Yoyo ousts the laser

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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.

Jon Revis