Fuzion Frenzy 2 Review

Throughout a console’s lifespan it sees its share of bad games, games that are bland, uninspired or just plain boring. Well, Fuzion Frenzy 2 is an unfortunate combination of all three. One begins to wonder who bought enough copies of the original (which is much better in comparison) to warrant this sequel. It’s a shame that this game didn’t build upon the foundations its predecessor built because it could’ve perhaps competed with the legendary Mario Party series for the party game crown.

The presentation itself isn’t that great to begin with, featuring a bland and unattractive front end menu. There are some green lasers dancing about in the background but besides that, the translucent panels do nothing to spur you onward. Maybe this is a good thing, because things don’t improve much from there.

The tournament mode, in which up to four players compete for the control of two to five planets by winning minigames sports a highly counterintuitive interface compared to the rest of the game which is rather streamlined and well executed. You start by choosing one of six generic, color-coded characters. There is an option for up to three additional players to play alongside you throughout the tournament, and this is highly favorable. If human players aren’t available, CPU players will fill in what spots remain. After choosing the number of planets that have to be won before a winner is declared. Anywhere from two to five planets can be chosen, but be warned, anything longer than three can stretch on far longer than you’d want them to.

Once the tournament begins, one of the most annoying aspects of the game rears its ugly head in the form of the announcer who gives the tournaments a game show style vibe but as you play the game, you will likely grow to hate the obnoxious, repetitive and frequently annoying announcer. Obnoxious because of his laughably bad and wildly overdone voiceovers. Repetitive because of his habit of repeating the same lines of commentary over and over. For example I’ve heard him say “I’ve never seen a battle this crazy!” five times. Keep in mind that this was just during one minigame. Frequently annoying because of the inability to skip his long, drawn out, not to mention poorly dubbed comments in between minigames during online tournaments. Thankfully, some salvation comes in the ability to skip these scenes in local tournaments. Outside of the announcer, a few bland techno/rock tunes play in the background.

Visually, the game doesn’t impress in a technical or artistic way at any point. The backgrounds and character models are decent (save for the fashion challenged announcer) but are generally uninspired and lack significant detail. While unimpressive, they do their job decently enough. The lighting is one of the better aspects of the game, but in some spots it’s a bit overdone.

Before beginning your first minigame, the announcer instructs you to choose the first of seven planets you’d like to attempt to control. These planets all feature rather generic themes and uninspired names (Amuseth, Icicle, Machina, Moisture, Blazer, Eternite and Earth) corresponding with the planet’s theme. These different planets serve their purpose of expanding the game’s universe and providing a backdrop for the minigames but don’t have the spark of creativity this game desperately needs.

One of the new features, billed as an “improvement” over its predecessor is the card system, which is introduced here. These modifier cards dramatically change the scoring system to a point that things like balance and fair play are thrown right out the window. Before each minigame, you’ll be able to use a card from the cards in your hand, which are obtained through short card collecting game thrown in between minigames games and the effects of the card you’ve chosen are applied after the upcoming minigame is played. The most common type of card you’ll encounter is the multiplier card. These cards come in 2X, 4X and 6X varieties, and multiply your score accordingly. Scores are doled out after minigames based on placing awarding 10 points for first place, 6 for second, 4 for third, and 2 for a fourth place finish. The obvious problem with this is that players can score a first place win without actually winning the game. If you place third and use a 4x multiplier then boom, you’ve got a first place win. This is especially frustrating when you win a minigame and someone uses a multiplier or, worse yet, steals the multiplier you’ve just used for themselves and knocks you off the podium.

Finally, we reach the focal point of the game…the minigames. There are more than 40 minigames to be found here and it’s a shame that, in a game centered on these games, most of those forty are rather boring and repetitive. Many minigames are un-fun exercises in button mashing. Hand cramps galore await you in the “Power Surge” minigame. Others are nothing but slight variations on the same themes such as the mindless beat em ups. To its credit, all the minigames featured here are accessible and easy to pick up and play. A few of the better minigames from the original return, such as the American Gladiator-esque Sumo Clash, which has you rolling around in a giant ball, attempting to knock other players off the platform. There are a few standout games such as the snake-esque Tail Blazer and Tower of Judgment, which has you inputting button combinations as fast as you can to beat the other players. There are a few other standout games, but they are few and far between, making the whole package suffer.

Outside of the tournament mode, there exist the minigame frenzy and custom modes, the latter allows you to choose specifically which games you’d like to play and play to a set number of wins. The absence of the almost broken card system here makes this mode competitive and encourages skill. The minigame frenzy mode allows you to play all of the game’s minigames in any order you like. Both these modes, as well as the tournament mode, are playable online, which can be fun and competitive if you’re playing the right minigames.

One of the (slightly) redeeming factors in Fuzion Frenzy 2 is in its achievement points. There are only 14 of them, and comprise 1000 of the easiest achievement points you’ll ever get. Collaborate with a friend for a few hours and you’ll have an extra 1000 points added to your gamerscore lickety-split…though you may not like yourself for it.

The biggest reason I’m so disappointed in this game is that it hails from Hudson, developer of the famed Mario Party series. This series has long been known for its fun and original minigames and has been considered the originator of the party game genre. Considering the developer’s pedigree, there is no excuse for Fuzion Frenzy 2 to be as bad as it is. That is, unless just they weren’t trying.

Fuzion Frenzy 2 is just one of those games you’ll want to avoid. If you’re a rabid fan of achievements, rent it. Even then you should be wary. $50 is simply too much to pay for a game like this. If you see it in a bargain bin sometime in the future, skip it. The few truly entertaining minigames just can’t balance the scales against its below average and at times, just plain bad overtones. This is definitely the worst game I’ve played on the Xbox 360 to date and at the end of the day, it just makes me wonder why they even bothered.

Graphics - 5
Gameplay - 5
Sound - 3
Value - 5
Tilt - 4

Overall Score: 4.5

Crackdown Review

On the surface, Crackdown may seem like another fish in a sea of clones of the quintessential open world, sandbox series, Grand Theft Auto. The core gameplay is similar to that of Grand Theft Auto in that there are cars to hijack, a decent selection of weapon a large open environment….and the similarities end there. Crackdown’s differences are what set it apart from the crowd. For instance, instead of assuming the role of a criminal, you play the role of a genetically enhanced super cop, whose sole job is to make sure those on the wrong side of the law are brought to justice. But you won’t be making arrests or pulling people over for speeding. In this city, breaking the law is only punishable by death. Now that’s what I call “justice”.

From the very beginning of the game, you are given the freedom to go anywhere and do anything you want. Unlike the GTA series, which usually limits you to a certain district of the otherwise open world in the beginning, here, there are no restrictions. This concept of truly being able to go anywhere and do anything from the outset is certainly refreshing and a welcome addition. As it stands, this is probably the most open sandbox game out there and having this essentially limitless freedom is a very good thing.

One of the more interesting aspects is your ever evolving super agent. You begin the game with abilities that surpass those of a normal human being due to your genetic enhancements. Your five core skills are at their lowest point, and you’ll want to upgrade them, quickly. You can jump about ten feet in the air vertically and while this may seem impressive, compared to what’s in store, it isn’t. Your skills are developed by utilizing them. Kick enough criminals to death and eventually, you’ll level up and be able to throw heavy objects, such as cars. Blow criminals sky high with rocket launchers and grenades enough and your explosive skills will increase, causing your explosive ordinance to increase in power and blast radius to increase, and so on for each of your five core skills.

Perhaps the most important skill to develop is your agility skill. Only then will you really appreciate the care and detail that went into designing the city. The verticality of the city can only be experienced with a high agility level, so you’ll want to take time to seek out the 500 agility orbs scattered throughout the city to level up your agility skills.

Once you level up your agility skill, you’ll find that hopping from building to building is a quick and enjoyable way to crisscross the city, which is good, seeing as the vehicle handling is a bit iffy, even when you level up your driving skills to the maximum. Before then, you feel a bit disconnected from the car, and overall vehicle handling is slippery. Developing the skill does have its plusses aside from increased vehicle handling as well. You gain the ability to control some cars movements in the air, to perhaps level off after a hard jump and Agency vehicles transform and increase in performance relative to your driving skill level culminating to the maximum skill level, in which agency vehicles gain vehicle specific abilities, such as mounted machineguns on the Agency Supercar and a jump mechanism on the Agency SUV.

Pacific City is divided into three districts, each under control of a different street gang. The Los Muertos, Volk and Shai Gen gangs all have to be eliminated and can be tackled in any order you choose although it should be noted that the Volk and Shai Gen gangs are respectively more difficult to handle than the Los Muertos, so it’s recommended that they are the first gang you pursue. All of the gangs put up a good enough fight, and there are times when you’ll find yourself in over your head. In the event that your agent happens to die, you will instantly take control of a carbon copy of your agent and resume playing at one of the agency supply points you’ve liberated.

As you make your way through the streets, you will receive updates to your gang dossier from the Agency, giving you your assignment. This assignment never changes. You’ll receive the name and location of a gang general and you’re assigned to take them out. There is no specific pecking order as far as which gang generals you pursue so players can bypass the gang generals altogether and immediately pursue the kingpin if they wish. Killing each of the gang generals does weaken the resistance of the kingpin’s personal guard and makes them easier to take down so in that, there is a decent benefit. As far as mission variety, this is it. Missions never stray from the basic “go here, kill that guy” framework established early on in the game. This is a bit disappointing when compared to other sandbox games that have much more varied mission objectives. After killing yet another gang general for the umpteenth time, you’ll be pining for more. There is no set method you must follow to eliminate each general, allowing more of that oh so important freedom (seems to be a recurring theme here) to seep in. There are side missions in the form of checkpoint vehicle and rooftop races to test your driving and agility skills, respectively, that serve as a serviceable diversion when you finish the main campaign.

Another gripe I have is that there is a lack of a real challenge worthy of your enhanced abilities. After all, shouldn’t a super cop have super villains to contend with? Throughout the game, the only opposition you’ll encounter is endless waves of heavily armed thugs with varying layers of body armor. It’s a bit disappointing that there is so little variety in the enemies, compounding with the general lack of mission variety.

Those looking for a gripping storyline to uncover as they progress through the game should look elsewhere as Crackdown doesn’t have much of a plot that unfolds as you kill off the gang generals. There is a story within the game, but it’s not something to get really excited over. The story is presented in a brief cutscene prior to the beginning of the game and serves mainly to inform you of the series of events that transpired to lead up to the point the game begins. After completing the campaign, one final cutscene is presented which wraps up the story, unveiling an unexpected twist.

Single player campaign aside, the game truly shines when you’re bounding through the city with a friend. The co op system works similarly to the system implemented in Gears of War in which a second player can join your single player campaign at any time. One major drawback is that it isn’t as seamless as it should be. You can set the game up to allow others to join your game (random folks or friends only) and once they attempt to connect, you’ll be prompted that they are trying to join. This pulls you out of the game you’re currently playing and allows the second player to join, meaning, if you’re in the middle of a mission or anything else, you’ll have to quit, starting fresh. When the second player joins your game, they join your version of the city and vice versa when joining another player’s game. This can be a problem if you have already taken out all 21 gang generals and cleaned up the city because you and the second player won’t have much to do.

Playing through the campaign with a friend is great fun though, whether you’re taking out the gang generals one by one or tooling around the city causing random havoc, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Both players are given free reign over the entire city and are free to do whatever they choose, even if that means attacking one another. There is a lot to be seen and done in the city and given your super agent’s abilities and the plethora of weapons and items at your disposal, it really flexes your creativity and allows you to create your own fun.

Crackdown has a very unique visual style that blends realism and cel shading to great effect, creating a sort of virtual graphic novel. As a result, the graphics are crisp, well detailed and do their job quite well. In a game filled with explosions, it’s only fitting that they look fantastic. These are some of the better looking explosion effects in any game on the Xbox 360.

The audio presentation is pretty decent. The soundtrack consists of more than 100 songs that play through the in car radio meaning that you probably won’t hear many of them unless you really like driving. Once you leave the car, the music will continue to play with a nice positional audio effect relative to your proximity to the car. The “announcer”, your Agency contact, chimes in every now and then, offering tips, useful information and the occasional non sequitur. In the first few hours of play, these quips can be helpful, even funny, in a campy sort of way. Unfortunately, like most jokes, most are only funny the first time you hear them. After that, they begin to wear thin as he begins to nag you about killing too many civilians (even though they have a bad habit of being in the way…a lot…) or says something completely irrelevant to the situation at hand. A big example of this is the remarks he makes after you’ve ascended the Agency tower. Even when you’re halfway across the city, or indoors, he’ll randomly comment on your feat, which tends to be a bit annoying.

In the end, underneath its flaws, there is a great game to be found. Despite my complaints, I found the game to be highly enjoyable playing alone, and even more so playing with a friend. The co op mode is probably one of the best in recent memory and offers hours of fun as you wreak havoc around the city with a fellow super agent. It just seems like there was a bit of wasted potential in the lack of mission and enemy variety. There’s no use griping over what could have been though, when the game is as good as it is. If you’re an Xbox 360 owner and you’re hurting for a good sandbox game or want something you can play with a friend, don’t hesitate to pick this one up.



Graphics - 8
Gameplay - 8
Sound - 7
Value - 7
Tilt - 9

Overall Score - 8.1