Frenetic

Core Blimey!

Those with a good memory may remember seeing Frenetic here on AtariCrypt about five years ago. My review was, ahem, less than favourable. If I remember correctly, the graphics were nice, and I thought the gameplay was well-balanced. Yet, I oddly rated it as nothing more than a cheap Amiga port. That was a long time ago, so I figured I needed to revisit Core's vertically-scrolling shooter. Let's see if I was wrong back then.

Frenetic transports us slap-bang into the 23rd Century with soulless scientists still debating over the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Well, as often happens in the world of sci-fi, life on Earth is under attack from such creatures. The aliens from the planet "Mozone". Hmm, we have to head into the unknown to pave the way for the safe travel of Earth's vessels and help prevent the extinction of humanity. Sounds like fun, right?

Before we begin, how about a screenshot? Let's do just that, so here you go...

Giant trees and rocks throughout level one, and it's pretty much green throughout!

Big levels, Big Guns, Big Monsters

There are eight ginormous levels stuffed with hundreds of aliens. Some will stroll into your line of fire, whereas others swirl majestically onto the screen. So, it's obvious what to do - bang on the fire button and kill them. Power-ups are available to upgrade your ship's firepower. They are essential and blessed with different types of upgrades: forward firepower, speed, side armaments, shields, etc. Sadly, these pickup areas are few, so I was often left vulnerable and underpowered after losing a life. Yes, power-ups are gone after dying.

Hang on a moment, do you have a friend sitting idle? Well, there is a cool option for two players, which is brilliant and certainly comes in handy on those harder levels later on. It's the best part of the game!! Sadly, I have no friends... Sniff... boohoo...

Each stage has an end-of-level boss, and these are huge beasts. When I say huge, I really do mean it. They will take lots of time and firepower to defeat, but most aren't that tough (beyond the time required). Unless you have just lost your power-ups, then you can expect that battle to last a long time... a very long time!

Let's take a break from reading and view a screenshot that looks creepy and very alien...

Later levels might look funky, but the gameplay remains exactly the same!

Aesthetics

The backgrounds are excellent on most levels, especially the first, with tons of colour. The enemies move spritely with different attack patterns, and the bosses are ginormous creatures. The vertical scrolling isn't great, which is disappointing because the Atari ST has similar games with far smoother framerates.

The music is by Martin Walker and is brilliant!! Not only that, but it works well alongside the sound effects, I thought. Sadly, that same tune plays throughout, which is disappointing and a massive shame to hear just one of Martin's tunes. We needed more, as I know I would have enjoyed listening to more of his work.

It looks pretty and sounds great, so let's celebrate with one final screenshot of a funky boss...

Some of the bosses are great, and some are... rather rubbish!

The CryptO'pinion?

Well, it looks like I wasn't wrong after all. At best, this is an average shoot 'em up, but if you can find a friend, then it will be more bearable. Well, for a few games anyhow. Frenetic needed more progression, more power-ups, and more pizzazz. So boot up something like Plutos, Wings Of Death, SWIV, or Flying Shark.

What I liked: the first couple of levels have well-balanced gameplay, and I even reached the third stage - without cheating! However, the best feature is the two-player mode, which is fantastic and certainly helps to (partially) compensate for the things I am now about to moan about.

What I didn't like: the power-ups are needed to defeat the bosses, but these are lost after losing a life, and new pick-ups are scarce. Each level is a long slog without variety, excitement or progression, and the repetitive tune becomes irritating. I'm getting a whiff of a rushed Amiga port.

Reading this back, I feel that I'm being harsh. Or perhaps I'm in a bad mood? Am I wrong? Is this a great shoot 'em up, and I'm talking nonsense? Feel free to let me know what you guys think in the comments.

• Atari Legend has loads of floppy menu disks. Wow, so many!!
• D-Bug has the best version for a hard drive with far quicker loading times.

Rob & Lee, coder and artist for Frenetic. Gee whiz, thanks, guys. It's a lame ending screen, too!