"Running against mediocrity"

A well-dressed man in a stylish hat and wearing a red necktie arrives on the scene. Outside of the building the sound of sirens can be heard coming in through the broken windows and shattered walls. Many cries of help are heard throughout the crumbling floors of the burning building as smoke continues to accumulate.

Mr. Exit surveys the scene before him quickly and thinks up an escape strategy on the spot. This is his job, his livelihood. Mr. Exit is a professional escape artist. If you have the emergency, he has what it takes to get you out of it.

The whole premise behind the Exit game certainly has flair and style to it, but the game can grow to be repetitive fairly quickly. Every stage plays out exactly the same way except for some minor differences. You usually start off by activating the victims, because for some weird reason, even though their lives are in danger, these people just remain in the exact same spot seated calling for help.

Afterward you and/or your companion collect an item such as a fire extinguisher to put out a fire that blocks your way to the exit or a key needed to open a locked door. This whole process is bogged down by the fact that everyone can only carry one item at any given time. On top of that, even though Mr. Exit can take an item from a companion, a companion cannot take an item from Mr. Exit. So you have to think carefully about who gets what.

It is around this part that you have to help the less mobile companions you have with you get over obstacles they otherwise cannot alone. You see, everyone in exit is divided into four categories: Child, Young Adult, Adult, and Patient. The Child companion needs help to go up and down large obstacles, but they are small enough to get into tight places.

The Young Adult category, which Mr. Exit falls into coincidentally, is the fastest and most reliable companion. Chances are that if Mr. Exit cannot do it, then the Young Adult cannot do it either. Then come the Adult companion, who are usually overweight people who need help to go up a large obstacle, but has no problem coming down it. The adult companions extra bulk help them push obstacles that Mr. Exit cannot push even with the help of another Young Adult, so they have that going for them.

Then there are the Patient companions who are… well, injured. Patient companions need to be carried all the way to the exit by either Mr. Exit or another companion, except Child companions, who are too small to carry Patients. Patients can be put on stretchers, but since stretchers cannot go over obstacles, they do not serve for more than shaving a few precious seconds off your total time.

One of the many obstacles that hamper your escape is crumbling floors. Crumbling floors come in two colors, yellow and red. Red floors are very thin and can only be walked on by Child companions. Yellow floors are more resilient, and usually will not break unless an Adult's large butt goes over it.

Elevators in Exit seem to be created by people who enjoy making other people's lives miserable. No matter what the emergency, all elevators work the same way. Only two people can go up and down at any given time, regardless of weight. So that means that if you have two Child companions with you, you will have to leave one behind while you take the other one to the floor you need to go.

Exit is a puzzle game, no doubt about it. You seem to have a good deal of freedom on what action you need to take to get out of whatever predicament you are currently in, but usually you find that there is only one possible route. The best way to beat any stage of Exit is through constant trial and error.

The music in Exit seems to be a little too upbeat for the disasters that everyone is trying to escape from. It sounds more like the ragtime jingle you would hear in a Saturday morning cartoon. The graphics, although admittedly full of style, also suffer from the cartoon treatment. But to be fair, the cartoony graphics are more fitting than photo-realism. Especially considering that this is a PSP game.

The whole game is divided into ten scenarios with ten stages each, which totals up to 100 stages in all. At first you can only access the stages in the first scenario, which makes sense since the first scenario explains to you how the controls work and what things you can and cannot do. Afterwards, you can access all other stages except for the ones in scenarios nine and ten. Scenario nine can be unlocked after beating the previous scenarios. Scenario ten can be unlocked by beating scenario nine.

Exit is a great game for when you are traveling because you can choose whatever stage you want to (as long as you have unlocked it) at any given time. Just be careful of things such as frustration when you seem to be unable to find the answer to the question at hand.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/07