Fuzion Frenzy is a 2001 video game developed by Blitz Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios as a launch title for the Xbox. At its core, Fuzion Frenzy is a four-player Party Game featuring 45 different mini-games in its selection roster (not including the titular Fuzion Frenzy). The game had two modes of play: Tournament mode which allowed up to four players to compete in sets of three minigames that tied to the theme of the city's zone to earn orbs that were later used in the Fuzion Frenzy minigame. Tournament mode used two, four, or six zones to compete in, with the winner ultimately being determined by the highest point count in all the combined Fuzion Frenzy rounds after each minigame set. There is also minigame Frenzy, where players could select any minigame at any time (except for Fuzion Frenzy).
It's worth noting that unlike most traditional party games in its time, Fuzion Frenzy did not follow a linear game pattern. Each zone in tournament mode was randomly chosen and never overlapped with an already-selected zone, meaning that playthroughs were almost never identical.
A sequel titled Fuzion Frenzy 2, developed by Hudson Soft, was released in 2007 for the Xbox 360.
Fuzion Frenzy provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Title:
- The game itself: Fuzion Frenzy.
- A few of the minigames, like Misguided Missiles and Roller Ruckus.
- All There in the Manual: The game manual gives a little background for each character. The original (now defunct) Fuzion Frenzy website expands on each of these bios and gives other information about each character (such as age and real name).
- Artificial Stupidity: Downplayed, as there aren't very many cases of it happening. Perhaps the most noticeable instance of this trope is how CPU players may periodically stop for half a second to almost 2 seconds before doing anything.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Downplayed. There are some minigames where players need to smash bugs that are notably larger than average insects. Played straight with the giant worm that shoots mucus.
- Bloodless Carnage: It's strange when you consider half these games involve blowing each other up with explosives, shooting each other with tanks or blasters, or just flat out attacking each other with melee weapons. Justified as it's an E-rated game. Although the bugs in the Bug Smashing minigames do splatter into player-colored blood.
- City of Adventure: In the first game, all the minigames take place in one city on one planet (presumably Earth). It's only referred to as "The City."
- Color-Coded Characters: Each character's score is displayed in a different color, which is also the main color of their outfit.
- Dub: Green
- Samson: Red
- Geena: Blue
- Naomi: Orange
- Zak: Yellow
- Jet: Pink
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: No matter if you fall to your doom, sink into the water or get bloodlessly exploded, if you don't instantly teleport/respawn in the same round you'll always return in the next game.
- Distinctive Appearances: Each character has different portions, personality and can be easily identified by their color scheme alone.
- Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer: Players can retire or join in at any time.
- Gang Up on the Human: Tends to be more noticeable on the harder difficulties. Even in Free-For-All games that discourage teamwork, it's not surprising to find the other contestants at least targeting you first.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Of the six playable characters, three are male (Dub, Samson and Zak) and three are female (Jet, Geena and Naomi).
- Hub City: The first game takes place inside an unnamed futuristic city.
- Mad Marble Maze: Subverted. More like players INSIDE a rolling object in certain minigames. It's more akin to the Atlasphere event from American Gladiators in that sense.
- Pun: Blast Man Standing (last man standing), Mystery Beat (Mystery Meat), Tailblazer (trailblazer), Erodeo (erode + rodeo), and Rubble Alliance (rebel alliance).
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: The three male (Dub, Samson and Zak) and three female characters (Jet, Geena and Naomi) are equally capable of winning the game.
- Scoring Points: In most minigames, players score points by performing well, and whoever has the most points at the end is the winner.
- Super Drowning Skills: The characters float for a second before sinking, then teleporting back onto land if they fall in water.
- Tank Controls: Present in the Tank mini-games, fittingly enough. It should also be noted that the cannon is always facing the direction the player is moving, instead of being turned by a separate control.
- Unlockable Content: In the second game, you can unlock six minigames by winning a main tournament with each character:
- Dub: Robo Battle
- Samson: Hop to It
- Geena: Collision Collusion
- Zak: Tube Racer
- Naomi: Aqua Blast
- Jet: Sumo Paint
- Violation of Common Sense: Half of these games either involve explosives or doing things that'd normally be suicide.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The games' titles spell the word "fusion" as "fuzion", going with the futuristic theme.
