Now tired of: Fuzion Frenzy 2

If you're invited to a party, and someone happens to mention whipping out their copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 because it's a party game ... well, you better bail on that party quick. Inform them that you just learned that your aunt's second cousin twice removed just died and you must report to the family compound immediately or you'll miss out on your inheritance. Or just leave, fast, without explanation, move and don't leave a forwarding address. Because Fuzion Frenzy is just that awful.

This second installation of the Fuzion Frenzy franchise ensured that there would be no Fuzion Frenzy 3, despite game developers' love of franchise games. It was poorly received by a public expecting a fun, light party game because it stunk on so many levels. Here are some reasons you'd be better served reading "War and Peace" than taking up FF2, (besides a good book being better for your intellect, of course):

• Main Quest. I can think of a few good adjectives to describe the Main Quest portion of this game. Unwieldy. Rigid. Sucky. Craptacular. But let's get beyond juvenile namecalling despite the fact that the Main Quest has very little in the way of redeeming values. The fun is just very hard to find here in this insipid pseudo gameshow. For instance, players have very little control of the flow of the tournament, just forced along a very strict path determined largely by the caprice of the emcee and the silly playing card sidegame -- a cheap and unnecessary barrier to success. Players also often find themselves playing some of the lousiest conceived minigames in the game, cursing their luck as well as the developers. Minigames like Ice Sculpture, which involves melting the ice around a sculpture with a water hose, were truly lousy and impossible to conquer, even at the lowest difficulty level. Other minigames like Don't Sink the Boat are just too insipid for me to give a flip.
  
  Also, in order to unlock a couple of the more fun games -- like Sumo Paint -- you must win the Main Quest with all the characters. Like, ugh.
  
• Art style. Gone is the Jet Set Radio Future art style of the first game in favor of some futuristic, planet-hopping theme, with battle armor, all of which just leaves me cold as Icicle, the ice planet. Yep, the developers were really creative on this one.
  


• The Emcee. That voice. Those cheesy remarks, over and over. "Viewers across the universe are glued to this battle." No, they are not. So very not. Luckily, you do get the option to turn down the sound, but still, demerits for him even being in the game with his futuristic clown suit and pink pants. Next time they want an emcee with a futuristic yet flamboyant touch, I'd much prefer the annoying, whiny comedy relief guy from the Fifth Element.
  

• POV. The POV makes the player feel like they are playing this game from a great distance away, so it's hard to get immersed in the game, even if you wanted to. And it's hard to succeed at the minigames because it's hard to see what you're doing at times since you are playing from such a distance away. 

Now tired of: Bomberman Live

Bomberman Live on the Xbox is a fun, family-friendly little game, if you don't mind your children talking about blowing stuff up. But right now I'm suffering from a bit of Bomberman overload because my son loves it so much.

Why it rocks:

• Customizable. There's a great deal of character customization in the form of outfits unlockable through gameplay. You can make your bomber a princess, a cheerleader, a punk, a football player, a mage or a superhero Or you can be mental and mix 'em up, creating your own superhero cheerleader mage. Or football player cheerleader punk.
  
  In addition, you have your choice of what powerups you can make available and what type of game you want to play -- including an intense zombie version in which characters are immortal, and whoever owns the most squares wins. Just when you think you have the game in hand -- boom! You die, all your colored squares disappear, and you are resurrected with the added disadvantage of being stripped of all your powers with the time ticking down.
  
  
• Enjoyable gameplay. This is a direct result of the customization. It's a blast to blast your AI and player opponents in a variety of ways, aided by a variety of powerups, and in a variety of arenas.


• It's not Fusion Frenzy 2. Hudson Entertainment, the creators of Bomberman 2, pretty much killed the esteemed Fusion Frenzy franchise by making 2 so incredibly lousy, with a ridiculous tournament mode that included a silly playable card system. But I shouldn't rant about that here. Bomberman Live is luckily not that game, though my son also loves Fusion Frenzy 2. What is it about Hudson Entertainment games that my son loves so much?
  
  
• Cute art style and ambiance. The arenas and characters are very cartoonish, including a space level and an ice level, with environmental challenges specific to each arena. The experience is rounded out with cartoonish explosions and cartoonish powerups you gather up during the round. Watch out for the fully powered-up dangerous bomb! The fun retro synthy gameplay music adds to the spirit of the game. However, if you stay on the same arena for an extended period of time, the synth music can get stale, much the way it did back in the days of Mario.

What's wrong with it:

• Playing it too darn much. After a while, planting bombs and running around like a mouse in a maze over and over and over just gets old. So very, very old. Like reality TV.

Family Game Night: Your favorite board games look pretty good in pixels

My 5-year-old son and I are big Family Game Night fans, playing an assortment of famous board games on our console, much to the chagrin of the traditional gamer of the household, who thinks playing a board game on a video game system is buying a Winnebago and only taking it on short trips to the grocery store.

Boggle, Connect Four and Battleship are the games we’ve purchased so far, but others like Scrabble, Yahtzee and Sorry are also available. A few reasons why this is a popular game option in our household:

• Small commitment. Depending on the settings, each game lasts only a few minutes.
  
  
• No hunting for the games in a crowded bedroom closet. *Insert overly dramatic shots of a frustrated family member searching in vain for something in a closet, only to have an avalanche of books and clothes fall on their heads.* Games like Boggle, Battleship, and Connect Four are conveniently stored on your console’s hard drive if you have the XBOX 360 or on a DVD disc if you have a Wii or PS3.
  
  
• Remember how the little plastic missiles would always get lost, one by one, in the board game version of Battleship? This was particularly a problem with the travel-sized Battleship board game, because there was a whole in the game that allowed the game pieces to slip out. Not a problem with the video game version.
  
  
• More adaptability. You can customize the game experience to include different versions of the same game, which gives these classic games new life. For instance, Battleship’s salvo mode allows each player to shoot as many shots as the number of ships he or she has. This speeds up gameplay, enlivening the experience. Add some special Battleship bombs and torpedos, some superpowered chips in Connect Four, and it's not the same old game anymore.
  
  
• Party mode. My son is a bigger fan of this than I am. Party mode is like a game in itself. It creates several minigames of widely varying quality based on the Family Game Night games you have. I wish we had more control over the kinds of minigames we’re given. For instance, there’s a Battleship minigame where you must match the ship layout given. Unless you're 5 years old, this is lame.
  
  
• My Room. The My Room feature allows players to earn new furniture and accessories by playing the game, which they then display in their virtual room. While not revolutionary, it is still neat, although a bit buggy at times. The game has locked up quite a few times here. I’ve learned to wait a few second for it to load completely before advancing through the various knick-knacks.
  
  
• Mr. Potato Head. He adds a bit more life to what could be a screen devoid of anything remotely humanish. Plus, he doesn't have a voice, so he's not like the annoying announcer guy in Fusion Frenzy 2. He does more physical comedy like Harpo Marx, celebrating when you win, falling asleep at various intervals, and looking shocked when something bad happens. And he has a cool bubble jetpack.
  

My one complaint: The Boggle interface is a little troublesome. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to direct the joystick to the right letters, which costs a little time. But it’s not a bit enough distraction to stop me from playing it --- over and over and over.