Not much fun in Frenzy!

Frenzy! Sony Playstation: £34.99

Frenzy! Sony Playstation: £34.99

Baron Count Von-to-Ten has announced that he is about to take over the entire world. He has constructed a vast and rather odd private army in the back garden of his top-secret mountain hideaway. He is also equipped with his Doomsday device, the Transmogrifier. Instead of engaging in a full-blown war, a decision is taken to send a lone pilot in a state-of-the-art biplane to deal with him. It is an extremely dangerous mission with little chance of success so naturally you volunteer.

Your biplane can be equipped with various weapons to help you defeat the Baron. As with everything in this game they are a bit on the wacky side. They include stink bombs, Super Cloak disguise-atron, and Penguin torpedoes (when you get to use a submarine). Most of your enemies are comparably off the wall, and the bosses include Super-Godzilla, Hyper Fridge and New Improved Cuckoo Clock. Yes it's all a bit strange.

Sadly, it appears that all the imagination went into these superficial aspects of the game rather than the game itself. You have 360-degree freedom to move in your biplane but your route is still limited. Targeting enemies and avoiding gunfire is a hit-and-miss affair, and you will find yourself just randomly hitting fire at anything and everything - there doesn't seem to be any point in doing anything else. There is little or no feeling of skill and enemies don't scare you. There are nine levels to complete (if you have the patience) and while there is good variety in them, this is not enough to save the game from mediocrity. When you only have time for a quick, 10-minute blast, Frenzy! might suffice but if you're looking for something more stimulating you will be hard pressed to find worse.

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Graphics:

72% Gameplay:

Game cheats

X-Com: Interceptor PC-CD ROM

Press CTRL-E: you will hear a double beep. Then, enter the following codes: quickbase - finishes all bases that are under construction; battlecheat - enables in-flight cheats; payday - money; fillerup - unlimited flight range; knowitall - all research canttouchthis - invulnerability

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines; PC-CD ROM Level Codes: 2 4JJXB; 3 ZDD1T; 4 RFF1J; 5 K4TCG; 6 DT1WN; 7 IH3W1; 8 52WJ7; 9 924BF; 10 PSGPW; 11 JF0P3; 12 4MB4D; 13 BJK4Y; 14 TI8D1; 15 XQWDC

G-POLICE Sony Playstation:

1) MADGAV; 8) MAZMAN; 15) OLLIEB; 22) JONRITZ; 29) THONBOY; 2) DOLMAN; 9) DAZMAN; 16) THEYOLK; 23) CLAIREC; 30) JIMMAC; 3) SONAGUV; 10) DELUCS; 17) TONYMASH; 24) STEVEBOT; 31) PUGGER; 4) ACEDUF; 11) ANDOOO; 18) ANDYCRO; 25) ANGUSF; 32) ROSSCO; 5) JOJOGUN; 12) KIMBCHS; 19) BIONIC; 26) EUANLEC; 33) CAKEBOY; 6) WENSKI; 13) ANDYMAC; 20) TSALTER; 27) EDFIRE; 34) NIKNAK; 7) SAEGGY; 14) YERMAN; 21) IAINTHOD; 28) STUBOMB; 35) SAGLORD.

Address any correspondence to Game Zone, The Irish Times, 13- 15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or alternatively by email to games@irish-times.ie

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This week's 10 top-selling PC CD- ROM games at Virgin Megastore are:

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