Fuzion Frenzy 2

"A Really Bad Announcer Makes, What Could Have Been A Bearable Game, Pretty Disappointing"

I really like the party game genre, as they're usually entertaining for when you have people around. However, this game got played a few times and that was enough to know that this game just didn't have much to offer in the way of entertainment.

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Storyline (3/10)
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Basically, there is none, that is there is a very weak explanation of why the players are participating in these games, but other than that, it's easily forgotten about. The problem is; there's essentially no storyline so that is doesn't get in the way of the game, however, before you can even start playing each mini game you have listen to the announcer go on a tirade. Thus not only does the game fail at providing a storyline, it also fails at not providing one that doesn't get in the way.

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Gameplay (5/10)
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As mentioned previously, the main problem is that it can take ages just to get the main tournament mode started. The points system is a pretty rubbish idea; you get points depending on whether you finished first, second, third or fourth, however, the player who uses their x4 card and finishes first in that event can pretty much afford to lose every other match, because there's almost no way of catching them up with the few amount of games that get played per planet.

The planets are an alright idea; they have different types of mini game on them, reflecting the differences in the planets, such as one of them having all ice related mini games, another having fire etc. The mini games themselves are pretty varied as well, but a consistent problem with them is you aren't really told what to do. You'll be given a brief explanation, but it's not enough, and thus you're pretty much forced to do a practice each time just to figure out what the goal is. This means that what fun is in the games is quickly lost, even more so when playing against AI, which has two modes; extremely dumb, or impossibly effective. On it's harder setting the AI will actually move faster and perform actions quicker than a human player can, meaning that it's not just harder, it's pretty much impossible and thus all the fun disappears. This is an even bigger problem when you consider most of the game are down to chance whether you win them or not.

Some of the games, such as a pinball variation involve no strategy at all, and in fact you can sit there for the entire mini game without a ball ever even coming to you. Again, the same problem keeps cropping up; there's just no fun to be had, especially with a group of people sitting around playing it, the game just causes more frustration than any entertainment.

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Graphics (4/10)
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They're pretty bland. Some of the effects are pretty enough, but for the most part, there's nothing special about them, and you have to ask what makes this game stand out. They look like they could have been on the playstation one at times. The announcer also looks like it was their attempt at being creative and all “Hey look at us, we're crazy and wacky, you just don't know what you're going to get when you buy our game!” and in some ways that would be right, because I was expecting something playable.

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Sounds (3/10)
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Huge problem for this game; the announcer, he doesn't just look bad, but in every mini game you get the same few sound bites over and over and over. It's not an exaggeration, you will hear the same few little phrases constantly, and often in quick succession; example “Was that a lot of damage player one?” … (insert 0.5 second pause)… “Was that a lot of damage player one?” … (insert 0.5 second pause)… “Was that a lot of damage player THREEEEEEE?”. Just an example of the really bad announcing that will force you to play with the sound turned off. Fortunately, you can skip through his tirade, which is also really badly voiced over.

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Summary (4/10)
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If you're looking for a fun multiplayer game, this really isn't where you should look for it. I did and it was a mistake, on your own, it's not so bad, as you'll pretty much just push your way through it for a while trying to see if it gets better. But if you have other people playing this with you, it's pretty easy to get bored of it, especially when you're waiting about a minute each time to wait through menus and loading for a one minute mini game. The negatives just aren't worth it. Hopefully there'll be more party game released, because when done well, they're a lot of fun, unfortunately, when they're not, they really feel like a waste of money.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/07