Remember Silly Putty, Mud, Slime, Rubik's Cube and one of the first hand held games of its kind, Merlin. All kept me and my fellow school chums skipping lessons and sneaking off to the cloakrooms to compare slimeyness, slinkiness and sillyness. And many's the day I spent sprawled across the stairs with a Slinky endangering the lives of the household so that I could send an over sized spring tumbling down the steps.
Those were the days... I doubt if any of you would give them a second glance now, but to a whole generation then, they were the Game Boy's of the School yard.
Frost Byte takes the unusual character of a Slinky as it's main sprite, although he's unashamedly called Hickey here. Hickey has to tumble through the deep frozen ice caverns of the planet Cosmia which is in danger of being over run by terrible ghoulish monsters.
Collecting different coloured sweats along the way not only gives you a big turn, but increases your ability to jump, move and fall. Simple stuff, just slink and jump your way through the multi coloured caves and avoid the Ghouls.
The arcade platform benefits greatly from excellent sound and some very appealing graphics. Sprite detection lets you down some times, but you have five lives and there's more to be had so don't worry. It's quite perplexing what exactly you're supposed to do some times, but it's a fair bet that if it moves and you can shoot it don dare touch it!
However it's the frustratingly addictive gameplay that really impressed me. It doesn't matter how many times you scream as you die and promise that that's the last attempt for you, 10 to one you'll be back for more in a second. How I ever got this written, Hickey only knows.