Fantavision

"A Real Blast Thats Over As Quick As A Flash"

Fantavision is one of the strangest beasts of them all. Fantavision is a fireworks simulator! The premise is just as good as it sounds and very fiendish indeed!
Different colour fireworks fly up the screen and into your radar. You spin the radar around linking up 3 or more of the same colour and then you detonate them. It’s a bit of a free-range Bust-A-Move without the whole aiming.
So far, so easy, but as soon as you miss some, your STARLIGHT meter drops down, and if it reaches zero, this lovingly crafted eye candy will be snatched away and a game over screen will be placed.
The one player mode is basically a crazy acted story line with over-the-top children on the phone to each other, which almost earns a mark for humour! Added into the mix of fireworks are various different power-ups and the points rack up if you include those in your repertoire. Starlight is the best one of these, giving you a fantastic firework frenzy for about 30 seconds. Once you’ve finished you can watch in awe as the shimmer effects in the replay stun your eyes. You can even add snow and rain to replays. While this all helps it does not get away from the somewhat short 1 player mode experience, which is the games big flaw. You'll find yourself only trying to beat high scores after a few days!
The two player modes are where the game shines though. Race each other to get to the target amount of fireworks and you’ll be left spinning around the analogue stick like a madman! You can also try and compete for “daisy chains” which are combos. These are very hard to do, but if you sit and practise for hours, you can rack in 30+ combos and completely wow the crowd watching and kill the opposition. Different power-ups here alter how much of the screen you’re allowed, thus letting you have more fireworks at your disposable.
The control system for the game is thankfully simple to pick up, even if you don’t know what your doing, you can still get somewhere (like in Tekken!). Just as important, the games graphics really use the PS2 engine, making sure every exploding firework is smooth and each spark twinkles. It’s a truly fantastic sight.
Some may say that games like this lack depth, but its games that are extremely simplistic that get people hooked. It really depends on what side of the fence your on as to whether you’ll enjoy this piece of originality but one thing is for sure: you’ll watch those exploding fireworks in awe, time and time again!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/02, Updated 06/30/03