Frak falls fairly
and squarely into the cute
category. How else can you
describe a game in which the
hero, caveman Trogg, wanders
through a laddersand levels type
landscape collecting jewels,
bulbs and keys?
And then when he encounters
the inevitable Scrubbly monster
what does he do? Does he blast
it with his sabre tooth laser
cannon? No, with a deft flick of
the wrist he smacks it right
between the eyes with his yoyo!
You begin with three Troggs
and a time limit of two minutes
per Trogg in which to yoyo as
many monsters as possiblewhile
collecting jewels for bonus
points.
Should you collect all of the
keys on one landscape then you
receive a time bonus and are
moved on.
Your task is hindered by a
constant hail of daggers falling
from above and balloons rising
from below. Should either of
these items touch Trogg he cries
"Frak" - a caveman derivation
of "Oh bother" - and promptly
dies.
As you become a crack shot
with the old yoyo you can amass
further bonus points by hitting
the daggers and balloons.
The graphics are superb.
Aardvark has used the Mode 1
screen and created large, highly
detailed, cartoon style charac
ters.
Unfortunately the size and
complexity of the characters is
probably responsible for one of
the program's few failings.
When it was called upon to move
Trogg, a dagger and a balloon,
the speed and fluidity of the
animation suffered visibly.
Another irritation, probably
less excusable, is the standard of
the collision detection routine
used. Several times I outmanoeuvred
a falling dagger by a good
3mm yet Trogg still yelled out
"Frak" and died on me.
Despite these minor drawbacks,
Frak is a superb game
that will take you hours to
master.