I’ve written previously about how H is beginning to form a love
Frantics is a downloadable game exclusively for the Playstation 4 created by makers NapNok and costing just £15.99 so is way cheaper than your usual games. It’s a series of mini games playable for between 1-4 players and instead of using your traditional playstation controllers, it is played using your own phones or tablets. To do so you just need to download the Frantic game on either your Android or iOS device and join the same network as your PS4 and it automatically connects to your PS4.
Once joined you can then play against either your family or friends or if they are not around, the computer will also play against you. It is worth noting that each player will need their own device which was no issues in our house as we had an iPod for H to use as well as both Mrs F and I having our own smartphones.
The aim of the game is to collect as many winners crowns as possible as the one with the most once the mini games have ended wins. To get the crowns you primarily need to win mini games, however don’t worry, there are plenty of opportunities to sabotage your opponents and even buy a few crowns along the way as well as you can also collect coins during the games, using them to bid for a crown or two.
With 15 mini games to potentially play, these are selected at random to make sure everyone has a chance to win. Games such as ParaChuChu whereby you need to be the last one to release your parachute and first one to land safety in order to win but beware, leave it too late and you’ll get splatted, too soon and you’ll take forever to land or alternaitvely don’t be left with the ticking time bomb otherwise you’ll blow up mid air and not even get the change to deploy your parachute.
Another favourite of ours is Friendless Runner which, just like the title suggests, during this, nobody is a friend as you do all you can to nudge, bump, and trap your opponents during the race in order to be the first to finish.
The controls are incredibly simple, using familiar phone gestures such as swipe and tap to move your characters during the games, with an quick free-play session before each game begins in order to ensure you have the hang of it. H was easily able to pick up the controls at the same pace as Mrs F and I and along the way and the Smartphone App will also make noises and provide feedback as well so I would say this game is suitable for players as young as around 5 years old.
The game has thought about everything making sure all the family are included throughout each mini game so there’s no need to worry if you are the first to be eliminated within a game as you then become the ‘sabotager’ as your app changes to allow you to play tricks on your enemies such as freeze them so they can’t move for a few seconds, slow the down and much more.
There’s also special missions along the way as H found out… Sometimes you’ll get a call from the shows main character, the scheming Fox who will let one of the players in on a secret… such as if Player X wins, so will you… meaning you can really take advantage of building your crown collection.
We have been having some great fun playing the different games and H is definitely much more confident using the PS4 as a result, as is Mrs F actually who before this very rarely played on the reclaimed dusty machine, which is now seeing a revival not seen since Leicester won the Premiership (sorry I had to make a reference to my team).
Do you have a Playstation 4 and are you looking for something to play with friends or family and one that doesn’t cost the earth, if so I’d check out Frantics now!
Until next time
NB: We were provided with a review copy of the PS4 game Frantics in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own.