Frankee Goes Home

Break Space

Dave

Dave Sloane

Mpk

FRANKEE GOES HOME Radical Reflux PWYW / $2 Dave's Review Not to be confused with what happens when you eat 6 cream donuts, Radical Reflux is a new Speccy developer with a promising first game. In this flip screen adventure you play Frankee, a lost and very cute sausage dog who needs guiding home through woodland, cavern, sewer & suburb. The game's blurb boasts it to be an "8 bit gem" and "lots of fun" with "seamless gameplay". Let's find out. It's made with MPAGD, so it has smooth sprites, responsive keys, fair collision checks, and perfect physics - things that once upon a time could not be taken for granted. It has opted for an energy bar instead of lives. There are two unusual touches – you can bark at certain critters, temporarily confusing them and rendering them harmless, and also dig down through some platforms. 'Frankee' is not a collect-em-up – your goal is just to get the disorientated Dachshund home. There are bones scattered everywhere, but only as little energy boosts when you need them, and you will need them because your energy drops when you touch a nasty, bark, dig or well – exist. The graphics are something special. I've found myself stopping just to admire how they move – not the best idea with this mut's metabolism! There's more than the average attention to detail here. It suggests to me that the author is an artist, not yet indoctrinated in the dogmas of Speccy graphics: things like filling the 16x16 box or treating the frames merely as a way of shunting horizontally. No – these are studies in motion. Squirrels stretch, glide and curl. Frankee jauntily trots and wags his tail. Rats scamper. Bats look both erratic and graceful. In fact, I'm going to put my reputation on the line here, and say that this game has the best Squirrels on the ZX-Spectrum. Tails down. There's no music, only the sound of pawprints to accompany you. That works well though, as it adds to the eerie & vulnerable atmosphere – something that would be swallowed up by overly cartoony AY or obliterated by stock demoscene happy hardcore. The first release had an excruciating enemy collision border effect, that jarred and slowed the game down,spoiling the 'seamless gameplay'. I'll put my hatchet down though, because an updated version has been released with the option to turn this dreadful feature off. Frankee Goes Home gets nearly everything spot-on and already stands out from the crowd. Now the border effect is optional, it really can be called an '8 bit gem'. Excellent start Mr Reflux!

"The best squirrels on the ZX Spectrum"

Multi Platform Arcade Game Dog

See the sights" (Traffic, dog mess, rats)