[#] Fantavision (Sony, 2000)

An astoundingly pretty fireworks puzzler that nevertheless doesn't much use your brain.

You gotta appreciate just how much people wanted the PS2, even with its pretty meager launch lineup. Fantavision is maybe the most emblematic of the lot, and reviewers at the time called it for what it is, a tech demo for the PS2's much-touted 3D particle effects. Yes, it's a game built around a single visual effect, that the dazzling fireworks displays are entirely polygonal, not one sprite in sight to make them! It's a shallow effect, but undeniably very pretty, especially during the replays. I've heard the two-player mode in Fantavision majorly improves replayability, but alas, I don't have anyone to come over and help me test it.

Fantavision is effectively a sensory toy version of Missile Command. The game presents you with a slew of fireworks in rounds, each with different shapes to them, and you use your cursor to select three or more of the same color, detonating them with the circle button. If a detonated firework spills onto an undetonated one of the same color, it'll detonate that one with it. This leads to the chain gameplay the game emphasizes. Don't explode a firework, it'll fade out and take some of your energy bar with it. Enough chaos will eventually lead you into a "Starmine" bonus round where you get a spew of one or two colors of firework, meant to emphasize huge chains.

For as much as I've heard Fantavision called a puzzle game, you can boil things down to "select all fireworks on screen, detonate them, and repeat with whichever are left plus any new ones". Not very puzzling. Makes my hand hurt from button mashing. The big reason why I keep a save of it around is the replay function, where the game will replay your performance on a stage from different camera angles, letting you appreciate the visuals and the strange stage designs (hint: you're going to space) through various filters. Seriously, this game does look hugely trippy. For someone who occasionally streams around the Fourth of July and New Year's, it makes for some terrific visual noise during intermissions. As a game, eh.