Let’s say there are a few companies that do what they can to keep Xbox Live Arcade going. Although there have been plenty of promises about certain co-op games coming to XBLA, original games still make up the bulk of the offerings.
For 800 points ($8 US), you get to play a game that’s worth about eight dollars. The premise of the game is that you start off as a small fish in a big pond and it’s survivial of the fittest. You can eat fish smaller than you, but fish larger than you can take you out. As you continue to eat the small fry, you become bigger, which then allows you to take out bigger fish. The second time you grow bigger in a level, you can pretty much take everything you wish.
In addition to the fish, you can also pick up pearls from oysters at the bottom of the ocean (I’m guessing it’s an ocean). The white pearls add to your ‘growth bar’ a little bit, while the black pears – let’s just say you should do everything you possibly can to get them because in early levels they’ll immediately give you a bump up to a bigger fish.
Obstacles include the oysters above – you don’t want to have them close on you – as well as poisonous fish which alter your controls for a brief period of time. Certain levels have mines in the water and finally there are also sharks that can take you out from time to time.
There are 40 levels in the game and challenges throughout – the levels are grouped in sections and after every number of levels you change the type of fish that you are. In the latter round you become a whale and can have at it.
The game itself is mind numbingly easy – but although I’m done I continue to play it so that I’ll get the 10 hours of playtime to unlock a 15 point achievement. There’s no multiplayer to speak of and no difficulty levels either. It’s too bad, because if it was more of a challenge I think there would be an additional incentive to continue playing the game. The leaderboards are always compelling to try to beat someone else’s score and you can sort by friends only.
There are only two game variations – the standard game where you are given so many lives to start out with, and then a time attack mode where you are given a clock that carries over between levels. At first, I found time attack very difficult, but as you get lucky here and there, you’ll have enormous amounts of time carried over and you’ll be good to go.
The graphics aren’t bad given it’s an Xbox Live Arcade game, and are very crisp and clear. The detail on some of the fish is very good. The audio is sparse…it’s rather cartoony to me and it’s the same music that plays over and over. It does fit the game and doesn’t get annoying; however some variety might not be bad.
Overall Feeding Frenzy is a fun game that could have been a very good one had there been multiplayer modes, an extra difficulty level and more challenge. The kids enjoy it and it does have a ‘quick game’ mentality about it, but after you’ve finished the game, there really isn’t nothing more to see or do unless you have to get those Gamerscore points. For $8, you can probably save your points for something else and just play the trial version.
