The Xbox did have a variety of games at its launch. Halo and Project Gotham Racing always stuck out in my head as strong launch titles. But recently after receiving my Xbox for Christmas, I decided to take a look at the 4-player party game Fuzion Frenzy. I always had an interest to buy this game, but I never got around to it until recently. I finally purchased to have something to play with 4-players and destroy my friends.. Many gamers out there had mixed feelings about this title because of its limited gameplay. Strict party gameplay turns some gamers off, but if you have that craving to play short and sweet games, than step right up and try your luck.
I’ve always enjoyed a good party game here and there. I believe it was Mario Party that got me into it. After too much button mashing, I grew rather tired of this game series and moved onto such clones as Sonic Shuffle and Crash Bash. These titles were only good as rentals, and the whole party genre suffered from a serious lack of replay value. Let’s face it, some games (especially party games) are more fun when playing with other people, and Fuzion Frenzy is no exception, but is it an overall entertaining title?
The main game consists of a full-scale tournament, in which you can play solo or with 3 other friends. You can select either 2, 4 or 6 stages to battle in, with collective scoring to determine the overall champion. Each stage consists of 3 random mini-games and a finale called Fuzion Frenzy! This is where you bet your earned points [orbs] to the final game to score more points.
There are 6 different stages for you to play in, each with a different theme. If you play in the Coliseum, than you will be playing mini-games that consist of both Rolling balls and Ice Cars. Rolling balls are featured on the cover of the game; it reminds me of the old American Gladiators television show.
With many party games, the player tends to dislike certain mini-games. I remember when playing Mario Party and Sonic Shuffle, I would want to fast forward to a new mini-game, but I had to suffer and play whatever was chosen. This is not the case with Fuzion Frenzy. Certainly there are games that I really enjoy playing, but there hasn’t been a time when I wanted to skip a mini-game because I found it boring or stupid. This is what separates FF from the rest of the party game genre.
Other themes are built around military tanks, bombs (playing odd man out where whoever has the bomb when the time runs out is killed), water jets, fireworks (odd, but cool concept), and of course, DJs (this resembles the very popular Dance Dance Revolution and Parappa the Rapper). These make the game more diverse and add some variety.
Orbs are obtained for placement in all events. If you win first place in a mini-game, you will be rewarded with 5 orbs, second gets 3, third place is given 1 orb and the 4th place competitor gets nothing.
The other mode in this game is called mini-game frenzy. This is where you can play any one of the 46 mini games that are featured in Fuzion Frenzy. If you need to practice some more to become better at an event, this is the best mode in which to do so.
Also, this is probably not a big deal, but Microsoft decided to take advantage of the Xbox hard drive. If you have music copied on your Xbox, you can now use the same music to play during any game on Fuzion Frenzy! It's great to listen to your own tunes while beating your friends.
Graphically, Fuzion Frenzy doesn’t break any artistic records. All the character models look cartoonish, but that is the aim of the game. All the playing fields look artificial with very vibrant colors. When you play with 3 other people, colors come into play heavily; it’s a good indicator of who’s who. Some lighting effects look pretty decent, but once again, the Xbox hardware is hardly challenged on this title.
The variety in mini-games offers a lot of fun to the game in both solo and multi-player challenges. Of course party games are more fun with multi-player, but the solo game does hold its own quite well in my opinion. I am still playing it weeks later. Microsoft changed the rules a bit on this one to make Fuzion Frenzy a little different than the rest.
All in all, I have to say that I am quite surprised by what Microsoft and Blitz Games had up their sleeves. It is a good alternative to what some are used to when it comes to party games; this one will actually keep you entertained for more than a few hours. Since Fuzion Frenzy has already been out for more than a year, the price tag is a slim $20, making it near impossible to resist this title.
Just the fact that this game has such variety in a limited genre is more than enough reason to give this game a spin. It’s interesting to see how they jazzed up party gaming. You will have such a rush beating your friends. Even when most party games suffer from a stingy one player mode, Fuzion Frenzy offers an entertaining game for those of us without any friends (such as myself).
