Franko: The Crazy Revenge

Franko: The Crazy Revenge is a Beat ‘Em Up game, developed by World Software and published by Mirage, which was released in Europe in 1994.

Alex and Franko were a pair of great friends, born in times where Poland was morphing from communist country into something else. Lost in the world, they couldn’t find them self in the new reality. Living in the Polish city of Szczecin, the two were growing up in a rather unfriendly neighborhood. Mastering martial arts, they found their life tough but very interesting. Until one day a band of thugs attacked them. After a long fight, when Franko was able to see and feel again, he saw a body of his friend, and in his ears he still heard the laughter of the band’s leader, Klocek. Now it’s time for revenge.

Franko is a classical Double Dragon-style action game. With excessive amount of blood and violence, it is suitable for mature audiences only. The player walks right through the streets of a Polish city. On his way, he faces various kinds of enemies, from punks, through karatekas, to infamous Communist law enforcement groups like ZOMO. The enemies can be fought with a variety of hand-to-hand blows and moves, though some of them carry guns.

Yep, third-worldly production values and Village-People-like characters, but it still fared better than many triple-A titles (not that the Amiga had so many triple-A beat'em ups to speak of anyway). The guys should have broken it down into shorter levels, though. And checked a couple of bugs that caused level bosses to walk off-screen and make it impossible to continue. But they did get the insanely violent mood right.