Frankie : The Computer Game

Copyright : Ocean Software | Reviewed by : Patrick Furlong

This game must qualify for one of the most unusual licences ever. You can be forgiven for thinking it?s got something to do with the popular 1980?s pop group, but all they did was endorse the game and let one of their tracks be used in the game.

In the game, you control a person who wants to become a real person. To do this, you must go through rooms and pick up items, work out puzzles and solve a murder and end up in the Pleasure Dome.

You go through neighbourhood after neighbourhood as you try to solve the murder - just about every room you go through will give you a clue to solving the murder and when you get back to the body after collecting all the clues, you have to pick the name of who you think is the killer.

Not only do you have to solve a murder, you have to go through various weird rooms like the War Room, the ZZT Room and various others in which you do a mix of shooting and puzzles in which objects you collect throughout the game will prove useful. As the game goes along you become more a real person and build up coloured bars and a word, without which, you will never complete the game.

It took 18 years to find out how to complete the game - my mother and I would get to 98% but she gave in eventually.

Graphics

MODE 0 is used here - the backgrounds are detailed although the main character and puzzle rooms lack detail. The speed is very good. There is a fault in the graphics though - in one room you get to pick up a cat - when you see the cat laying down on a mat, she is black. When you put her down later and give her some food, she walks into the room and opens a portal, she turns white!

Sound

The main theme is a version of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song Two Tribes (I think). It loops throughout the game and on certain events, you get a small track to signal this. There are very annoying sound effects in parts of the same.

Gameplay

The game is very easy to get into and there are many game styles throughout the game including shooting and puzzles. The difficulty level is just right and is enough to keep you wanting to come back for more.

Despite having nothing to do with the Frankie pop-group, the game is very good and is worthy of many hours of gameplay.