Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy starts off at Jimmy Neutron’s computer, when he discovers that something is taking characters from the different Nicktoon Worlds and changing them around. There are also reports of robot-impersonators. Thankfully, he has a new invention that will zap those misplaced characters back to their proper location. This invention is a camera called the “Neutrino-Cam 4000,” and it will send the characters back to their world in a “puff” of smoke.
The basic pattern of most levels in Freeze Frame Frenzy has you walking along the screen, taking pictures of everything that moves... and doesn’t move for that matter. If you snap a shot of someone who belongs in that world, then they won’t disappear, although you will get points for getting the pic. If it is a misplaced character, then after a couple of shots, he/she/it will disappear and be sent back to their correct world. Each of these characters is worth 1,000 points, while the other snapshots are only worth 10.
There are also plenty of other items to get pictures of. Most of the time taking a picture of these things will reveal a character that needs to be sent away, thus adding even more points to your tally. Each level has several missions, though the only mission you need to complete is collecting a specific amount of points for the level. Completing the other missions nets you an extra 3,000 points and goes a long way to reaching the level-clearing number.
These missions typically consist of taking pictures of a certain number of misplaced characters, a certain number of that world’s native characters, a certain number of some object in that world (fruit, monkeys, jellyfish), and/or getting pics of some event. These events are probably the hardest ones to get. You might have to get a pic of Jenny (from “My Life as a Teenage Robot”) attempting to skip class. To do this, you have to click on a window, and she comes flying out. If you get a pic of her flying -- then you have completed the task.
Each world has four levels, plus a boss battle. The worlds consist of Fairly Odd Parents World, SpongeBob SquarePants World, Ocean Shores World (“Rockey Power”), Danny Phantom World, All Grown Up World, and a sixth world that will pit you against the maker of all this mayhem.
You will also be able to play as several different characters, each one with slightly different skill levels. One might be faster, while another will be better at jumping. These characters include Timmy Turner, Tommy Pickles (from “All Grown Up,” not “Rugrats”), SpongeBob SquarePants, Arnold, Danny Fenton, Otto Rocket, and Jimmy Neutron. And if you match the boss and avatar correctly (say, using Otto against the Eddie Robot in the first world), you will get a more in-depth dialog before the battle.
There are only a few instances when Nicktoons breaks from its standard design. In the last world, when you play as Jimmy going up against the creator of the robots, you go into a first-person view and have to snap pictures of the objects that are being thrown at you. As you take pictures of characters, they are added to your Photo Album. The pictures in the album are grouped by show. So you will have a section for “SpongeBob SquarePants,” one for “Hey Arnold,” one for “Rocket Power,” one for “Invader Zim,” and so on. This will help you figure out who you are missing, and might give you an idea as to where to look for them... if you are missing any by the end of the game, that is. When I finished Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy the first time, I was hoping to find that I had missed a lot of these images so that I could claim some sort of replay value for this game. But alas, when I checked, I had gotten all of the characters save four, and three of these were in the first level when I was still trying to get the feel for the game. As for the last one? I still don’t know who in the (Danny Phantom) World that silhouette is.
