| Author | Review |
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Vursus
163,238
TA Score for this game: 258
Posted on 12 September 10 at 16:44 |
This review has 15 positive votes and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
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Release Date: February 6 2006(Windows) // September 17 2008(XBLA) // March 11 2010(PSN)
Platforms: Windows // XBLA // PSN
Developers: Sprout Games
Genre: Arcade
Publishers: PopCap Games
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That little game that used to be an excuse to not do work in ICT lessons has moved platforms onto your xbox (or the other two consoles if you own those instead of course). However, it's had a slight revamp from those days, and a story of sorts has been implemented to give the game some meaning. Nevertheless, it still remains a fun game to pass a few hours with.
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Storyline: 5/10
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The storyline isn't very complex, and that's to be expected for such a simple game. It mainly revolves around some alien fish being elusive in the darkness as you progress through the ocean, and then eventually you begin to pursue the felon with the various fish you can play as.
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Length and replay value: 5/10
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At first glance, with a load more levels at hand, you may gain the insight that this is going to be a timely arcade game to finish. Sadly, this is certainly not true, and it is nowhere as long as its predecessor. You'll require a play through on story, followed by one on time attack to gain everything that this game has to offer, and you can dabble into the party games mode (multiplayer) for a bit of fun with friends, but it'll end about there.
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Gameplay: 7/10
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Despite the shortness of the game, it's gameplay has been improved somewhat from the first, allowing the levels to flow more smoothly, and various new power-ups have been instated. Also, there is the addition of being able to jump out of the water on a select amount of levels, which seeming like a small change, it adds a little zest to the game.
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Graphics and Audio: 5/10
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It's based on a flash game so let's be realistic with this, we're not expecting CGI fish are we? Feeding Frenzy keeps up to all that is expected, and as with the gameplay, the graphics have been moderately improved, taking into water around the fish moving accordingly when the fish does so. However, the audio in this game is sub-par at best, and doesn't really give an enticing feel to the game. I'd recommend that anyone playing listens to some form of personal music whilst playing.
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Achievements: 2/10
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Achievements in this game were possibly the most disappointing aspect I found. Unlike the first feeding frenzy, none are particularly time consuming to prompt you to come back and play for further hours, and none are particularly amazingly thought out to make them feel achieved. I think the best achievement I found in this game was the quadruple flips one, and that's only because it took some thought into getting it, achievements definately weren't this games strong point.
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Overall Score: 24/50
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Tasty Pastry
144,619
TA Score for this game: 258
Posted on 29 March 09 at 10:38, Edited on 05 November 10 at 04:59 |
This review has 14 positive votes and 5 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Note : So here's the game. Feeding Frenzy 2. They gave it some cute little sidename to differentiate it from Feeding Frenzy 1. I don't even bother knowing it, so my guess of "Shipwreck Showdown" might be just plain wrong. Don't really care. Anyway, this is the sequel to Feeding Frenzy 1, which you might have played on your xbox live arcade compilation disc. I believe this one is currently selling on the marketplace for about 800 points.
You're a fish. You start off small. You eat smaller fish, and gradually get bigger. The bigger you get, the more types of fish you can eat. Become the biggest fish and you complete the level. There is a choice between single player which includes a story mode as well as a timed mode, and a multiplayer mode, which has both offline and online functionality which includes both ranked and player matches. I'll go into further detail in the descriptions of single player and multiplayer below. That's the jist of the game. I don't want to get too much into it now since I'm going to cover it in single player/multiplayer below. If you're looking for just the good/bad parts of the game, you might just want to scroll down to my pros/cons section.
Singleplayer - The singleplayer is what you're paying for. There are two modes: story mode and timed mode. Story mode means you have a set number of lives as you play through the game. Timed mode means you have a set amount of time per level that you have to beat it before you run out of time (duh). The time you have left over per level is transferred to the next level. There are around 40 levels. Complete them all to beat the game in each mode. There is also a point system that comes along with this. You can increase your multiplier (your Frenzy meter) by eating fish quickly. There are also other ways to get bonuses (eating schools/swarms). It's interesting, but you're probably more interested in beating the game than getting a high score. There are some online leaderboards if you're actually that interested in knowing how you compare. There's also some helpful abilities your fish learns to help you maximize your eating skill. This includes a quick boost ability and a 'suck in' ability in which you draw near fish towards your mouth. There are some help bubbles as well such as a protective fish that swims around you and basically gives you a 'free life' if you were to get eaten. Here's how I feel about it. It's pretty fun the first time you play through each mode. After that you're unlikely to play again, since that sense of accomplishment from beating the game is gone, and it isn't that challenging. For more info, check the pros/cons below.
Rating - 7/10
Multiplayer - This game, unlike the original, comes with a multiplayer. This includes an offline mode and an online mode which has ranked and player matches. The offline mode allows you to have up to another 3 people locally playing with you. There are a series of mini games to choose from. While playing you'll earn points which will work you towards an achievement (oh boy).
Now that I've told you what it's about, let me tell you what I think of it. It's boring. I played through a round once with my girlfriend thinking that maybe "multiplayer" meant co-op mode. I then played it through a second time to get the 1000 points achievement. I barely noticed there was an online multiplayer. I've never used it, I won't lie to you. Odds are, besides maybe once, you wont either. The mini-games aren't fun enough to keep a "live" community up, so good luck finding a game.
Rating - 2/10
Others - Uh. Graphics? You're a fish, based on some simple flash games from the computer. Don't expect anything mind blowing here, but I'm not saying that everything is horribly pixelated or anything like that. The sound is nothing special, just some simple soothing music that changes when you get to levels where you see the evil fish. Achievements are solid. You shouldn't have too much of a problem getting 200/200. Check out my achievement guide if you have questions. I checked this one off my list in about one night. As of right now, unless I'm mistaken, there is no DLC, nor can I really see any coming out in the future. They are more likely to come out with Feeding Frenzy 3, since that would make more financial sense.
Graphics - 3/10
Sound - 3/10
Achievement rating - 7/10
DLC - Not applicable
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Final Score - 4.4/10
Summary : List pros and cons and other comments.
Pros:
*The game is simple to learn. The tutorial of the game basically happens as you play through the game. You can get your 7 year old brother to play this game no problem. I'm sure you played fishy on your school's computer when you were in middle school, proud that you could get past their "blocks". Really simple gameplay.
*It's 10 dollars. I've spent money on some other games for around ten dollars that I've regretted (MLB Stickball...). If you get even a night's enjoyment out of this thing, is that worth the price of a movie ticket? I think so.
*Achievement Points are easy. You'll get the 200/200 within one night unlike the original Feeding Frenzy game if you've played that one.
Cons:
*It might as well not have a multiplayer. You'll play it maybe once for 20 minutes and then you'll be done. The mini games aren't exciting enough to warrant you becoming that good at them, and basically, if you're competent at all, you'll have about the same skill level as everyone else in the world.
*Achievements are probably too easy in fact. Since you can knock them out in one night, you'll have even less of a reason to come back to this game after you complete it. Yes, the getting 40,000 fish in your foodbank was obnixious in the first game, but at least it made me play through a couple of times, and I still return to the game every once in a while to work on it.
*It's a one time game. You'll beat it in all the modes, maybe play a multilayer game or two, and then you'll be done. Without that sense of accomplishment that you could get from beating the game for the first time, it becomes lackluster. (As an example think of the first time you beat Time Crisis in an arcade. You used as many quarters are you could to see that ending. Now, every time you see it, you think to yourself that you know the ending, that the game is kind of cheap, and that you are going to be out a bunch of money, so what's the point). You might return, but if you have at least a decent collection of games to choose from, I doubt it.
*I didn't really get the story. There's some evil fish eating all the fish? Isn't that what you're doing? Yea? It is? Oh.
*Graphics/sound is nothing to write home about. That being said, it isn't the main purpose of the game anyway, so really, it isn't that big a deal.
*If you own the first one, you might want to pass on this one unless you have some excess cash. Yes, they made some upgrades (different upgrade bubbles, better graphics by a bit, different frenzy meter, includes a multiplayer), but I'm not sure that's worth 10 dollars to you to own the same game twice. The basic gameplay of the game is the same so...yea. Think of it basically as the difference between Pac Man and Mrs. Pac Man. Yea, they're different, but unless you're an addict to them you really don't notice.
*There is no co-op, which is really what I thought the "upgrade" from the original to this one would be. No, I'm not sure exactly how they would do it, but I'm not the game creator getting paid, so the specifics aren't my problem. It would make the online gameplay much more interesting and might lead to repeat gameplay.
Final Comment - There ya go, another review from me, Tasty Pastry. My final recommendation? If you don't have the first one and have 10 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, pick it up on a night when you're sitting at home, bored, and want a simple, relaxing, non-competitive game. That's basically the price of a movie ticket, with about the same enjoyment, so it seems fair to me. If you ever see it in the "deal of the week" section, I'd strongly recommend you pick it up.
Any questions feel free to send me a private message.
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