2001 · Treasure · Platformer · Puzzle

Stretch Panic

PlayStation exclusive

Stretch Panic is an action/platform video game designed by Treasure Co. Ltd. It was a landmark title for the developer as it was their first game to feature movement on a 3D plane; prior to Stretch Panic they had exclusively been a developer of 2D titles. The game revolves around a girl named Linda who has the power to pinch, stretch, and bend objects and enemies with a magic scarf as she battles her evil sisters.

Released: 27 July 2001
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Platformer Puzzle
Developers: Treasure
Publishers: Conspiracy Entertainment
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Action Comedy
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB T

About

Stretch Panic, known as Freak Out in Europe and Oceania and Hippa Linda (ひっぱリンダ, Hippa Rinda) in Japan, is an action game designed by Treasure Co. Ltd. It was a landmark title for the developer as it was their first game to feature movement in three dimensions; prior to Stretch Panic they had been a developer of 2D titles. The game revolves around a girl named Linda who has the power to pinch, stretch, and bend objects and enemies with a magic scarf as she battles her demon possessed sisters. The game was released on July 27, 2001 in Europe, August 28, 2001 in North America and December 6, 2001 in Japan.

Keywords

female protagonist
singing
polygonal 3d
superdeformation
profanity
multi-phase boss
physics manipulation

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Stretch Panic sees players in the role of Linda, a girl who must use her newly possessed scarf to rescue her sisters that have been possessed by demons. Linda's scarf has the unique ability to grab onto its environment and stretch it as if it were elastic. Players can aim the scarf towards an object or enemy and, once it has grabbed something, pull it and then snap it back to damage it. Linda can also grab the ground, and then pull back and launch herself across distances and heights.

Linda can also grab onto an object or enemy and charge up the tension of the scarf to perform a charging head butt move. Damage is determined by three levels, weak blue attacks, medium yellow attacks and strong red attacks that are achieved by attacking an enemy's weak points. The health of Linda and the bosses are represented by a star shaped chart, which fills up as they take damage. If Linda takes too much damage and fills up her star chart, she will be returned to the main hub.

Story

The story stars a girl named Linda who lives with her twelve vain sisters, who are obsessed with beauty and treat Linda as their errand girl, often making fun of her scarf. One day, a mysterious present appears on the family's doorstep which, upon being opened unleashes thirteen vanity demons. As twelve of the demons manage to kidnap and possess the other sisters, the thirteenth demon becomes stuck in Linda's scarf. With everyone sucked into a weird dimension, Linda, now having full command over her newly possessed scarf, sets out to save her twelve sisters and exorcise the twelve demons possessing them.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Maxim gave the game a mixed review, over a month before it was released Stateside. Chester "Chet" Barber of NextGen said, "Stretch Panic looks unique and includes a few original ideas, but with such a flawed game design, it's not worth the effort." In Japan, however, Famitsu gave it a score of 30 out of 40.