Back in 2001, Microsoft, along with Blitz Games, decided to release the first Fuzion Frenzy in response to the sales success of Mario Party. What resulted was a game that while a sales success was overall reviewed as being a poor party game.
Fast forward to 2007, and Microsoft along with Hudson Soft have decided that those sales numbers were good enough to release Fuzion Frenzy 2. Gone is the familiar, most likely the most favorite part of the first game, "Fuzion Frenzy" yell. Replacing it is a host with green hair, pink pants and most likely one of the worse voice sync jobs in the last five years of gaming.
They have upped the ante by including six characters to choose from over the original four. Fans of the series will be happy to know that Dub, Sampson, Geena and Zak all return as playable characters, joined now by Jet and Naomi.
As in the first game there are 45 minigames to play though and most of them involve the need for some skill to win at them, as opposed to luck in other games. Some of them are copies from the first title, example being a steel ball game that you have to knock the other players off the field. Others involve you having to use a cart to move crates from one place to another and keep the other players from stealing yours.
There are three main types of games to play, both online and offline. Tournament mode has you traveling between two and five planets to play mini games in order to gain control of the planet. This is where you get to meet the most annoying host in the history of party games, no really, he is that bad. Having a host generically speak about how close and how amazing each event is after you complete it gets old, fast. Games are scored on a point system as they where in the first game. In tournament mode they have included cards that you can use to increase your score or numerous other "tricks."
There is a mini game mode that allows you to play any of the 45 minigames without having to listen to Mr. Pink Pants. Though the load time for most of the games seems to last longer then the games themselves, this is the most enjoyable mode. You get to the meat of the game with no fuss. There are a couple games that you need to play the main tournament mode to unlock, but to be honest most of the unlockable games are some of the worst in the title.
Article comments
1 - Kevin
sure the host may be annoying, but this game is losts of fun offline. Way to much talking in the online mode but otherwise it is a great game that i enjoy
2 - Mark
If there was a patch to enable an option to turn that guy off/skip him this game would br brilliant for both online and offline gameplay with a few friends.
Having played the first one with a few friends, its quite fun easy to pickup and play game. But the 360 edition makes it really hard to even pickup and play as you wait so long with him talking endlessly it certainly put me off enough to not want to play it anymore.
We've simply started playing fuzion frenzy 1 again.