumbersome virtual D-pad to negotiate. Instead, the miniature mechanoid is in perpetual motion, diverted around the world with swipes to the side to change direction, and up to jump. With pleasingly diverse levels – jumbled into a different order each time, with some requiring a discombobulating right-to-left navigation – Platform Panic shows just how far a bit of original thinking can go to lift a tired gaming staple.
