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Freddy is everything a man wants to be, handsome, confident, strong, brave, intelligent (well, almost!). Not totally unlike myself, in fact. But unlike me, even Freddy isn't totally perfect. He has one big problem: his swollen ego all too often tends to overrule his good sense. So you can imagine what happened when Freddy held one of his notorious rave ups, had too much to drink, and decided (against much protest) to go on a little whizz to the Milky Way in his ship. Foolish Freddy landed in a meteorite storm and attempted to beat his high score on Asteroids (only this time there were no three lives!)

Now on the planet Ternat Freddy discovers that he is near the alien base of Kaldar and must hijack some serious space-wheels and get the hell out of there if he is going to have any chance of survival.

Your job is to take the role of Freddy Hardest and to blast, kick and leap your way through the game's two levels. Two levels may not sound like much but if a god like Freddy needs your help it must be bloody difficult. The game is played on the planet's surface, Freddy must make it from left to right avoiding all aliens which cross his path. Well, he doesn't really have to avoid the aliens, he can always dispose of them if he pleases, either by karate kicking the ones that fly over his head, or blasting his laser into the belly of the ones on ground level.

These unfortunately are not the only problems our hero will have to face on the first level of his quest, and they are not by any means the hardest either. Without doubt, of all Freddy's wondrous qualities (and he has many) is his ability to jump high into the air. There are many craters full to the brim with bubbling acid that our handsome hero will have to leap over, unless of course he wants his rugged good looks spoilt.

Without doubt though the trickiest feature of the first level has to be the large gaps in the planet's surface, these are so wide that to cross them you must land on a moving platform and then leap off it to safety on the other side. Not easy!!

Part two is a fat lot more complex than part one, which plays as a simple arcade game. To reach part two you must have the access code which you receive at the end of part one. Freddy's part one mission was to reach the enemy base. Now he has arrived there, he must escape. But it's not that simple. There are three steps to be completed; first, he must obtain the captain's code, then he must load the ship's energy, and finally, discover the instructions which will send him into hyperspace and home again.

The second level looks extremely similar to V, although it isn't by any means a copy. The aliens from the first level are unfortunately still around though, and your laser has this nasty habit of running out. But luckily, on level two Freddy has mastered the skill of boxing, so if all else fails, smash 'em in the gob!

The way to clear the second level is to collect the nuclear energy cells and then put them onto the special loading lifts. This is not too easy as the base is made up of three levels and finding your way out isn't too easy.

Freddy Hardest is not the most original game I've ever played, and probably not one of the most captivating either. Still, the first level is fairly addictive, in a certain strange way, but they should have made it longer and tougher instead of bothering to put a second rate arcade adventure on the other side. Graphically it isn't half as good as its Spectrum counterpart, and the sound is Spectrum simulated (Beep! Beep! Knoworrimean?) Still, if anyone feels like a little arcade fun, you could do worse.