Frantics – a fun PlayStation 4 game for all the family

My girls love playing games on hubby’s PlayStation 4. It tends to be something they do mostly with Daddy though. I’m not so good when it comes to playing video games! Every now and then though, we come across a game that we all enjoy as a family. We were recently invited to try out Frantics, the new PlayLink game for PlayStation 4. Frantics is a game for up to four players, where players compete to win ‘crowns’ across a variety of mini-games, using their phones or tablets as the game controllers.

 

 

There are 15 mini-games in total in Frantics and a choice of three game modes. In Fox’s Party Mode, you play a series of mini-games with the winner of each game earning a crown. In each game, there are also opportunities to collect coins. The coins can then be used in auctions to bid for items which can help give you an advantage. There are also bonus challenges for players along the way, and opportunities for players to try and sabotage other players. In the Grand Finale, the crowns are converted to lives. There is also one final auction before the Grand Finale for players to use up any remaining coins. The winner of the game is the last animal standing.

 

 

In Mini-Games Mode, you can choose to play individual mini-games. The Custom Session mode allows you to create your own selection of four mini-games to play, or you can choose from the themed pre-set options.

 

 

The game is “hosted” by Fox, who provides commentary, hands out crowns and coin bonuses and assigns bonus challenges and secret missions to players. Each player is represented by a different animal. We loved the variety of mini games available. They included games such as Chair Riot, where the object of the game is to fling the animal on an office chair as close to the bullseye target as possible; Hot-Rod Heroes where you customise other players’ cars before competing in a race and ParaChuChu where the aim is to be the first to land safely on the ground, holding off as long as possible before opening your parachute.

 

 

PlayLink games work well for me. The girls have no problems getting to grips with which buttons to press on the PS4 controller but I always seem to get in a muddle. Playing games on a phone for me is much easier. With PlayLink games, you link your phone (or tablet) with the PlayStation and use it as the game controller.

 

 

To play the Frantics game, we needed to download the Frantics app to our phones and tablets. After starting the game on the PS4 and opening the app on our phones, we just needed to click “Play” to join the game. Some instructions for games were shown on the TV screen; others, such as secret mission info, were given via the phone. Controlling the characters in the game used a mixture of swiping, tilting and tapping the phone, depending on the game being played.

 

Jessica and Sophie both got to grips with how to play the mini-games very quickly. They managed to hold their own reasonably well against hubby and me too! The “Fox game” as they call it has already become a firm favourite with them. It’s nice to have a game like this that we can all play together and enjoy.

 

 

We also received some Frantics-themed goodies along with our game code. The girls enjoyed the biscuits with the character-themed icing and loved the colouring sheets.

 

 

I received a code to install the Frantics game, and a gift box with Frantics-themed cookies, colouring pencils and colouring sheets for the purposes of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.