Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown is an arcade-style video game involving the marine food chain

Food chain

A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...

. It is also the sequel to the 2004 title, Feeding Frenzy. The game was developed and published by PopCap Games

PopCap Games

PopCap Games is an American video game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and currently employs about 400 people...

.

Gameplay

As in Feeding Frenzy, players have to control several fast growing marine predators who are out to uncover a mystery which is lurking in the ocean. The aim of the game is to avoid predators and obstacles while eating other smaller fish and creatures, eventually reaching the top of the food chain.
Feeding Frenzy 2 includes 60 new levels which feature scenery such as new underwater worlds, coral reefs, deep sea caves, and sunken ships, as well as above water challenges. The story mode starts the player as a small butterfly fish named Boris. The player has to eat and chomp his or her way to the top of the food chain. Along the way, the player meets new creatures, both friendly and unfriendly.

Special abilities

The animals which the player controls have special abilities, although these are generally quite similar to those in the previous title. They include a "dash" maneuver for a quick burst of speed, the ability to "suck up" a large school of fish all at once, as well as an ability which allows the character Edie to light up her way.

Power-ups

The game features power-up

Power-up

In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

s which can be used to gain instantaneous or short term effects. These include older power-ups from the previous game, as well as completely new ones:

• Lighting Bolt: A lightning bolt icon which is usually stored in a bubble. The effect of this power-up is to provide increased swimming speed.
• Shrink Shroom: The effect of this power-up is to shrink any fish whose size is bigger than the player.
• Instant Illuminate: Lights up the whole screen for a few moments during the "Midnight Zones".
• Looney Lures: This power-up is displayed as a hook icon. It lures and moves bigger fish off of the screen.
• 1UP: The player is awarded an extra life.
• Golden Herring: This fish makes the player grow one level size, allowing you to eat the next biggest fish. This fish is fast though, and the best method of catching it is to use the inhale ability.
• Plankton
  Plankton
  Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
  
  : Can be eaten by Edie for light in midnight zones.

Above water challenges

In some levels the player will be able to jump out of the water, catching several insects and bugs which wander near the surface. In the air, the player can use an ability which sucks a number of insects at the same time. The player can also do back flips to gain more style points, while a failed attempt will result in a belly flop. Also some are just in the middle waters of the ocean and are like midnights zones, only the giant difference is it has light.

Midnight Zone

The player will also come across several “Midnight Zones”. During these levels Edie the anglerfish's illuminating lure will be used to light the player’s way. However, eventually the power of her illuminating lure will decrease. Hence, Edie has to hunt for bioluminescent plankton to increase the lighted area of the level. A bulb icon power-up can be eaten for instant full screen illumination.

Playable characters

• Boris - Boris the butterfly fish is the first playable character in the game. He lives in the warm waters of the Sandy Shoal, a beautiful area off the Frenzy Coast. He is the first to meet oysters that give pearls and sometimes power ups, plus also he meets starfish and sharks.

• Layla - Layla the queen triggerfish is the second playable character in the game. She lives in the warm water of Paradise Reef and is the first to meet barracuda enemies and shrink shrooms.

• Edie - Edie the anglerfish
  Anglerfish
  Anglerfishes are members of the teleost order Lophiiformes . They are bony fishes named for their characteristic mode of predation, wherein a fleshy growth from the fish's head acts as a lure; this is considered analogous to angling.Some anglerfishes are pelagic , while others are benthic...
  
   is the third playable character. Edie's levels are difficult because her several of levels are the "Midnight Zones". Note that the fish's gender has been changed to female due to the fact that only female angler fish emit light; this was a mistake in the original game. She is the only returning playable character from the first game.

• Peter - Peter the pompano
  Pompano
  Pompanos are marine fishes in the Trachinotus genus of the Carangidae family . Pompano may also refer to various other, similarly shaped members of Carangidae, or the order Perciformes. Their appearance is deep bodied and mackerel-like, typically silver and toothless with a forked tail and...
  
   is the fourth playable character in the game. He lives in Buccaneer Bay, where the player will first come across cuttlefish
  Cuttlefish
  Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda . Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs....
  
  , which shoot ink.

• Harry - Harry the humphead wrasse
  Humphead wrasse
  The humphead wrasse is a wrasse that is mainly found in coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also known as the Māori wrasse, Napoleon wrasse, Napoleonfish; or "So Mei" 蘇眉 and "Mameng" ....
  
   is the fifth playable character in the game, the balloons are back after a while and you can again jump for bonuses out of the water. Also, he meets pelicans.

• Goliath - Goliath the great white shark
  Great white shark
  The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
  
  is the sixth playable character in the game. He is very high up in the food chain, and is the first to fight "The Intruder".

• The Intruder - The Intruder is an alien fish disrupting the food chain. The player is required to fight it every 3 levels after Goliath defeats it for the first time. The player then moves lower down the food chain, playing as previous characters until The Intruder is defeated for the last time, after which Boris eats it. This completes the game. The Intruder is then unlocked as a playable character, and the player can then play through the entire game again as The Intruder.