Frantics is a fun four-player party game that does its beset imitation of being a Mario Party lite. It’s engaging, fun, at times frustrating, but nonetheless a good addition to the PlayLink game family.
I’m so happy that Sony isn’t letting go of the PlayLink idea. I’m dead serious about that, so don’t take that as sarcasm. I’ve had the most stupid fun on some of these PlayLink games and they’ve been great for group fun. I have five kids at home, so those with phones enjoy participating in these titles with the maximum amount of fun and the least amount of ‘I’m next!’.
Anyway, Sony Interactive Entertainment released Frantics into its PlayLink library today for the PlayStation 4 and the game lies in the same vein as Mario Party, at least in structure, minus the game board and adorably familiar characters. You’re given mini-games to compete in against other players (2-4) and whomever the winner of each mini-game is wins a crown. By the end of the game session, the player with the most crowns wins the overall game. Again, kind of like Mario Party, where you win stars and the player with the most at the end wins. It’s a simple concept that makes the competitiveness ratchet up to 11 at times, but nonetheless easy enough for a variety of ages to enjoy the title.
Staying with the mini-games, which are the real feature in the experience, they are widespread in variety and Frantics does a decent job of mixing up the mini-games given to the player (up to five) during each game session. What this means is that each time you play Frantics, you feel as if you’re getting a new game with a new set of challenges/experiences. Think about the PlayLink trivia game, Knowledge is Power, and you get the idea, as all the trivia questions never get presented to you in the same pattern. We’ve played Frantics around five times in the last 24 hours and each time felt different from the last. New games are brought in, mixed and matched and then shuffled. The only common variable in each experience is the Grand Finale of the matches, which basically puts all players in a slowly decaying ice rink with a each player choosing a weapon of their choice to have the best advantage against the others. That sounds very Mad Max: Thunderdome, and it is, sans Master Blaster. Once in a blue moon, and this has only happened once out of the five times playing, instead of competing against the other players in a final competition, the Grand Finale offers a chance for players to buy crowns with coins collected during competition to win the game. Different? Certainly. Anti-climactic? In a way. Competitive? Still.
Getting back to the mini-games, they do come in quite the creative variety. You get games like a foot race, where you can bump other players into obstacles. Another game features a curling/putt-putt experience, where you sit in chairs with wheels trying to sling yourself onto a bulls-eye for points. Another game features skydiving off a cliff, where you try to be the last gamer to pull your chute (without splatting on the ground). Point being, there are a variety of mini-games featured and nearly all of them are entertaining, but some are a bit short on excitement. An example of one is a mini-game that features wearing a jetpack and traversing through a series of long tubes in hopes of A) not getting hurt along the way and B) finishing. The particular mini-game is a little slow and not nearly as exciting as the others.
All of this said, while there is a variety of games to be played, the actual gameplay design is built for short stints. That’s not to say there isn’t fun to be had over and over, but I think NapNok Games (the devs) knew that if you’re looking for an hour or so gameplay experience with each session of the game, then you’re looking in the wrong place. This is a methodically designed phone game that happens to run on the PlayStation 4. It’s a casual gaming experience that needed to be in short stints, so don’t expect much more than what should be offered.
That said, let’s get back to specifics on mini-games. Features of the mini-games, the basic player mechanics, are helped out by certain creative choices that depend on skill, some luck and some involuntary teamwork. The latter of the bunch is featured in a few mini-games, where you can do things like hop on another player’s back, without their permission, in hopes of taking out the other opponents. Is there a clear advantage to this? Yes, especially if the mini-game features jumping/kicking. You can catch the lone single player in mid-air and punt them off whatever map you’re working on with authority. The only thing missing from this mechanic is the ability to toss the top player off the level as well. I’ve been trying to do this all do and have come up unsuccessful. NapNok, make this happen!
Beyond player mechanics, you have objects you can pick up and use to your advantage. For example, the parachute level has two rounds to it and in the second round you have the ability to acquire lit dynamite and push it off on another player. It’s like playing a game of hot potato, if the potato was going to blow up in your face and kill you. There’s nothing more complicated in a parachute game like passing dynamite back and forth, while trying to decide when to pull your chute before you squish into the ground. There are plenty of different objects in the game that will spice up the gameplay a bit. Most work, some don’t, but the variety is there to make it interesting, especially when you get to choose said objects in the Grand Finale.
Staying with objects, mid-way through the game you’ll have the opportunity to purchase objects to help you in mini-games. The objets can be as simple as a golden parachute (not going to tell you what that does) a de-trapping device (that takes away traps from certain mini-games) and other things like a pointy hat (going to have to discover that yourself). Sometimes during the Grand Finale you can purchase objects from all the mini-games you played, so that you can use them in the final fight. That could be anywhere from a chair, jousting stick and/or whatever. Regardless, the use of objects and the difficulty they can be to control poses some fun/tough gameplay.
Speaking of controls, if you have never played a PlayLink game, then you’re going to need to understand that they work with your mobile phone. While most of what is out there in the PlayLink category doesn’t demand too much of your mobile movement, generally most PlayLink games have you pushing onscreen buttons, maybe swiping here and there, but Frantics takes it a step further. The game forces you to move your phone to accomplish your goals of beating other players. That means that tilting, moving, sometimes swinging, will be involved with your phone holding. In addition, you’ll also have to use an onscreen button to pull off moves, or use the screen itself to do things like set traps on a map (without other players knowing it). Much like most parts of Frantics, the movement and such is pulled off well for the game, though there are occasional movement hiccups. The jousting part of the game drove me nuts, as it seemed a bit off during the first initial gameplay, which caused me to never get my footing for movement. The second time around it corrected itself, so it wasn’t too bad. I do commend NapNok for making a game that uses more of the phone, as that has been a little shortchanged in some PlayLink titles. Oh, don’t be surprised if the game calls you for a secret mission during the gameplay. Not going to get too much into that, but it does happen.
Overall, Frantics is a fun four-player party game that does its beset imitation of being a Mario Party lite. It’s engaging, fun, at times frustrating, but nonetheless a good addition to the PlayLink game family.
