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IGN Review of Fuzion Frenzy 2
For years now, IGN readers have lamented the lack of certain sequels on Xbox. Now that the Xbox is all but dead, they have continued lamenting the same games, now on Xbox 360. I too miss the sequel to Crimson Skies and, to a lesser extent, MechAssault 2. And really, where is my Psychonauts 2? There is always great lament for Shenmue, and believe it or not, our readers unanimously have regretted the absence of a sequel to Fuzion Frenzy. Be careful of what you wish for is all I can say. Fuzion Frenzy 2 was one wish Microsoft granted, and now you have it for better or for worse.
Originally designed for Xbox by Blitz Games, the first Fuzion Frenzy launched with the system and filled the Mario Party gap…for like five years. It was never as memorable as Nintendo's game, and certainly not as original, but it was a functional little game that was indeed fun. The sequel gets a few things right: it's a competent looking game; there are 43 mini-games (a lot); it's $10 less than a standard Xbox 360 game, and it's online or playable offline for up to four players. If you're sentimental about the first game this won't disappoint you too badly.
After all, despite the badly dubbed cheese-ball tournament announcer and the questionable card system and the clumsy tournament interface, the rest of Fuzion Frenzy 2 is streamlined and simplistic to play. If you're after a simple party game for four friends online or at home, well then this game will provide some good laughs (providing there is plenty of beer), but if you're after an original game with creativity, spirit and vision, forget it. One last thing, this is probably a big chick magnet of a game. Sad but true.
Fuzion Frenzy 2, then, is exactly what it portents to be: A simple party game with online play. And it's decent; not terrific, not terrible, just pretty decent.
Developed by Hudson, the makers of perhaps the best party game series known to man, Super Bomberman and Saturn Bomberman, and the current developers of Nintendo's Mario Party series, this Japanese team seemed like the right choice for the format (although Bomberman Act: Zero damaged a little of Hudson's credibility). The team went for game simplicity; modes include Tournament, Mini-Game Frenzy, and Custom. The Tournament mode is the game's meat and potatoes, packed with forty-three mini-games all told. In Tournament mode you'll pick from a set of generic characters, none memorable, select the difficulty level, and launch into the game show competition. The tourney uses an accumulative scoring system and is based on various "worlds" in the Fuzion Frenzy universe: Icicle, Machina, Eternite, Blazer, Moisture, and Amuseth. If you thought the simplistic color-based character designs were poor, the "worlds" are just as simplistic in design and themes. Still, they do serve their purpose, to provide background "color."
The scoring method leaves a lot to be desired. With a win, you'll gain 10 points for first place, six for second, four for third and so forth. Win the most games during the course of games on a particular planet, and you win that planet and the right to pick the next one. In order to balance the game or perhaps to throw things out of whack, Hudson introduced specialty cards. These cards appear in a mini-mini-game where four players collect three cards in a five-second battle. If you pick one on up, the cards could include multipliers (2X, 4X, 6X), halving cards, minus cards, and so on.
Cards help when you've got a multiplier card of 6X, which turns your second or third place standing into a first place winning spot. But they hurt when you legitimately win a mini-game through skill and watch as your first place slot is stolen from some loser/joker who happened to grab a reversal card and steals your spot. The cards introduce trivial and random wins, giving n00bs and unskilled players a chance, but it steals wins from gamers who've won games fair and square. Thus, if you're playing just to have fun, Fuzion Frenzy 2 can be fun. If you're actually trying to win and would like to apply logic to the game based on actual skill, you're screwed, Jack.
The mini-games are generally easy to learn as they're designed with one or two face buttons and an analog button. Also, each offers trial runs, which is nice if you're playing with competitive friends who already have sank in prior hours. Hudson went with quantity over quality, however. Some mini-games are returns from the original (The American Gladiator-style roll-around-in-a-ball-while-knocking-enemies-off-a-dwindling-platform game, Turbine Jumper, and Conveyor Smash, for example), while many are just lazy imitations of already existing games. A few worth mentioning include the tank battle (Loader Madness), the fight-style elimination (Conveyor Smash), the running game (Turbine Jumper), and the flamethrower game (Flamethrower Madness).
The Tournament's and the game's great bane, however, is the announcer. This generic, early '90s character spouts endless streams of idiocy and nonsense and besides being badly voice acted, the lip-synching is fully out of whack. It's as if Hudson created this game for Japan first and never bothered with adjusting the lip animations for a Western audience. That's just super cheap, but it's indicative of the game in general. Only, Fuzion Frenzy 2 isn't even as inexpensive as it should be. This game should sell for $20. If it sold for $20 from the get-go, sales volume would assuredly increase, given the dearth of games selling on Xbox 360 at that price. Instead, it's $50.
The other modes just fill in the blanks. Mini-Game Frenzy enables players to pick a single game and play it, and Custom provides the option to create your own hand-picked set of games to play in the order you choose. All modes are playable online -- for up to four players; and if you're out a man Hudson provides bots to round things out. Online matches are set up in a few ways: Open to all or for friends only. Slots not filled by humans are filled in with AI bots, and you again have the choice to pick their skill levels. Online, the game's strengths seem to grow. The addition of an online mode is a strong reason to get Fuzion Frenzy 2 simply because of the game's competitive nature. Also, there are only 14 Achievements, most of which are offline, while even the online ones are pretty easy to get if you play with the "right" friends.
The visuals on the whole are workmanlike -- in other words, the characters, backgrounds, and animations are all simplistic and don't suffer from any major technical problems. But the art direction is poor, giving gamers generic and bland stuff to look at with no visual flair to create any emotional attachment. Likewise, the audio portion is weak. Players will hear vanilla-flavored Japanese rock music that sounds like nearly every middle-of-the-road arcade game in the world -- loud guitars, thumping drums, and dull melodies.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Originally designed for Xbox by Blitz Games, the first Fuzion Frenzy launched with the system and filled the Mario Party gap…for like five years. It was never as memorable as Nintendo's game, and certainly not as original, but it was a functional little game that was indeed fun. The sequel gets a few things right: it's a competent looking game; there are 43 mini-games (a lot); it's $10 less than a standard Xbox 360 game, and it's online or playable offline for up to four players. If you're sentimental about the first game this won't disappoint you too badly.
After all, despite the badly dubbed cheese-ball tournament announcer and the questionable card system and the clumsy tournament interface, the rest of Fuzion Frenzy 2 is streamlined and simplistic to play. If you're after a simple party game for four friends online or at home, well then this game will provide some good laughs (providing there is plenty of beer), but if you're after an original game with creativity, spirit and vision, forget it. One last thing, this is probably a big chick magnet of a game. Sad but true.
Fuzion Frenzy 2, then, is exactly what it portents to be: A simple party game with online play. And it's decent; not terrific, not terrible, just pretty decent.
Developed by Hudson, the makers of perhaps the best party game series known to man, Super Bomberman and Saturn Bomberman, and the current developers of Nintendo's Mario Party series, this Japanese team seemed like the right choice for the format (although Bomberman Act: Zero damaged a little of Hudson's credibility). The team went for game simplicity; modes include Tournament, Mini-Game Frenzy, and Custom. The Tournament mode is the game's meat and potatoes, packed with forty-three mini-games all told. In Tournament mode you'll pick from a set of generic characters, none memorable, select the difficulty level, and launch into the game show competition. The tourney uses an accumulative scoring system and is based on various "worlds" in the Fuzion Frenzy universe: Icicle, Machina, Eternite, Blazer, Moisture, and Amuseth. If you thought the simplistic color-based character designs were poor, the "worlds" are just as simplistic in design and themes. Still, they do serve their purpose, to provide background "color."
The scoring method leaves a lot to be desired. With a win, you'll gain 10 points for first place, six for second, four for third and so forth. Win the most games during the course of games on a particular planet, and you win that planet and the right to pick the next one. In order to balance the game or perhaps to throw things out of whack, Hudson introduced specialty cards. These cards appear in a mini-mini-game where four players collect three cards in a five-second battle. If you pick one on up, the cards could include multipliers (2X, 4X, 6X), halving cards, minus cards, and so on.
Cards help when you've got a multiplier card of 6X, which turns your second or third place standing into a first place winning spot. But they hurt when you legitimately win a mini-game through skill and watch as your first place slot is stolen from some loser/joker who happened to grab a reversal card and steals your spot. The cards introduce trivial and random wins, giving n00bs and unskilled players a chance, but it steals wins from gamers who've won games fair and square. Thus, if you're playing just to have fun, Fuzion Frenzy 2 can be fun. If you're actually trying to win and would like to apply logic to the game based on actual skill, you're screwed, Jack.
The mini-games are generally easy to learn as they're designed with one or two face buttons and an analog button. Also, each offers trial runs, which is nice if you're playing with competitive friends who already have sank in prior hours. Hudson went with quantity over quality, however. Some mini-games are returns from the original (The American Gladiator-style roll-around-in-a-ball-while-knocking-enemies-off-a-dwindling-platform game, Turbine Jumper, and Conveyor Smash, for example), while many are just lazy imitations of already existing games. A few worth mentioning include the tank battle (Loader Madness), the fight-style elimination (Conveyor Smash), the running game (Turbine Jumper), and the flamethrower game (Flamethrower Madness).
The Tournament's and the game's great bane, however, is the announcer. This generic, early '90s character spouts endless streams of idiocy and nonsense and besides being badly voice acted, the lip-synching is fully out of whack. It's as if Hudson created this game for Japan first and never bothered with adjusting the lip animations for a Western audience. That's just super cheap, but it's indicative of the game in general. Only, Fuzion Frenzy 2 isn't even as inexpensive as it should be. This game should sell for $20. If it sold for $20 from the get-go, sales volume would assuredly increase, given the dearth of games selling on Xbox 360 at that price. Instead, it's $50.
The other modes just fill in the blanks. Mini-Game Frenzy enables players to pick a single game and play it, and Custom provides the option to create your own hand-picked set of games to play in the order you choose. All modes are playable online -- for up to four players; and if you're out a man Hudson provides bots to round things out. Online matches are set up in a few ways: Open to all or for friends only. Slots not filled by humans are filled in with AI bots, and you again have the choice to pick their skill levels. Online, the game's strengths seem to grow. The addition of an online mode is a strong reason to get Fuzion Frenzy 2 simply because of the game's competitive nature. Also, there are only 14 Achievements, most of which are offline, while even the online ones are pretty easy to get if you play with the "right" friends.
The visuals on the whole are workmanlike -- in other words, the characters, backgrounds, and animations are all simplistic and don't suffer from any major technical problems. But the art direction is poor, giving gamers generic and bland stuff to look at with no visual flair to create any emotional attachment. Likewise, the audio portion is weak. Players will hear vanilla-flavored Japanese rock music that sounds like nearly every middle-of-the-road arcade game in the world -- loud guitars, thumping drums, and dull melodies.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved