Pizza Frenzy

Developer: PopCap Games
Steam Release: Aug 2006
Hours Played: 2.0
Similar To: 12 Labours of Hercules / Farm Frenzy / Insaniquariam / Northern Tale
Rating: 1/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Pizza Frenzy is inane, won't stretch your IQ and is possibly the biggest waste of time ever but if the sound of clicking frantically at lumps of cheese, slices of pepperoni and the odd mushroom tickles your fancy it might be worth a shot. You have one screen which is a rudimentary map of an area and shown how many orders will be coming at you (top right corner). You also get an irrelevant monetary target. Under this is a meter of five stars which you aim to fill by being quick and efficient. Symbols of pizza toppings then start to appear around the map signifying orders from customers. You click on that symbol and then on the corresponding pizza shop specialising in that topping so a vehicle may zip off to where the order came from and deliver the pizza. A tip is left which you click on to earn money and you carry on until the orders stop. 

BALANCE & PACE
It really does boil down to clicking madly and as quickly as possible at the screen. To add to the mayhem, along with being a great way to put you off, different customer types get introduced to make things more exciting. You have a criminal who you must send to a police car, a vagrant who keeps changing his mind, a film star who tips extra large, a chatterbox who persuades everyone to get the same pizza as hers and a generous fellow who collects the tips for you! Take too long to click on the pizza toppings, click on the wrong shop or take too long to pick up tips and the meter depletes. Mess up big-time and let the meter hit zero and it's all the way back to the start with you. It's all pretty manic and, yes, it is all a bit of fun as well.
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
With a ringing mandolin playing merrily away in the background bringing the Italian flavour to life, Pizza Frenzy's zany cartoon menu comes at the player in a gentle pink, white and yellow colour scheme. You'll be given the choice of 3 modes to play but Speed and Memory will be the most popular. The Simon Says mode (memorising and clicking on the order in which they appear) seems far too much like hard work for this frivolous title. Also in the main menu you can view irrelevant details like info on pizza toppings, as well as do pointless activities like designing your own pizza. Finally, you may fiddle around with the very few options and view the irrelevant high scores. 
 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Unfortunately, Pizza Frenzy has no level-select screen and no option to replay previously completed levels. Granted, you are shown plenty of stats regarding money earned and orders taken after finishing a game - and are even given a star-rating at the end of each level - but the game simply moves you on in the form of a campaign where you just crack on through. I guess there are leaderboards and these do generate competition but apart from this I see no reason why it's important to earn all the cash or even why 5 stars is such a great achievement. The only sense of progress you do feel is when you enter a different mode and are able to see all the cities or maps that you have actually done. I really would have liked to have at least seen records of the stars I had been awarded in the past levels.

CONCLUSION

Although the novelty can wear off pretty quickly, Pizza Frenzy - a type of dumbed-down version of Farm Frenzy - will provide you with a bit of aimless fun now and again. The gameplay is very satisfying and if you're able to use quick reactions, move a mouse around proficiently and dart around the screen like lightning then you'll definitely get a bit of a kick from the game. It's just such a shame that there is no means to measure your progress, no form of level select-screens and no opportunity to beat previous scores or star-ratings.