Fantavision

"Reasonable launch title"

It’s great to be different, it’s what makes things interesting. Fantavision is not your usual puzzler either. Released at the troubled beginning of the PS2’s life it was a small speck of light in amongst the gloom. Hidden amongst the fighters, racers and rubbish RPGs was this little gem.

So what is it, well it’s a cross of fireworks, Missile Command and Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition. It’s brilliantly simple, but complicated. Capture 3 fireworks or more of the same colour and then press ‘Circle’ to detonate them for pretty fireworks. Of course there are much more to it than it what with a ‘Wild’ firework acting as a wildcard meaning you can link it to any other colour firework. Also if the third firework you’ve chosen is a ‘Wild’ one then you then get another 3 or more fireworks of another colour to get what the game calls a ‘Daisy’ chain. There are many other items ranging from bonus points to ‘Stars’ that when enough are collected to spell out ‘STARMINE’ you enter the Starmine mode where even more points and fireworks are available to you. The only way you can fail is if you fail to detonate the fireworks and your play meter is empty. The game is explained in a simple way in its own fairly comprehensive Tutorial section.

Graphics are clean, simple no-frills filler as the light show is unveiled in front of your eyes. The music however is a different story; it’s disgusting to the ears with only comfort being that you can turn it off in the options screen. The sound effects are great though sounding just like real fireworks and a simple effective narrator telling you how you are progressing. The game is short though with only 8 stages that can be completed in about an hour. The cut-scenes in the game are as Japanese as Inu Yasha and their bonkers game shows though, you just have to see them… weird. A tacked on 2 player mode was added to the European version to the game to try to add lifespan to the game but while it is fun it is limited and does get boring fast.

PRESENTATION – 5/10 Clean menus that are sometimes a little unclear, overall not spectacular

GRAPHICS – 6/10 Not bad for a first-generation title but far from impressive.

GAMEPLAY – 8/10 Simple on the surface, but hidden chains and combos help make you want to get higher scores.

SOUND – 4/10 Good firework effects but the music is just awful.

LIFESPAN – 2/10 It’s crippling flaw, you can complete the one player in an hour and the extras hardly scream at you to play the game more.

OVERALL (not an average) – 7/10 Not bad as a launch title, worth buying if you can find it cheap.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/12/04