On Reflection

It was charming then and it’s still charming now. A refreshingly easy bonanza of colour and funny noises, Feeding Frenzy holds its spot in the face of the competition.

The Score

You’re a small fish eating other fish. You grow bigger, then eat bigger fish. That’s Feeding Frenzy. What? No, that’s it. That really is it. What more do you want? Okay, there are giant barracudas and sharks to avoid, jellyfish that stun, pearls to collect and power-ups to find, but you’re still chomping fish in Xbox Live Arcade’s very own sushi house. You eat fish. That’s all there is to it. For reasons that we can’t quite explain – maybe it’s the charm, maybe it’s the setting, maybe it’s the way it reminds us of Blue Planet – this is one of the better Xbox Live Arcade titles to have popped up recently. It’s probably because Feeding Frenzy is that rare breed of game that anyone can instantly pick up and play, thanks to its simple concept and controls.

Hell, Feeding Frenzy was the first game to break the online spell that Ghost Recon had weaved over us, much to the confusion of everyone on our Friends List. While there’s a button to dash and to use power-ups, you could quite easily complete the whole thing only using the right analogue stick to move around. Away from the nuclear beauty of Geometry Wars and anger-tickling of Marble Blast Ultra, Feeding Frenzy is a rather stress-free swim about the ocean, chomping fish.

7 out of 10