A robot shattering into shards of tin while you frantically blast across the entire screen — Frenzy is exactly the game you'd imagine under this name. As a sequel to the legendary Berzerk, it pushes its template further and adds elements that make a maze full of enemy robots a somewhat richer and wilder experience.
The foundation stays true to the roots of the run-and-gun genre: you move through a labyrinth of rooms, shoot at robots and try to survive. Deadly are not only the enemies but the walls themselves — touch them and it's over. But Frenzy adds destructible walls you can shoot through, and several types of special rooms with their own rules, which brings pleasant variability and forces the player to think about which way to go.
Hovering over all the action is a giant, iconic face — the "big brain," a hub that, once you destroy it, opens the way onward. This exaggeration and touch of humor is part of why Frenzy won its group of loyal fans. The game can be brutally fast and merciless, but that's precisely where its charm lies: each room is a small puzzle of survival that you have to solve before you're surrounded.
On the ColecoVision, this action felt right at home. The console had enough power to handle the brisk pace and the legible layout of the rooms, which made the home port playable and satisfying. For fans of early-1980s arcade action, it was another dose of adrenaline transferred straight from the arcade to the television.
Today, Frenzy may stand in the shadow of its more famous predecessor Berzerk, but for connoisseurs of the genre it's a fascinating piece of history — a demonstration of how early shooters tried to grow, experiment and add depth without losing their raw immediacy.
Why play: For fast, uncompromising arcade action with a touch of humor and a clever expansion of the classic Berzerk formula.
Game 5 of 16 for ColecoVision
