With Hijack and it hellish lifts safely behind us, we now set sail for a completely different location as we head for Liverpool, Merseyside to both solve a murder and find our way to the Pleasuredome. We’ve arrived at No.#71 in the Your Sinclair Top 100 and it’s the completely bizarre Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Ocean Software liked to do tie-ins; from RoboCop to Batman they knew where the money was. However when it came to snapping up one of the 1980’s DJ Mike Read worrying pop bands as the face of its latest game, who knew what they would be delivering in this release. Would it be some twaddle of “Help Frankie Relax!” nonsense or something completely different; Ocean chose the latter…in a big way.
You play a nondescript figure who has zero personality, and begin with nothing and you wander through a cluster of homes on a Liverpool street of the 1980’s. Through collecting objects relating to sex, war, love and faith, you slowly develop into a fully-fledged person and you can make your way towards the Pleasuredome. However, before you do this there is a murder to solve; not only this there are some utterly bizarre mini-games strewn throughout the main game.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood begins rather hum-drum as you wander through the homes collecting objects for you know not what for and it all seems rather pointless. However as you enter the mini-games and suddenly the realisation that certain objects are vitally important in solving puzzles. The problem is as you progress through the numerous mini-games they can and do become somewhat tedious, you become bored with the game and it becomes a chore to play.
Ocean Software deserve a round of applause for thinking outside the box on making Frankie Goes to Hollywood, however it does all become too strange in the end to enjoy.
Originally published June 18, 2016. Updated October 29, 2022.
