Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown is a fish-eat-fish action game. You join a colorful cast of fishy characters that chomp their way through the sea. This sequel is much like the original, but there are new levels, a few new power-ups and new environmental challenges, including above-water challenges and Midnight Zones.
You start as a little fish in a big sea with bigger fish and smaller fish. You have to eat the smaller fish to get bigger as the game goes along. From there, you grow in each fun-filled level into a different fish. You have to eat fish that are smaller than you and watch out for bigger fish that want to eat you. Your playable fish changes quite a bit. You start with an angel fish named Andy. Then you go on to play as a lion fish, an angler and finally Orville the Orica. There are 60 levels in story mode in which you gain different fish in each level. In Time Attack, you race against the clock for some nonstop eating action to get the most points for eating fish.
I thought Feeding Frenzy 2 was a lot harder to play with a PlayStation 3 joystick than it was to play on a PC. The PS3 joystick version is very confusing because you have to pin-point the fish you are going to eat with your character. So you couldn’t maneuver your fish to be able to catch the other fish before getting eaten by a much bigger fish. The gameplay was affected a bit because of this. I had to get used to the controller and maneuver around to get a good feel for what I was doing. This helped me get used to the game and its mechanics.
My boys Takoda, Michael and Landon helped me review Feeding Frenzy 2. The elements they liked the most were that you can grow bigger and bigger and that it makes you more powerful to eat more fish. They did get disappointed at getting eaten by bigger fish. Overall, my boys really liked it. They played the original Feeding Frenzy on the PC and had the same problems with the PlayStation 3 controller as I did. They liked the dash button and the suction button to get as many fish at one time. They also enjoyed getting different fish in each level.
As limited as the sequel is, it still remained a fun and interactive game. The game’s many dangers are offset with the numerous power-ups. By the end you’ll be snagging shields, freezing bombs and an icon that lets you automatically wolf down any fish in the sea. Speed dashes and suction abilities are at your disposal once you’ve learned them and are great for inhaling any nearby groups of fish for the frenzy school bonus. New power-ups include Shrink Shroom, which shrinks any fish bigger than you; Instant Illuminate, which lights up the whole screen for a bit during Midnight Zones; and Looney Lures, which hook and move bigger fish off screen.
There were some differences in Feeding Frenzy 2 from the original game that made it more interesting. Besides the additional power-ups, in some levels, you can jump out of the water and catch bugs near the surface or do back flips for style points. Midnight Zones are also new; during these levels, your screen is dark, and your anglerfish light illuminates things, but that eventually will fade, so you have to find bioluminescent stuff to eat and keep it glowing strong.
Feeding Frenzy 2 has a nice blue sea diving look to the background that gave the game a more realistic look. The characters’ colors work really nice together and fit in with the colorful under-the-sea graphics. So it looks like what you would see under the sea in real life, only in 2-D graphics. The graphics are really good for a 2-D fish game and fit the game as a whole.
Takoda, Michael and Landon liked the music and sound effects in the game. We all liked the crunch sound it made when you got eaten by a fish or were eating a fish. Also the background music was a light tropical sound that is enjoyable for this setting. I thought the sounds where a bit on the generic side but flowed well.
Feeding Frenzy 2 will be fun for most young gamers out there or for fans of casual games. There are also several party games for you and your friends to enjoy. For a PlayStation Network arcade game, it wasn’t that bad and isn’t a bad investment when you figure that you get more than 60 levels, all of which can be played on easy or normal difficulty in story mode and with up to four players in co-op play.
Feeding Frenzy 2 is a nice game for the price you pay. It gives you a bang for your buck. It is another Feeding Frenzy game, so it was interesting for me to play. But I think I would have liked it a bit more if it had been more than what the original was. Feeding Frenzy 2 is available for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and the PC. If you want some wet fishy fun or really enjoyed the original, go ahead and get this title. If you’re content with the original game and don’t want or need more, you won’t be missing out.
Tommy started playing with the Atari 2600 when he was about 8 years old. Two years after that, his father bought him a brand new Nintendo, and since, Tommy has been addicted to games. Tommy is a full-time student at Full Sail University working toward a bachelor's degree in video game design. He's more into gameplay than story, but he does think that story creates flow in a game and makes the game more interesting. Tommy doesn't like games that have too much story, though. He likes games that have three-fourths gameplay to one-fourth story. To him, gameplay makes the game fun and interesting. Tommy also believes if you are a designer, you have to have that gift to let yourself see all sides of the spectrum of the industry. Games have choices that make the game interesting to the player and those choices need to be logical not irrational. With making games, everything is essential to the creation of the game as a whole. A movie without sound is like a game without gameplay. Everything is accentual to the game as a whole — that is how games create the fun within them.
