Fuzion Frenzy

Back in the day when Fuzion Frenzy came out at the start of the original Xbox’s life, I vividly remember people talking about how it was Bill Gates's favorite game. Man, I have to be honest, never in a million years did I think the Xbox would take off the way it would and it owes it all to this game here…. Ok, so a certain launch first-person shooter may also have had a tiny little bit to do with the Xbox taking off.

The Game Of Games

Fuzion Frenzy is a mini-game/ party game sort of game so there is no big story at play here. The basics are you play as one of a handful of different characters and you want to prove that you are the best of the best by winning the tournament. That is all there is for the backstory of the game.

The original Xbox was touted as the most powerful console on the market and I have to say that as a launch game, Fuzion Frenzy really does nothing to show off that power at all. The presentation and the soundtrack too are pretty much instantly forgettable.

Betting It All!

This is a mini-game style of game where up to four players can compete and the AI takes over the other spots. The main game mode is the Tournament mode and this is split into zones and you decide how many zones you want to play which can be 2,4 or 6. There is no Mario Party style rolling a dice here you just play one game and move onto the next.

The twist that Fuzion Frenzy offers is that at the end of each round, you will have accumulated a bunch of orbs, and orbs turn into points. You can decide to take the orbs that you have earned in the mini-games and turn those into points. Or you can put them in the Fuzion Frenzy mode and try to win even more. It is a gamble, but if you are losing, you can actually turn the tables here and go from last to first!

Brim Full Of Asha On The 45

That is a very dated 90s reference I know, but Fuzion Frenzy features 45 mini-games which is a very solid amount if you ask me. There is a decent variety to the mini-games and they are split into different categories. There are racing mini-games, music mini-games, battle mini-games, and many more. Sometimes you will be by yourself and other times you will end up having to be paired with other players.

The mini-games play well enough, but like other games in this style, the enjoyment you will get from it is all about playing with your friends. Playing against the AI loses its appeal very quickly and it is the kind of game you would pull of the shelf, play for five-minutes, get bored realize why it has been on the shelf for like 10 years, and then put it back on there.

Pros:

• It has a large selection of mini-games
• Playing with friends can be fun
• The way you can gamble your orbs is cool
• It made good use of the four controller ports on the original Xbox

Cons:

• The whole game is very forgettable
• It is honestly average at best in every way

Overview

Let the Frenzy begin! Xbox burst onto the scene with the ultimate party game. Fuzion Frenzy is a knockdown, drag-out blitz of action-style mini-games. Player(s) jump into the mix in a futuristic city where the best (pre-made) players duke it out in a variety of games that range from tank racing to DJ scratching.

Call up your friends and buy three more controllers because this party game is the perfect venue for battling with your buddies over a plate of hot nachos and surly competition.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Fuzion Frenzy (FF) is a 1-4 player game. When first booting up the game, players can select from a group of pre-made, creative looking individuals that appear a bit weird, to say the least. From there, you can enter either the tournament mode or the mini-game frenzy. In tournament mode, you select how many stages you would like to play, two, four or six. Each stage consists of three mini-games and a fourth game called the fuzion frenzy round. As you play each of the varied games, the object of the tournament (and the game, ultimately) is to have the greatest amount of crystal points by the end of the game. Typically, you win any number of crystals depending on how you finished in the mini-game, whether it's 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th. During the fusion frenzy round, players wager the crystals they have won previously, in an attempt to boost their score. It's kind of reminiscent of the final round in the TV show Jeopardy.

The game's locations are broken into game zones, which directly affect what kind of mini-games you are going to play. In the Coliseum zone, expect to do battle in giant steel cage style orbs and ice vehicles. Downtown has fireworks and DJ scratching games. The Outlands have demolition style battles and games where you pilot vehicles that get longer and longer. In the Military zone, there are tank style games and pod vehicle games. The Power Station level contains hopper (spinning fans) and splat attack type games, while the Waterfront has jet boat races and orb carrying games. Now I know that this seems like there is a great deal of variety, but you don't know the half of it. There are tons of different variations on the games with the different maps and rule changes. In all, there are over 45 games in which to do battle. Trust me, this game has a TON of cool things to do.

The controls in the game are fairly easy to manipulate, most levels just use the direction pad (analog stick) and one button, occasionally two. The idea of the game is to keep it simple so as to really concentrate on the action at hand, and believe me, there is so much going on at any one time it's easy to lose your character in all that action. While similar games have failed in this area by being too bright and busy, this one does not. It skirts the fence line perfectly between overly crazy and redundant.

Multiplayer

This is the consummate multiplayer game, while you can play it one player against three other computer players; it's only really fun when doing battle with other HUMAN players. I found Fuzion Frenzy to be a really excellent multiplayer game. For our adult readers, chugging a beer between game rounds multiplies the humor factor of the game tenfold.

Graphics

For a game with as much happening as this one, there is happily no lag. The graphics can get a bit small when players are on the farthest edges of the game but when the action is up close the attention is tuned up a bit. And while the characters aren't exactly awe-inspiring, the various levels and wacky traps all look and work well within the confines of the game. The structural graphics are of a futuristic look and have a robotic feel to them. Crystals are bright and clean while explosions look sharp. I must say though, after playing Halo, I know the Xbox has more under the hood to offer and, while this game looks good, I know it could have looked better.

Audio

Okay, the funky hip-hop music is cool at first, but boy does it get old fast. I recommend putting one of your personal favorite up-beat CDs on the hard drive and jamming to it. Or, how bout putting one of Beethoven's CDs on and seeing how well that works. Try it, you'll be surprised. As far as the voice acting goes, I was pleasantly surprised, after hearing the painful music, I suspected the voices would be positively awful. Turns out I was wrong, between rounds, characters say taunts and the narrator smugly picks on whoever is in last place. Pretty funny.

Bottom Line

This is an excellent multiplayer title. Please keep an open mind about this 'party' game. However, once you look past the seemingly innocent faA§ade, you will find yourself tossed around the proverbial meat grinder. It almost feels like a futuristic American Gladiators, only hopped up on goofballs.

I would love to continue on with my typical long-winded description of this game, but that's half the beauty of it. It's simplistic, not simple. More is less and all that hoopla. Look, my wife, who doesn't much like games, thought this one was fun because it was easy to pick up and she got to throw bombs at her husband. However, if you are still not convinced, rent this game and see how much fun it can be.

Trust me, you won't regret it.