Massive amounts of statistical gaming information is one of my favorite things about the current generation of games.  Being able to instantly look up just how well you compare to friends and random strangers in all sorts of categories makes playing the game that much more interesting.  That is why Frenzic, by The Iconfactory, has me hooked and constantly coming back for more.

Frenzic is a new twist on the puzzle genre.  The game originally shipped on the Mac OS X platform and has a pretty solid following.  I personally have never tried Frenzic until this point and I am sorry I hadn’t.  The game operates exactly like it’s Mac OS counterpart, which would explain the reasonably high amount of polish in version 1.0.  Few games get this close to perfection on the first attempt at the App Store.

The game is easy to learn.  You have a single circle in the middle which displays the color and orientation of the piece that must be placed.  There are six surrounding circles in which you must place this single piece.  Just tap on one of the six surrounding circles and your piece will be placed in that circle as long as there is room allowed.  You can not change the orientation of the piece or it’s color, so if there isn’t any room for that specific piece within any of the six surrounding circles, you will lose a life.  Lose enough lives and the game is over.  At first glance, the game seemed so simple that I felt I would get bored with it.  As time progressed, the game became quicker and I had to strategically place pieces so I wouldn’t run out of room, which becomes extremely difficult.

The object is to try to keep the same color pieces in the same circle.  Each piece is worth a single point when placed.  For each like colored piece in a circle you gain an extra point.  For example, if you have a circle filled with two orange and four green colored pieces, the two orange pieces would give you a total of three points while the four orange pieces would total ten.  Makes sense right?  Just do the math.

Three different power ups are available and can be obtained by completing a single circle with all of the six pieces matching in color.  There is a sand timer to slow down the pace, 2X multiplier and a nuclear bomb to clear the board.  To unleash a power-up, simply tap the lit up icon, the icon becomes a clock indicator which slowly counts down.  There is no way to add time to the power-up but you can hold onto the power-ups to use later on.  If you have a 2X multiplier and a nuclear blast, unleash the multiplier first then the blast to score tons of extra points.

Frenzic has oodles of statistics.  You can check them on your iPhone/iPod touch or on the Frenzic website.  At the website you can add friends, comment on the forums or just check out your stats for the day.  All of the statistical information can be displayed in the game itself as well.  The iPhone/iPod Touch can use your current location and compare your scores to people within close proximity.  The high scores are updated daily so you might even be able to get your name on their website.  The game also keeps track of your rank, how often you use power ups, and even how long you have played the game which they call “devotion”.  Your devotion status changes on how many hours you have spent in playing Frenzic.  If you just started playing, you are a newbie, play over 31 hours and you can become a master.  There is even a devotion level for the player who has played the most hours.  The Iconfactory has even created a Mac OS X dashboard widget, just in case you are like me and can’t wait those few more seconds for a page to load to check your rank.

I did mention Frenzic is extremely polished for a version 1.0 game, especially in the graphics and audio department.  It is so polished in that area that I really have nothing to say about it, it looks and sounds great, but I did seem to have a few hiccups on the technical side.  A few times when the game first started, I was unable to place the first piece so I would have to forfeit a life.  I also had the game crash on a few occasions when I returned from a paused game.  I had reset my device just to be sure, but these events still occurred every once in a while.  I am sure with an update Frenzic can be completely void of random quirks but they do deserve a mention.

Frenzic is the first game published by The Iconfactory at the App Store and hopefully they have more just like this one in the works.  It is very addicting and the simplicity of the game allows anyone to learn the basics of it quite rapidly, but may just literally take an eternity to master.  With all of the extra statistical information at the tips of your fingers, it’s hard to want anything more from a such a complete puzzle game.

Overall: 9 out of 10

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