Title Fuzion Frenzy 2 Date 03.21.2006 Genre Puzzles Platform Xbox 360 Developer Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Games Studios

The party game, believe it or not it was a gender not created by Nintendo. There have been games made from many "mini games" in the past even before Nintendo created what was to be one of the dominant party game series of all time in 1998. I mean there was Namco's Point Blank series which was made a full four years before Mario Party which consisted of two players battling each other in loads of mini games which would test the players gun slinging skills. Then there was Bonanza Brothers, a two player puzzle game made by Sega which pitted the players against tons of puzzle game inspired mini games. But the grand daddy of them all was Combat on the Atari 2600. Contained a truck load of mini games, each the med around controlling a army combat vessel of some kind and blowing up your friend to kingdom come.

Fuzion Frenzy came in to the fray at the begging of the original Xbox's life. It was a "Party Game" but it's not really like Nintendo's Mario Party (no board game elements for a start) in fact it's more like Nintendo's other Party Game franchise, Warioware but Fuzion Frenzy did come out first and did have some of it's own unique idea's most of which are heavily inspired by old arcade games, moves or TV shows which might bring a smile back on to the faces of the more mature players of this game. The Zone Selection screen from the original was in fact almost identical to the Crystal Maze, an old English game show while there were also references to newer game shows most noticeably Gladiators with those crazy steel mash ball challenges amongst others being influenced by that show.

Also there are also mini games inspired by old arcade classics like Combat (the tank stages), Micro Machines (Not and arcade game but still worth mentioning), Whack a Mole, Butasan (known as Psycho Pigs here in the UK) and of course Tron which was based of a hit move of the same name with the flashy Light Cycles, the list could go on. Overall all of the games on the original Fuzion Frenzy were really enjoyable, specially with friends (but that's always the case with these types of games!) because everyone could identify with the mini games because they were mainly based around concepts so famous and well known that everyone knows about them including non gamers hence the reason they the game was really enjoyable.

Now Hudson (not the original creators of the series) have now produced a new Fuzion Frenzy intended as a budget title for Microsoft's new system the Xbox 360 and there have certainly been some changes. The most obvious is that the graphics and sound have been improved quite drastically over the previous version of the game. Now remember that this is a budget title and that it cost's half the price of a standard game so the graphics and sound quality are a definite step up from the original but they are not up to the high standards as other non budget games have set like Gears of War or Oblivion for example. The presentation is also very good and making your way around the limited amount of menu's this game throws at you is easy so configuring the game to how you like it should not be all that much of a problem. But the real changes that have occurred from Fuzion Frenzy 1 to 2 is the new "format" of the game show and the mini games themselves.

Fuzion Frenzy 2 tournament is different from the old one. The one major difference and the only really disappointing bit about this game for me as a returning fan of the game and of the gender in general is that Hudson have scrapped the title mini game from the competition all together. Both versions of the game work out like this, you play three mini games in each of the zones and try to build up as many points as possible for the final fourth round of the arena were you all play a final game. The original had "FUZION FRENZY!" which was a fantastic game to end each of the areas on. Essentially the player could either bank there points or bet them in the final game in hope that they could multiply there betted points thus giving them the edge over the opponent.

Although there was a lot of risk in this as once the player picked up his or her colored orb they could be mugged by the other player and lose the points. Essentially they had to collect orbs and dump them in the "collection bins" as we liked to call them in my house and the more you collect and dump in at the same time the bigger the score multiplier so banking 3 orbs separately would earn you 30 points while banking them together. Earned you 50, it's all about risk and reward and it was a fantastic mini game.

In Fuzion Frenzy 2 you get something they like to call "Rumbles" which are straight up fights. Depending on how many rounds you won previous will depend on how powerful your character will be in the "Rumble". The last round in the arenas now just have a typical scoring system with the removed risk of having to collect and bank orbs. I have no idea why Hudson decided to do this but I guess it's to make it more accessible to beginners I suppose but it's a shame because many returning fans of the original will agree, the final mini game for each zone was perfect the way it was.

While Hudson may of messed up a little by taking out the main event of the game they did manage to introduce some new risk and reward style gameplay on the new game by the introduction of "cards". These cards allow the player to do some seriously devious things like being able to select the next mini game or area or multiply there end score by 2,4 or even 6 times but if the player uses these cards and the opponent uses a "steal multiplier" or "divide instead" cards then the player using the multiplayer is seriously screwed and hence the balance of risk and reward is returned because those cards can seriously make or break your game if you or your opponent plays them at the right time thus always keeping you on your toes.
Husdon have also made some minor tweaks in other aspects of the game.

The zones and mini games are no longer randomly selected and there are no random "team" mini games any more which is a shame because those were quite good fun. Also winning the tournament is also a little different. before in the original you had to add up you total scores from each section and count who ever had the highest but in this game it's now how many area's you've won thus there is less emphasis on doing as well in all the zones like there was before which means no player can get to far ahead thus winning the game is still possible for the rest of the players which can be either a good or a bad thing depending on were you stand on the matter.

Now I guess is a good time to talk about the mini games themselves which are categorized by the different arenas. For example in the Icicle world there are many iced themed challenges and in the machine world there are a lot of machine based mini game and so on. Hudson have done themselves pretty proud with the selection of mini games as they did keep quite a lot of the good ones while adding some of there own idea's to the mix as well which is nice. Returning games include Sumo Smash where you roll around in giant metal balls ramming each other off an ever collapsing platform. Then there is Blazing trails which is the Tron Bike level and then there is the Tank level lifted from Combat. The Rotating Turbine (involves ducking and jumping obstacles using only A and B) also makes a return as well as many others.

The new games do not disappoint either and add a lot more variety to the franchise which is a big plus point. The Icicle Billiards game were you have to slide coins frozen in ice to your corner and away from other people's is just simply fantastic. Also "Crossing the Waterfall" is also a fantastic yet simple game were players must hop from one log to another and avoid being swept downstream by pressing the correct button as quickly as you can. Sounds a bit silly and boring but once you get in to it, it's a real blast. Anyway for a complete list of the games you can simply go to the official web site and watch them all being played although sadly some of the cool games from the original did not make it to the new one like the Tank/Gladiator Ball Racing or the remote controlled bomb game but that's OK because there are plenty of decent games in this party game to keep you going (40+ in fact) although some of which you have to unlock but it does not take to long to do so which is good.

Although I have written a lot about this game the main trump card that Fuzion Frenzy holds I have not even told you about yet and that is the Online mode. Yes that's right not even Mario Party can say they have achieved that yet, yet Hudson have done themselves proud by not only allowing the player to play there mates online but they have done it well enough for the experience to be one of the best online for the console. There is little lag and all of the players that I have played so far online have been wonderful. I guess it's due to the very nature of this game that although people do want to win their main concerns are about having a much fun as possible thus there is no ill feeling when someone plays a particularly evil card on someone as they are about to get a huge amount of points or when a player rams them off the platform in Sumo Smash, because it's all good natured unlike a lot of the FPS's and other online titles that grace the Xbox 360 were people can be a real pain in the backside sometimes.

All in all Fuzion Frenzy 2 is a wonderful game for what it is; a simple yet delightful budget party game release that will do nothing but strengthen the 360's online catalogue. I would recommend all fans of the original and fans of the gender itself to check out Fuzion Frenzy 2 even if you are not on Live! I would also strongly suggest buying this if you have friends who visit on a fairly regular basis as this is one of the finer examples of a party game I have seen in some time and is well up there with the earlier Mario Party's as well as Warioware and Point Blank.

Game Score

B

Reviewed By: Contributed