Frak! Reviews

Yep, the 1980s are still kicking my butt just as hard as they did the first time around.

As fiendish as the original, finally with more than 3 levels :)

Great remake of a 8 bit platform game from the 80s.

Although this game has been out for a while, I've only recently heard about it being on Steam. I am very happy to hear that Orlando reproduced this very well known BBC Micro game on Steam - it's good for nostalgia. The game is a faithful reproduction of the original and plays well - at least as far as I can remember although it seems to be faster. Other than me being worse at this game as I've grown older, I have only a couple of minor negatives: 1) When you load the game as a new player, it doesn't tell you what the keys are to play until you've waited a few seconds for it to move to the next screen. The cursor keys work and they can be used to play also (but without the yo-yo fire button). 2) You can't change the keys. Those playing would have come from the BBC Micro days of Z,X,*,? which today would map to Z,X,',/ right? And the yo-yo would probably be the Enter/Return button or something? I'd have expected this within the Settings page to configure. Using O.K.P seems quite odd and unnatural to me, although better than the arrow keys. For just under £5, it's worth it in my view. It was always a unique game with a catchy tune, but it was also quite a hard game for the average person.

A bit of gaming history, I was intrigued when I saw this come out on Steam. I remember spending many hours playing the original on my Commodore 64 in 1985. The original BBC Micro version had 3 levels. The version on the Acorn Election had 9 and the one I remember (for the Commodore) had 6. It's a pity this version on Steam mimics the BBC Micro one with just 3 levels. Maybe there'll be an expansion to 9 levels - would like to see that because, for example, I remember enjoying the ice-themed level :) Basically, this is a side scrolling platformer, laid out in such a way that it's a bit of a puzzle to work out where to go in order to safely collect various golden keys. Once you've collected the required number of keys, you progress to the next level. Your character is a caveman who wields a yo-yo to defeat enemies. Enemies include monsters, which sit still on some of the platforms, and balloons which occasionally rise from the bottom of the screen and daggers which occasionally fall diagonally from the top of the screen. If any monster, balloon or dagger touches you, even slightly, you die. If you yo-yo them first, they die or disappear. Jumping from platform to platform is tricky, with anything other than falling from a very short height resulting in your death. As I said, there are only 3 levels but once you complete those, you replay them with the display upside down, then the display rotated sideways, then monochrome, and then flashing - very annoying. There are quite a lot of achievements and many of them are for completing levels within certain time limits. I don't know if you think this is worth £5 (what I paid) but, from my point of view, it was worth it to relive a childhood memory. I hope there's an update or very low priced expansion at some point to give us the 9 levels.

As a BBC B owner, I remember Frak! from 1984. It's great to see a faithful reproduction of the original game with smoother graphics and more levels. I love the fact I can now start on level 3 - my 10 year old self so rarely got to that level with more than 1 life left it's great to finally "complete" the game. Now onto the other 50+ levels! Thanks Orlando. Firetrack next? (please)