Fuzion Frenzy 2 - Xbox 360 Review

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Many of us fans of the original FF from the original XBOX were anxiously awaiting the release of a sequel. After waiting so long it is finally here.

Back from the original game are the characters we have all grown to love (or in some cases hate). Samson, Naomi, Geena, Dub, Jet, and every annoying Zack. Also in this game is a slew of brand new mini games, as well as some favorites from the original including, Sumo and Twisted System, sadly some favorites did not make it for whatever reason. That is not to say the new games are not as fun, because they are. One game involves you having to sink your opponent's boat using the water that opponents are trying to sink your boat with. Another one has you trying to stay on a waterfall by pressing random button that appears on screen. So the fun factor of the actual mini games is still there for the most part. However the Fuzion Frenzy round from the original game has been replaced with a beat the crap out of your opponents round in which you basically do that, using items and powerups from the environment. It's not as fun as the "Fuzion Frenzy", but still pretty fun nonetheless. Instead of different game zones in FF1, FF2 games take place on different planets, Earth and several other ficticious ones.

Graphics while not a big issue with a party game like this, are pretty well done, but like all of us know graphics is not what make a game like this fun, its the presentation, and sadly the presentation of this game falls way short of the original. The main problem is that the game moves entirely too slow. Instead of going directly to the action, before each mini game, you have to listen to this corny host with a light tie, lights shooting out of his shoulders, and buttons on his cuff links blab on and on, talking about the same thing, which is basically nothing. His voice is annoying as well. Ever so often you have to compete in a mini game to get stupid cards, and every time he says "Now you will play a game which I prepared myself on the ship." Luckily you can skip through this annoying babble and get to the game a little faster. But even during game play the announcer is annoying, always babbling along and he can't even say the characters' names, instead he says "How are you doing Player 1?", or "Player 3 lands an attack", YES he says "Player 1", not Samson, Naomi, Zack or ANY of the character names. Why? I have no idea, even the original version said the character names, surely the 360 version could do the same, but I guess not. This separates the player from the game even more. Even the character dialog themselves seem robotic and no emotion what so ever. I miss the annoying dialog from the original, like Zacks "Zack, shalack lack ack ack". They still saw some smart a$$ things, but nothing like the original.

Adding to the frustration, is that there are now annoying cards you can use before each mini game, which allow you to multiply your point values you earn in the mini game, meaning if you lose in the mini game and only get 2 point, if you use your x6 card, it means you would get 12 points, and if the winner didn't use a card, then you will be declared the winner of the mini game, even though you came in dead last. Cheesiest at its finest. Other cards reverse the effect of cards, so if you use a reversal card and someone else uses a x6 card, that effect will turn into a divided by 6 card instead. Another card allows you to steal the effect of a card from another player. More cheese.

And if that's not enough, only player 1 can gain achievements during game play. This is not a big issue for me, since my wife and I only play to have fun, but for some people this is a big deal since if Player 2, 3 or 4 wins the whole game, there will be nothing to show for it. I don't play online, but for those that do, there can only be one player per 360, so if you have two people at your home hoping you two will get to play online at the same time, forget it, only one player per XBOX online. Clearly lazy developing as they surely should have known players would want to be able to play otherwise.

This game had the potential to be even greater than the original, and when it comes to actual game play, it's pretty close, but the main thing that ruined this from being the incredibly fun game, was the poor presentation. Its like Hudson tried way too hard to make this game into an intergalactic game show instead of keeping it simple and focusing on what made the original so fun. The fun of the games is definitely top notch, but the overall presentation hurt my overall rating of this game.

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First let me say that I am not good at the "regular" games for XBox (360 or otherwise). Anyway, when my husband bought the 360 I was excited to hear that FF2 was coming out for it because my husband & I had a great time challenging eachother and "fighting" during the first FF. So, when we got this a few days ago and started to play a LOT had changed about this. First, there is no Fusion Frenzy (the final game in each stage of the original). Unless, it is a game that we haven't unlocked yet. Which brings me to some interesting things about FF2. One, is that each character who wins the over all game unlocks a new game in a new world. Another is that you choose how many worlds you have to win between 1-5 overall winnings. Plus, this time you get cards that either let you choose the next mini game in the world or lets you multiply your mini game final score by either 2,4 or 6 times the amount. For example, if you use your times 6 multiplier in a mini game and get second place, then you get 6 (your original score for second place) times 6 = 36 points. Then you get first place in that game (which will really irritate the person who actually scored 10 to win first place). You also recieve stealer cards, which means if one person uses a multiplier and you use a stealer then you actually get the multiplier card. And, there is a divider card for someone who uses a multiplier card and you use the divider it will actually divide the persons score instead of mulitplying it. For the first world or so it might seem these cards are not worth it but as the worlds progress they actually seem more useful. Plus, you never know what cards people are choosing so you hope that you are using the right one at the right time. The cards come at random times either by fighting for them in a mini game that the DJ makes or just randomly after a game is won/lost. This game has the same characters as the original as well as some of the original games played in a different type of world. All in all, I think the original FF is the best but this one, once you get used to and get the hang of all of the new things involved is fun. One of the irritating things though is that there are only so many mini games to choose from when you first start to play. It just doesn't look like a lot and it's rather irritating that you can't play all of them but, eventually, you get used to all of these things and the game really is fun. I would say while the other game was good for smaller children, this one should be for slightly older (maybe 8 and over) because of all of the changes and card usage, etc. Give it a try, it is fun, like I said, once you get used to everything. Good luck :)

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My friends and I have been big Fuzion Frenzy fans for years. We'd get together and spend hours playing the mini games. They were fun, quick to start and play, and we got a big kick out of the cheesy announcer with his strained, cracked voice screaming out "Fuzion Frenzy!". Yes, we're a silly bunch.

Anyway, my original Xbox died a couple of months ago; the DVD drive stopped reading. I was looking at close to $80 for a replacement (unit + shipping) so I decided to just upgrade to a Xbox 360, and of course buy the sequel to our favorite game, Fuzion Frenzy 2.

I'll say right now, this game, aside from the fact that you're playing mini games, is nothing like the original. The game is non-play animation heavy (lots of long useless segue animations), the structure of the gameplay is different, and there's no Fuzion Frenzy round! To my friends and I, that was the best part of the game! We'd have a blast gathering orbs (from the game field or by stealing them from each other) and avoiding each other and the play field hazards.

Though I expected the mini games to be different in this release, I didn't expect them to be quite so varied in visual and play complexity. Some are very busy visually and require use of both thumbsticks and buttons, where others are visually boring and require button use only. In some ways this parallels the original version, however the levels were never so busy as to detract attention from what you were doing as they are in Fuzion Frenzy 2.

To give an idea of loss of game play in Fuzion Frenzy 2, my friends and I would usually play a 6-stage set of mini games inside a half hour. However, in Fuzion Frenzy 2 we gave up one game into the second round of mini games after 45 minutes. Yes, that much useless animation was added between mini games.

What used to be a fun, mindless party game has now become a more involved, needlessly bloated game that is sure to cause you and your friends to become disinterested in playing it as the game sluggishly moves from one mini game to the next. Aside from better graphics, they really missed the point with this sequel. I definitely did not get my money's worth with this purchase.

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I loved the first game. This one, not so much. Some of the games are mildly entertaining but the presenation and mechanics ruin it. The cards are lame and can ruin even the best player..

but nothing drags the experience down like the "announcer". He simply won't shut up! To be honest after about 30 minutes my friends and I turned this game off and popped the orignal in never to play FF2 again. If they had a game where you got to smack around the announcer for points I might have given this game another star but...

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I have been waiting for this game for months. I loved Fuzion Frenzy on XBox and couldn't wait to see the nex-gen version. I bought this game on its release date and wish I would have waited for a used copy. First and foremost, why did they remove "Fuzion Frenzy" from the game? That was the best part of the game, risking your points and stealing your opponents. Second, the announcer is extremely annoying and his quips are repetitive to the point of hurting the game. Also, how hard is it to announce the winning players name. Player 1 wins the tournament, this is nex-gen and the game can't announce the character. If you loved Fuzion Frenzy 1, you might be disappointed in this "upgrade." I sure was.