Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise preview - Adorable homicide

Naughty Bear is back to enact his revenge on the residents of Paradise Island. His fellow teddy bears have shunned him and moved to a tropical island without giving Naughty Bear an invitation. So, how is Naughty going to ratify this injustice? Why, go on a massive killing spree, of course.

Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise allows you to take control of the brutally violent teddy bear as he takes on 36 short missions to assassinate his former friends. Each target requires Naughty Bear to devise unique assassination methods. For instance, in one mission, the target teddy bear, Ken "Danger" Clark, was throwing a superhero costume party that Naughty Bear needed to infiltrate. Ken Clark is also invulnerable to standard attacks, so Naughty is required to obtain a special rod hidden in the level to beat the ever-living, fluffy snot out of his target. But to unleash his revenge he must stealthily make his way through environments infested with teddy bear guards and defenseless teddy bear locals.

You'll get around by sneaking to and from vegetation patches, which seem to miraculously render Naughty completely invisible once he entered them--leaving any previously pursuing enemies to forget about him and go about their business. Naughty won't only have the target teddies' stuffing on his hands; The rest of the local populous is free to slice and dice. Enemies can be killed using Naughty's bare hands (pun intended) by beating them senseless with his fists. He can also pick up items like brooms and baseball bats to increase his melee power, or grab the target teddies by the neck and perform environmental executions. Special environmental objects are spread across each level that allows Naughty to perform an especially gruesome instant kill, like impaling a bear on a cactus or grilling their face on an open barbecue.

In addition to bumping off the inconsiderate bears on his kill list, he'll also collect a variety of armor pieces and clothing that enhance his attributes. Some clothing will help Naughty avoid detection in similarly themed environments. If Naughty enters a superhero costume party dressed as a superhero, he blends in until he starts offing attendees. Some missions go as far as to require Naughty to strip the face off of his victims and wear it to gain access to secret locations.

Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise looks like it is improving over the original with more collectible elements and new ways to creatively kill enemies. We're interested to see how it turns out when the downloadable title hits Xbox Live and PSN this October.