Pako 3 doesn’t have any pretensions of easing you in. From the get-go you’re thrown into a frantic chase. Then you crash, you die, and you start the whole thing over again. Stay alive for a set time and you’ll unlock some new stuff – a car, a level – and then dive back in, face-first.
The game, like the others in the Pako series, plays out from an isometric viewpoint. Acceleration is automatic, all you can control is turning left and right. With those minimal tools, it’s up to you to stay alive for as long as you can, all while cop cars are making suicidal dashes towards you.
You’re constantly on the edge, only ever a tap away from explosion and death. You’ll plough into walls, smash into trains, careen into the sides of parked cars, trying as you do to find new paths and safe-ish ways to keep one wheel ahead of the police.
There are different kinds of level here. Some see you powering along raceways, trying to finish a lap under a certain limit while avoiding taking damage from the other racers. There are boss conflicts, too, and every chase has its own unique twist to keep you on your toes.
There might be moving trains, different tiers you can jump down, tightly packed spaces and other hazards to make sure you’re always in jeopardy. There are boosts you can pick up too, from air strikes to shrink rays that can buy you a couple of extra seconds.
The coins you collect can be spent on new vehicles with slightly different stats. Some are faster, some have higher health ratings, some turn better. You unlock new levels and cars to purchase by collecting stars – rewards for staying alive for a certain amount of time on a level.
Through the chaos and the challenge, Pako 3 still manages to be utterly compulsive. It’s almost impossible to have one go – instead you’ll keep chasing those times, keep working to get the next car or the next level. And you’ll do it with a mad smile on your face, making weird noises as you skirt close to destruction at every given second.
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