Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown - PS3 - Demo - Review

[Ohio Joe]

So I'm browsing through the demos again and I see this game, never heard of it before but read the description and just had to try it.

It describes it as you becoming the biggest fish at the top of the food chain by eating smaller fish and growing bigger.... heh, too funny. A short download at 56meg so even though my PS3 seems to have a hard time download it was still pretty quick.

I grab a drink and fire it up, loads in nice and quick. I have the choices of single, multi, leader-boards, trophies, help and buy this game all on drift wood floating in the foreground and underwater in the background that has all kinds of amusing looking fish swimming by eating each other. This is just twisted... but in a wicked funny way :D

I take a quick look at help to see the controls... Sweet, wicked easy controls for a change. Left thumb stick moves you, box is "blow", circle is "suck", X is dash and R1 is "yummy bubble"... ohhhh, I'm only on my first drink of the evening but I'm still finding this funny.

On to single player... We have "Story", "Story Lite" and "Time Attack". I'm going for Story.

ok... While loading it shows a map of the lagoon and what stage is loading (60 in the full game). Then it goes to a little story screen... I'm boris the butterfly fish.. blah blah blah... eat fish smaller then you... ok, can do, heh.

hmmm... ok, this looks like a side scroller but it's not... sort of. I mean... it is not a first person, swim in a big area thing but it does look like an old school side scroller. The area you can wander in is kind of small, I would hope they get bigger in later levels and multi-player. You have about four screens worth of area to move in, shaped like a square, two top, two bottom but it scrolls smoothly. In the upper right corner is your growth meter with three section, fill each one and you grow. Each time you grow you can eat different fish.

The little fish are plentiful and there are not many big fish, plus the big fish do not move very fast and stay on a predictable path... so I am only eaten twice because I move really fast and keep jumping into their mouths. The "suck" and "blow" buttons do not seem to do anything yet... maybe need power-ups... or the full game... or just a later level... who the fuck knows?

I manage to get through the level only being eaten twice so I'm happy, a little practice and I bet I can do this. On to level 2.

In between levels in gives little fun facts... like some starfish turn their stomachs inside out and pour their digestive juices on what they want to eat and then just slurp them up... yeah... I could have lived without that knowledge.

Level 2. The area seems to be about the same size but we have different fish. You have to keep an eye on which ones you can eat and which you can't because size is sometimes close (you can see this in the upper left hand corner of the screen). I now have a shark that I will never be able to eat. Fish are a little less plentiful and there are more bigger fish so the first level of growth is harder... fortunately, I can use the controls better, so I do not get eaten. At the top are now butterflies just above the surface that you can jump up and eat as well but they do not give you much growth so I ignore them, heh. End of demo (though there are other modes, I'll end it here)

Graphics - Very colorful, crisp and clean. The different fish are really funny, they all seem to have different expressions of the same thing... apathy... yeah, yeah, I'm going to eat you... or be eaten by you. heh, too funny. Though this is a 2-D game, there is lots that goes on in the fore/backgrounds yet you still have a clear view of where you are and what your going after.

Controls - Simple... about as simple as they get. I like that :D

Fun Factor - It is a simple game but I find it funny and strangely addictive.

Bottom Line - I really like this game and at 9.99 I will wait till they have it on 50% off and buy it... because I'm poor :D but if I had money I think it would be worth 9.99, heh.

One other note - The Playstation store now seems to be having splash screens in the background of some screens that show advertising... it's almost subliminal... When did they start this? Fucking commercials are everywhere, man I hate them.