Review: Office Frenzy
Score:
65%
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To: Ewan Spence
From: Rafe Blandford
Subject: Review of Office FrenzyBear in mind what this is before you rip it apart (i.e. Flash Lite is not the same as a 32mb N-gage MMC immersive C++ fest, these are mobile snacks).
And along with the mail, he passes me Office Frenzy, where you play an Office Manager shooting a ‘sucker gun’ to keep your tired employees awake and frantically tapping away at their keyboards. I can’t help feeling there’s a subtext to this one…
Anyway, he does have a point. Flash games are all over the internet, and they’re not generally known for their complexity. What they are known for is being great time wasters, and the second the competitive juices start flowing in an office, you can be guaranteed the URL for something like “Kitten Throwing” or “Yeti Olympics” is going to be passed around by IM.
So, Office Frenzy. The screenshot pretty much shows the whole game. Your manager prowls up and down the office (using the 2 and 8 keys), and can fire a sucker dart at the first, second or third employee by hitting the 4, 5 or 6 key. It sounds simple, because it is. And after the first game I was left thinking “is that it?” By the fifth game I was desperately trying to anticipate who was going to fall asleep, and by the tenth game I was cashing an almost impossible high score I had set three games earlier.
If you can remember just how addictive the basic “Game and Watch” titles were in the early eighties, then that’s comparable to the appeal of Office Frenzy. This is never going to win awards, or even a massive number of fans, but you know what? I like it!
Yes it’s a touch sluggish, but have you ever seen a fast moving manager? Thought not. Office Frenzy is a nice timewaster when you’re in a queue – it’s quick to start, quick to play, and instantly disposable. Which is nice in a mobile game – and I’m interested to see what else Flash authors can come up with in the future.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at