Fuze Player

Genre: Compilation

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Fuze Player, released in 2020 on Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation of games released a year prior as a part of the Fuze4 Content Creation Application. In other words, this game is pretty much exactly the same as Fuze4, but without the ability to write your own code or create your own games. Heck, they didn’t even bother changing the menus… or fixing the bugs.

This means that you’ll still have all eight game menus that were in the full Fuze4 application, but once again half the time the Share menu still causes the application to freeze up and need a restart, the Code menu redirects to Programs, the sub-directories in the Tools menu all pop up an error message saying these features are unavailable… this release makes little attempt to hide the fact that it is a lazy repackaging of Fuze4 with its creation tools stripped away.

What’s more, the first time you start up any of the included games, it will take a moment to download the game’s assets before you can play it, which just seems odd. And prior to starting each game, you’re shown its code before you can run it, which is touted as a feature.

I suppose you could argue that all of this is forgivable given this title’s tiny $1 price tag, but it still makes everything here seem sloppy.

However, for those just wanting to sample the sort of games that Fuze4 can create, this package includes 12 “programs”. As such, here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Super Mega Arena Blaster	2-Stick Shooter	1	C
tl;dr This is fairly simple as 2-Stick Shooters go, but it’s a competent entry in the genre, if a bit sluggish.
Fast Food Dizzy	Arcade	1	C-
tl;dr This slow-paced Pac-Man clone is visually-confusing. While not terrible, it’s a pale shadow of its inspiration.
3D Crazy Shooter	On-Rails Shooter	1	D
tl;dr Compare this game to arcade classics like Sega’s Space Harrier. However, this game is far worse, with less going on onscreen and less time to respond to obstacles tossed at you. Don’t waste your time with this one.
Vecroids	2-Stick Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr Vecroids is a great deal like the Geometry Wars games, but without much of the charm. “Smoke” created when you hit enemies obscures the action and makes it far too easy for a tiny enemy to sneak up on you and kill you, forcing you to restart a level. Too frustrating to be fun.
Ninja Scroll	Auto-Runner	1	D+
tl;dr No relation to the anime of the same name, Ninja Scroll is visually-appealing, but the sluggish pause between pressing attack and actually delivering an attack means that you’ll be repeatedly killed by enemies you should have dispatched.
Fuze Bounce	Arcade	2 Competitive (Local)	D
tl;dr This is a featureless 3D version of Pong made awkward by a camera angle that makes it difficult to determine where the ball and paddles are in relation to one another.
Know your Plaice	Arcade	1	D+
tl;dr Move your fish around, avoid bigger fish, eat smaller fish and grow with each one you eat. This game is extremely simple, and its sluggish controls sap away what fun could be had here – you won’t make it much farther past 15 points before your massive size and slow maneuvering make it impossible to avoid bigger fish.
Asteroid Navigator	Arcade	1	D+
tl;dr This game is somewhat comparable to Flappy Bird, but your ship’s slow descent feels too restrictive, and the game is far too simple and shallow to be entertaining for long.
Shapes Mini-Game	Arcade	1	D+
tl;dr Use L and R to guide your triangle around spiky balls to collect stars. This game works well enough, but is so extremely simple that it won’t hold your interest long.
AnimeUltraHyperJump	Arcade	1	D
tl;dr This game has you pressing in a series of buttons Simon Says-style before a hidden timer runs out. So simple you’ll likely play it once and never touch it again.
Da Bean	Arcade	1	D
tl;dr Players must press X or B to move up or down a series of Q-Bert-style blocks before they scroll off the screen. Stupidly simple, and the odd choice of control scheme seems inexplicable.
Patience Solitaire	Card Game (Solitaire)	1	C+
tl;dr This is actually a pretty decent game of Klondike Solitaire. The cards are a bit oversized, which crowds up the screen, and the gamepad controls are a tad stiff, but there’s a decent number of options and even some good touchscreen controls.

In short, the only games in this whole lot that I’d even be tempted to return to are Super Mega Arena Blaster and Patience Solitaire. While simple, these games are fairly enjoyable. Everything else is either far too shallow and simple to bother with.

However, I’ve only addressed half the package here, because if you can get the Share menu to work, there are ten additional games to try. Here’s what I thought of each:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Retro Time	Compilation / Arcade	1	C+
tl;dr This is a Compilation of 8 simple games based on the arcade classics Space Invaders, Breakout, Frogger, Tetris, Snake, Pang, Fast Eddie, and Ram-It. These games vary in quality (the Tetris and Fast Eddie clones are terrible), but most are decent, if simplified, versions of the games they seek to imitate.
Super Funky Bowling	3D Platformer / Arcade	1	B
tl;dr This is actually a surprisingly competent (if a bit bland-looking) Super Monkey Ball clone. Its biggest flaw is that it’s so short – it only has 32 levels. But while it lasts, this is an excellent ball-rolling Arcade-style 3D Platformer.
Reversed	Board Game	1-2 Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr This is a version of Reversi/Othello. It works well enough (and even has touchscreen support), but doesn’t do anything especially noteworthy with the classic Board Game.
Misspelt Poets Society	Misc.	1	D
tl;dr Someone said to themselves at one point, “You know what would be a great game? Spell checking classic poems! That’s fun, right? Right?”. No. No, it isn’t.
Pinicity	Arcade	1	D
tl;dr This is a simplified and short version of a game that’s vaguely like Plinko (yes, the game from The Price is Right). Extremely simple and shallow. It won’t hold your interest for long.
Watch Out For That Wall!	Arcade	1-4 Competitive (Local)	D+
tl;dr This is a take on Tron Bikes. Unfortunately, the camera is atrocious, and makes it very difficulty to enjoy this game.
Ninja Gal	Platformer	1	C
tl;dr This challenging Platformer isn’t much to look at, and its physics are odd, but those who enjoy simple Platformers with a high difficulty may find this worth their time.
Claw Combine	Arcade	1	C+
tl;dr This simple Arcade-style game with Puzzle elements where you use a crane to drop circles aiming to combine like-colored circles has all the right ingredients to be a truly compelling experience, but its limited design means it’s impossible to continue playing it without the game ending. It’s a shame because with a bit of tweaking, this could have been a truly excellent game.
Golf in Space	Arcade	1-2 Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr This is a decent physics-based Arcade-style game where players have to roughly estimate the angle and gravity of their shots to hit their target. It’s nothing particularly unique or revolutionary, but it works well enough.
White-Out	Bullet Hell Shmup	1	C+
tl;dr It may look extremely simple, and is likely far too easy for fans of the genre, but White-Out is nevertheless a really enjoyable entry in the genre. It’s just a shame that it’s over far too quickly, with only a small handful of levels.

The real stand-out here is Super Funky Bowling, although Claw Combine and White-Out are also quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, all three of these games have the same issue – they’re far too short. The other games here are generally too simple, have some major flaw, or were simply poorly-conceived. Retro Time is also a fairly solid Compilation of classic arcade imitations, although these too come with the caveat that they’re largely simplified versions of those games.

Out of 22 games, only Super Funky Bowling manages to break out of the “C” range, although multiple games manage to be enjoyable in a more limited fashion. It should be noted that the full release of Fuze4 also allows players to download additional games either locally or from codes obtained on Fuzearena.com, but that option is not available in the Fuze Player.

Most of the games included here are somewhat amateurish in their design, and many of them are outright terrible… however, that still brings me back to the issue of price. For $1, I think it’s fair to say that the question is not how many of these games manage to succeed, but do any of these games justify that small asking price, and I would argue… yes. Between Super Funky Bowling, White-Out, Claw Combine, Retro Time, Patience Solitaire, Super Mega Arena Blaster, Golf in Space, and perhaps Reversed, I feel like there is absolutely more than $1 worth of enjoyment to be had here.

Fuze Player reminds me of the shareware era of PC games, when stores sold inexpensive CDs with dozens of games and game demos on them – many of the games were terrible, but a few were true gems. Most were amateurish, and all of them felt limited or incomplete… but the sum total of all of them made the collection worth the asking price. That’s kinda’ what you’re getting here – a grab-bag of a lot of terrible games, a few good ones, but overall a good amount of variety with enough quality to make it worth the absurdly small price tag. And while none of the games included here is likely to be a true standout that anyone will list among their favorite games of all time, I think most players are likely to find something worthwhile here, if they can get past this collection’s lazy cobbled-together feel.

tl;dr – Fuze Player is a Compilation of 10 various games (with 12 more downloadable for free) that were all included in the Fuze4 Application, but with this game cutting out that release’s ability to create your own games, as well as the ability to download additional games from other creators (albeit all while leaving the vestigial menus largely in place). There’s a lot of jankiness and amateurish design here, and many of the included games are outright terrible. Even the good ones are too short or overly-simple. However, for a mere $1, the good parts of this package feel like they’re well worth the price tag, and there’s a decent enough variety that I think most players will find something here that makes the purchase worthwhile for them.

Grade: B-

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