FantaVision PlayStation 2

The spectacle of summer fireworks in the sky over the Japanese archipelago has provided entertainment for the people, visual motifs to artists, and an ongoing challenge to fireworks artisans for over a century. It may be fitting that this stillmassivelypopular old guard of amusement should lend its dazzle to Sony's PlayStation 2, the new dauphin of diversion that took the world by storm in Spring of 2000.

Fantavision is a puzzle played with live fireworks as they shoot up into the sky. The player moves the guiding line extending out of a round cursor in the middle of the screen, marking an undetonated firework by dragging the line over it. Once three fireworks of the same color have been marked consecutively, they can be detonated. Any unmarked firework of the same color in the vicinity detonates as well. In addition to the three basic colorsred, blue and greenthere are "wild" fireworks that can serve as any color. Linking a sequence of varicolored fireworks using a "wild" (e.g. RedRedWildBlueBlueBlue) results in a bonusgetter daisy chain.

As they explode, fireworks occasionally release items such as star icons. Eight star icons will allow the player to set off a "Star Mine" firework, which, like "Wild" fireworks, can be used with any color sequence to produce a daisy chain. Upon detonation, a Star Mine firework will rapidly spawn a large number of fireworks, which can then be marked and detonated for a more spectacular display and score. The Replay mode allows players to replay these firework sequences in 3D from a variety of anglesincluding vantage points in the upper atmosphere.

Airborne fireworks will disappear after a certain time period, regardless of whether they are checked or not. Each time a firework goes unused, the play meter at the lower screen left diminishes. The game is over once the meter runs out. ~ A.S. Kaku, All Game Guide