Button Frenzy

Overview

Button Frenzy is a minimalist arcade game developed by zerofiftyone. The game initially started out as a free jam game of the same name, created for the Idle Thumbs Winter Wizard Jam. The full version was released half a year later with an extra game mode added as well as more features.

Game Modes

There are two game modes in Button Frenzy, but both revolve around the idea of following button prompts under a time pressure.

Frenzy Mode

In Frenzy Mode, the player must clear endless waves of button prompts as their health bar ticks down over time. Clearing a wave will replenish some health, and getting a button wrong will drain more health. Clearing waves will earn the player points, and clearing them quickly will earn additional bonus points. The player can also chain together a string of perfectly executed waves and enter a mode whereby the health bar stops ticking down for as long as the combo is held. In this state, the player can also earn score multipliers.

Recall Mode

In Recall Mode, the player must follow instructions in a call-response format, in the style of Simon Says. In phase one, the game will demonstrate a sequence of buttons, then give the player a short amount of time to memorise the sequence. In phase two, the game will hand over control to the player, who has to correctly recall and input the sequence they just saw. Entering any button incorrectly will fail the sequence. Completing a sequence correctly will earn the player bonus points; an amount which corresponds with how quickly the sequence was completed.

Difficulty Levels

Button Frenzy has four selectable difficulty levels. The difficulty determines the pool of controller buttons the game can draw from.

Easy: The game will only use the face buttons.

Normal: The game will use the face buttons and the left thumbstick.

Hard: The game will use the face buttons, the left thumbstick and the shoulder buttons.

Extreme: The game will use all of the above, as well as the D-Pad and the right thumbstick.

The difficulty selected will apply at the start of the game, and at fixed time intervals, the game will automatically move up to the next difficulty level. A round of Easy mode, if played long enough, will eventually transition into Normal mode, which will eventually transition into Hard mode etc.