The Diner Dash mechanics have been a source of inspiration to several other casual games out there. Fever Frenzy is one of the most recent, but also one that stands out for a few reasons.
Fever Frenzy lets you play as a male or female doctor, healing patients back to health. The game takes place in four different hospitals, and the patient healing process is fairly simple: place them in the diagnosis chair, wait for them to change into their pajamas, place them in bed, bring their medicine when needed, check them out and make the bed.
Of course, there are several added challenges. Patients have different colors of PJs, so you get bonus points by matching them to the respective color beds. A virus will appear now and again, and you must use the spray to get rid of it. Patients will occasionally sneeze or cough onto the next beds, making others unhappy.
VIP patients require more attention from you, (like the rock star with her head stuck in a beehive or the Mayor whose hair has turned to plants). Some regular patients are more patient than others, so monitor their little happiness meters and provide them with speedy service and entertainment if available (sometimes a book, a toy, a drink).
While working in the children’s hospital you will also have to manage their parents coming in for a visit and take them to the right beds, but there is also a clown that appears for a few seconds that if you click him, makes all the patients happier.
At the end of each level you are awarded some money that you can use to purchase upgrades. You can either upgrade the diagnosis process, your charisma, the healing speed and your walking speed. Every time you complete all ten levels of a stage and advance to the next, you get to play the research mini-game. Here, you have a series of viruses roaming around and you must place the right ones in the respective petri dishes.
Before you begin the next set of levels, you can pick a perk to use during your shift. Perks can only be used once per shift and last only a short time, but they can make your patients PJs match the available beds, heal someone with a simple touch, make you run faster, even zap all the viruses floating around.
Each hospital you go through introduces new cases. And the reason why I was instantly taken in by Fever Frenzy was because of the similarities with one of my favorite games of all times, Theme Hospital. There are all kinds of weird diseases in this game, and they’re just plain hilarious.
Mad cow disease patients have turned into cows and they moo, horse throat (yes, I spelled it right) victims have horse heads and they neigh, hay fever patients look like scarecrows and sneeze a lot, children with chicken pox cluck, it’s just too funny to see.
Everyone has little bits of voice acting, which is great. You will hear actually coughing, sneezing, sighs of relief, “thank you doctor”, kids crying, crazy laughing and a bunch of funny sayings, especially when you get to the psychiatric ward. That was by far my favorite stage, it really is crazy in there.
There are guys with polarbear disorder who growl and say “Tastes like penguin!” when they drink their medicine. There are girls laughing hysterically thinking they are squirrels, who find their medicine “nutty”. There is a VIP patient who thinks he’s Napoleon, speaks with a French accent and insists on “First the medicine, then the world!”. And there are these problematic Elvis guys who will get out of their beds and head for the exit, saying “Elvis has left the building”.
I’ve been having a blast with Fever Frenzy, it’s one of the few games that actually make me laugh out loud. I really love the craziness of the diseases and how the artists have represented them. If you’re looking for something quirky, fun and easy to play, check it out. You might also catch the fever.
Special thanks to Charlie Duldulao and Legacy Interactive for providing the full version version of this title.