C&VG


Frak

Publisher: Aardvark
Machine: BBC Model B

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #33

Frak

Zalaga was a milestone in computer software, probably equal to the effect Jet Pac had on Spectrum games.

Aardvark's new game, Frak, is set to pull the rug from under the feet of the rest of Britain's BBC software houses. It is certainly time that there was a shake up - almost all the companies have been content to churn out the usual, barely mediocre, games tapes.

Fortunately, Frak should provide the kick in the backside that the BBC games producers desperately need to wake them up to the fact that their products haven't progressed in the last two years.

Frak!

The most obvious and immediate difference between Frak and your average, run of the mill game are the graphics. Frankly, they are incredible.

The game's programmer, Orlando, says the graphics are "the best ever on a home computer". I'm not one to boost a millionaire games writer's ego if I can help it but I'm afraid I have to agree with him. As I said, the graphics are incredible, as is the animation of the little caveman you control. He actually looks like he has joints in his legs.

The aim of Frak is to help Trogg, the caveman, to climb across logs and rock ledges and up and down ladders in search of enough golden keys to open the gateway to the next adventure level, which has yet to be reached by anybody - including the programmer himself.

A whole array of monsters and traps await our loin-clothed hero. Bouncing balls and daggers drop from higher up the cliff face onto Trogg, and huge pink monsters perch on the ledges, blocking his progress to the next level. Trogg has a secret weapon up his fur skin, though - a yellow yo-yo - which he uses with deadly accuracy to knock the monster off the cliff face.

My only criticism of the game is that occasionally the caveman doesn't jump when you want him to and he invariably falls off the ledge. It is very frustrating having to start from the beginning again. But this small fault won't stop me placing Frak in my top five favourite games.