One of the newer genres to
grow up lately has been the party game. Of course, party games have existed for ages
any game that is relatively easy to pick up and has an amiable multiplayer, such as
Powerstone or Mario Kart, can be suitable for parties. Among certain groups even complex
games, such as Perfect Dark, Unreal Tournament, and Tekken, have served well. But
beginning with Mario Party and continuing through games like Sonic Shuffle, the party game
has taken a life of its own. Its not surprising, then, that Microsoft chose to
include a party game in its launch lineup. Fuzion Frenzy is a very good party game, and is
interesting for a lot of reasons.The adult focus of this game
is undeniable. Much has been made of the Xbox being geared towards adults, and more than
any other game out there, I feel like Fuzion Frenzy is the most representative of the
Xboxs target audience. The game itself is pretty basic. You choose a tournament of
either two, four, or six rounds and up to four players choose up to four characters. Any
unclaimed player slots are filled in by the CPU. You are then quickly shuttled from
minigame to minigame, three minigames per round. You are awarded orbs (points) according
to your performance in each game. Some games are team challenges, in which case the
winning team is awarded a number of orbs and the losers walk with nothing.
After
each set of three minigames, you play Fuzion Frenzy in which you can wager or deposit the
orbs youve won. Depositing orbs converts them immediately into points, which show at
the bottom of the screen. If you wager your orbs, then you play with them in Fuzion
Frenzy, where you risk having them stolen by other players. The advantage to wagering orbs
is that they are worth more points in the Fuzion Frenzy arena, so you can manage big
comebacks if youre good.
Fuzion
Frenzy is a simple game, as are all of the minigames in a tournament. In the Fuzion Frenzy
you must run around an arena collecting orbs of your color and returning them to points
denoted as goals. You may only pick up orbs of your color or white orbs, both of which
appear randomly throughout the arena. You can smack other players to steal their orbs,
scoring more points for yourself, and speed and weapon powerups appear randomly to spice
things up. As the centerpiece of the game, Fuzion Frenzy is pretty good. Its more
complex, but you do it more and get good at it quickly. In fact, after a few tournaments,
you might start feeling bored with Fuzion Frenzy, which indicates that one of two things
is wrong. Either the Fuzion Frenzy round needs to be more complex in order to be more
engaging, or the idea of having a certain game that recurs in each round is flawed. I
would rather not play the same game at the end of each round, but wager on a random game
so as to make it more important.
The
minigames are varied and, for the most part, really fun. They range from rhythm games to
kart racers to reflex games to new takes on old classics. You might have to jump and duck
at the right times while the characters run up a corkscrew treadmill, avoiding low
overhangs and bumps that trip you. In many games you must collect and keep orbs, sometimes
driving hover karts and sometimes driving tanks. In the most graphically gratuitous games
you must gather fireworks and various firework elements to create pretty little
explosions. Some of the wackiest games have a distinct Japanese flair to them, such as the
minigame that has you squishing bugs in order to protect your giant cheeseburger. There
are 45 minigames in all, and they are randomly assigned. My first couple tournaments were
full of new games, but even after many, many rounds on Fuzion Frenzy Im still
surprised on occasion. Just when I think I must have played all of them, some new twist
comes along.
Many of
the games are fairly similar. There are a lot of games that have you collecting orbs and
returning them to goals, and the only thing that differs between them is your
chacters mode of transportation. The rhythm games are all similar, but some of the
twists are invigorating. Playing a rhythm game following the computer is one thing, but
playing when each player gets to set a portion of the button commands is another game
entirely. Overall, there is a good variety, and none of the games last long enough to get
too boring or annoying. The similarity in commands also prevents Fuzion Frenzy from being
something you can get really good at novices only take a few rounds to warm up to
the overall gameplay style and experienced players cant develop incredibly advanced
skills.
So by now youre probably wondering what is so adult about the game?
Its not that Fuzion Frenzy is full of sex and violence, or that it is full of
details and requires specialized knowledge like complex flight simulators or wargames, but
that it is incredibly streamlined and suited to actual adult congregations. Mario Party
and Sonic Shuffle are great if you can stay up all night eating licorice and trying to
unlock every gallery image or character. But my friends dont play that way.
Fuzion
Frenzy doesnt make you sit through any cutscenes or story segments. There is nothing
to it except the game all 45 minigames just waiting for you to randomly stumble on
them. There are only four characters, just enough to do the job. It is made to be thrown
in, played by people who arent going to invest a whole lot of time into it, and then
turned off. Fuzion Frenzy makes use of the Xbox hard drive and custom audio features,
which allows you to replace the marginal club music with whatever tracks youve
ripped to your console. Rounds take about fifteen minutes each, so it doesnt have to
be a big investment. This is a game designed to not alienate your friends, and I think
its about damn time.
Having
said all that, I would refrain from making a blanket statement that kids wouldnt
like this game. In fact, they probably would, at least for awhile, and possibly for a long
time. It may be just the thing for your childs next sleepover, too. Fuzion Frenzy is
a solid title. The minigames are fun, and it is a bit addictive. Many times I found myself
wanting to go again after a four round tournament, and I didnt have a problem
getting friends of all ages to play it. Fuzion Frenzy offers a lot of entertaining, light
gameplay, and definitely warrants a spin at your next Xbox accompanied get together.