C64 Game Memories - Revisited 30+ Years later : Frankie Goes To Hollywood

I bring you another from the category of C64 games that can be filed under downright 'weird'.

The last offering was The Rocky Horror Show, and todays is Frankie Goes To Hollywood, released by Ocean Software in 1985 at the height of the bands popularity (whose name this game is all about for those in the dark!) - it's hard to imagine how big these guys were back in the mid-80's before they dissapeared as fast as they appeared.

Unlike the aforementioned Rocky Horror Show, this is actually a really fun game but utterly confusing. Your mission is to run around the mundane streets of Liverpool in search of the 'Pleasuredome' which i'm sure is a reference any Frankie fan would immediately get. Simple enough so far, but the idea is that you must become a 'full' person and you literally start as a shadow at the beginning and you must fill 4 attributes called sex, warm, love and faith (more album references!) to 99% to become a whole person.

To do this you had to complete various tasks which boosted them and also by playing 8 or 9 'mini' games with one I can only describe as being like duck shoot and another like a 2d beachhead clone. Much fun, how they crammed all this into 64k is very impressive.

Graphically it doesn't look much but the transitions to and from minigames and tasks is done well and musically you are treated to a couple of tunes from Frankies Album which are done quite well in 8-bit form.

I also remember getting the track 'Relax' bundled free with this and being in my sisters good books for a week though she rage-quit the game calling it stupid. If you genuinely haven't come accross this before because it may have been a UK release only check it out.