Yeah puzzle games are great and all, but nothing really keeps my att- OH MY GOD ARE THOSE FLASHING LIGHTS.

I’m back, yet again, to talk about puzzle games. And today, I happened to land on one made 23 years ago, and one I’ve never heard of. This is Fantavision. A game developed to show the capabilities of the PlayStation 2 for some reason. Come on, you know me. I can’t like a video game console if it hasn’t got one game which has FLASHING LIGHTS. Anyway, let’s get into the uniqueness of this game and why I kinda like it.

Your mission in Fantavision is simple: you control a circular cursor and quickly match up different firework colours (known as flares). You use a ray of light to gather up these flares by pressing the X button and then press circle to detonate them. You need to string together a minimum of 3 or 4 to be able to get any points out of them. You also have different types of flares which explode in different and mesmerising ways. If you also happen to get a multi-coloured flare, you have the chance to make chains which go on for a ridiculous amount. However, if you miss quite a few flares, it affects your play meter and if that goes down, it’s game over. You can also chain along different power ups which award extra points or help with your play meter. There is also starmine. When you chain together these certain stars, they create these letters which spell out starmine, which is essentially your bonus stage. In the stage you have to detonate as many flares as you can within the time limit. And that’s Fantavision! You can watch replays if you decided to save it and can also have the ability to unlock harder modes and extra stages, but other than that. That’s Fantavision!

So, what did I think? It’s a pretty good puzzle game all things considered. It definitely kept me invested at multiple points and the music is really nice and chill. I will say, the only problem is the replay value but it’s still a nice game to come back to every now and then. This game would later get a rerelease for the ps5 titled 202X. Whether I’ll play it or not we’ll see, as fun as it looks. Also uhh, it’s the American anniversary of this game in 2 days so uhh. Happy early birthday Fantavision!

FLASHING LIGHTS, chill music, good stages

Reviewed on Oct 24, 2023


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