This Monday's review is a little on the short side, but it gets the message across. I didn't care much for this game, but make sure you download the demo to form your own opinions.
Feeding Frenzy
2/5
Pros:
-Interesting gameplay
Cons:
-Frustrating
-Gets old fast
Every so often a game comes along that should be good, but isn't. It has all of the right qualities of a "good" game, but there's just something about it that can just ruin the entire experience. Feeding Frenzy by Sprout Games (published by PopCap) feels like one of those games.
The objective of Feeding Frenzy is simple enough. You start as a small fish trying to eat your way up the food chain. At first you have to consume the tiny fish to increase your growth bar, but once you eat a certain amount, you level up. This makes you bigger, and therefore allows you to eat larger fish. However, it is not quite that easy, as larger fish are trying to eat you. You are constantly dodging the bigger fish to get to the smaller fish, and it all just turns into, well, a feeding frenzy.
This is further complicated by the addition of different obstacles. There are oysters, which will eat you if they close on you, but sometimes contain pearls that you can snatch if you are quick enough. There are sharks, whose entrance are announced by an exclamation point and tend to follow you around. There are jellyfish, which will stun you and any other fish that touches it. And there are mines, which kill you instantly, and finally there are poisonous fish, which will reverse your controls for a bit if you eat them.
And of course, what good would a game be without power-ups. Available power-ups include a starfish that increases your score, a 1-Up that gives you an extra life, a shield that protects against one attack, a speed boost that makes you swim faster, and a stun, that makes every fish on the screen stop in its place.
Now all this sounds good, but unfortunately, the game has many flaws. Let's start with the camera. The entire level cannot be shown all at once, and the camera scrolls along with you. But the camera doesn't scroll until you reach around the edge of the screen. This means that there can be a shark waiting just at the edge of the screen to eat you, and you won't know about it until you've already been gobbled up. And trust me, this happens a lot. It's enough to make you want to cry after playing the first few rounds. This flaw could have been easily avoided by having the camera follow you without waiting for you to reach the edge of the screen, or by not having the camera scroll at all.
While the camera will bear most of your frustrations, you will also come across some little things that will just push your buttons. For example, sometimes you appear to be "sucked in" by larger fish and get eaten, even though you weren't near its mouth. The fact that larger fish can eat other smaller fish will also prove to be frustrating. Other little things like this just make Feeding Frenzy an unpleasant experience.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone but your kids. They will probably find much more enjoyment of it than you ever will. Feeding Frenzy is a game with potential that is bogged down with little things that make it a frustrating ride. You will tire of it very quickly. I give it a 2 out of 5.
Picture source: Teamxbox.com
2/5
Pros:
-Interesting gameplay
Cons:
-Frustrating
-Gets old fast
Every so often a game comes along that should be good, but isn't. It has all of the right qualities of a "good" game, but there's just something about it that can just ruin the entire experience. Feeding Frenzy by Sprout Games (published by PopCap) feels like one of those games.
The objective of Feeding Frenzy is simple enough. You start as a small fish trying to eat your way up the food chain. At first you have to consume the tiny fish to increase your growth bar, but once you eat a certain amount, you level up. This makes you bigger, and therefore allows you to eat larger fish. However, it is not quite that easy, as larger fish are trying to eat you. You are constantly dodging the bigger fish to get to the smaller fish, and it all just turns into, well, a feeding frenzy.
This is further complicated by the addition of different obstacles. There are oysters, which will eat you if they close on you, but sometimes contain pearls that you can snatch if you are quick enough. There are sharks, whose entrance are announced by an exclamation point and tend to follow you around. There are jellyfish, which will stun you and any other fish that touches it. And there are mines, which kill you instantly, and finally there are poisonous fish, which will reverse your controls for a bit if you eat them.
And of course, what good would a game be without power-ups. Available power-ups include a starfish that increases your score, a 1-Up that gives you an extra life, a shield that protects against one attack, a speed boost that makes you swim faster, and a stun, that makes every fish on the screen stop in its place.
Now all this sounds good, but unfortunately, the game has many flaws. Let's start with the camera. The entire level cannot be shown all at once, and the camera scrolls along with you. But the camera doesn't scroll until you reach around the edge of the screen. This means that there can be a shark waiting just at the edge of the screen to eat you, and you won't know about it until you've already been gobbled up. And trust me, this happens a lot. It's enough to make you want to cry after playing the first few rounds. This flaw could have been easily avoided by having the camera follow you without waiting for you to reach the edge of the screen, or by not having the camera scroll at all.
While the camera will bear most of your frustrations, you will also come across some little things that will just push your buttons. For example, sometimes you appear to be "sucked in" by larger fish and get eaten, even though you weren't near its mouth. The fact that larger fish can eat other smaller fish will also prove to be frustrating. Other little things like this just make Feeding Frenzy an unpleasant experience.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone but your kids. They will probably find much more enjoyment of it than you ever will. Feeding Frenzy is a game with potential that is bogged down with little things that make it a frustrating ride. You will tire of it very quickly. I give it a 2 out of 5.
Picture source: Teamxbox.com
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