"I've never seen a battle this crazy!"

"I've never seen a battle this crazy!"

"I've never seen a battle this crazy!"

Really, Mr. Announcer? How about the last battle? And the battle before that? And the one before that? And before that? And before that? And before that?

The above more or less summarizes my experience with Fuzion Frenzy 2. While I admit I am not a party game aficionado, Fuzion Frenzy 2 is far, far too repetitive for its own good, with an announcer that will drive anyone playing the game for more than an hour (with sound) insane. I had to turn the sound off after a while. Beyond that, the game is a "party game" in the same vein as Mario Party or WarioWare - basically a collection of competitive activities (i.e. minigames) that pit four players against each other for supremacy in tournaments.

Minigames, of which there are forty-five, range from inane to slightly-less inane, and most involve some form of button mashing. They can be categorized into a few types, really: dodging, attacking, and sequencing, and each world (there are seven) has a certain aesthetic theme with games of that aesthetic nature - Icicle has ice-based minigames; Blazer has fire-based ones; water-based ones populate Moisture's minigames, and so-forth. These minigames may require players to use flamethrowers to thaw blocks of ice and collect coins, or collect coins while outrunning flames on a turbine, or collect coins while…well, you get the picture. Each tournament requires players to dominate a certain number of worlds, and that means collecting points by winning minigames. First place gets ten points, second gets six, third gets four, and last gets two. Sounds simple, right? The person with the best knowledge and skill with the minigames should win - players engage in four minigames per world, and the one with the most points at the end of the fourth game is the dominator. Sounds simple, right?

Right, but it is made a little more complex and/or frustrating with cards, of which I have mixed feelings. I'm not going to outright say they are bad, but they will have people cursing at their screen and other players. Cards allow players to turn the tables, point-wise. Before a minigame, players can choose to play a card (and they will acquire more over the course of the tournament), and there are a few to choose from. The primary two, though, are the point multiplier and the multiplier stealer. Let's say Player A comes in first and is entitled to ten points, but uses a 6x multiplier card. If Player B (who comes in second for this minigame) used a multiplier stealer card before the game started, he would steal the 6x multiplier from Player A. In this case, then, Player B would win the match, gaining 36 points (six for coming in second place, times six for the multiplier he stole), and Player A is left with his measly ten points. It does actually give the game an additional element of strategy, but in the end, the cards tend to rob the game of its skill-based competitive nature. Eventually, after a few tournaments, the computer starts to become a bit predictable in its card use. Though in longer tournaments in which players can end up carrying a variety of card combinations, it can get a little less predictable, and playing against other humans on Xbox Live is pretty much unpredictable.

Personally, this is worth a rental only because it's an easy way to farm achievement points - literally, two hours can get you the full thousand. That alone, however, can't save it from my official "don't bother" stance on this game. If you only have an Xbox 360 and are dead set on getting some sort of four player party game, I highly recommend purchasing Gauntlet from the Xbox Live Arcade. Some may feel that the comparison to well-established party games such as the Mario Party line may be a tad unfair, but the truth is, Fuzion Frenzy 2 is simply too barren for it to be a worthy addition to one's library. If it only had more minigames or at least more diverse minigames and toned down the frustrating card system, it might have been worth picking up, but as it stands this is a game you can pass on.

Feb 23, 2007 | 0 comments
Roger Helgeson