Who Framed Roger Rabbit

THE No 1 film this Christmas is making a bid to be the top selling game in the New Year. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the movie, uses traditional and computer effects to produce an amazing film. If you have not seen it you should. And it might be best to stop reading this review because it will give away some of the plot.

Would you spend twenty-five quid on a piece of software if it offered you three short games in return for hours of disk swapping? Well to quote the eponymous hero of Touchstone’s film "Only if it was funnyyy!!!" Of course it is not. It is very annoying. Expectations were riding high after I had seen the film, which (getting a bit pseudy for a moment) is a watershed in animation. These were tempered though, by the knowledge, born of years of disappointment, that software is rarely funny. Buena Vista’s game is now on release in the UK (as opposed to half a dozen imports immediately snapped up by greedy journos) but before you rush out in a toon-inspired frenzy check this. Roger Rabbit is a major disappointment. Whilst it delivers everything it claims in terms of "outrageous graphics and animation", someone has, as usual, forgotten to put in the gameplay.

Die Amiga-Version des Disney-Dramas um Roger ist etwas angenehmer zu spielen als das PC-Vorbild. Der langohrige Held muß zahlreiche Levels überwinden, um Baby Hermann zu retten. Dazu kann er in kleinen animierten Sequenzen Gegenstände manipulieren.

It just doesn't cut the mustard. Not only are the games boring, but there are too few of them. Roger Rabbit fulfils the old adage 'Graphics alone do not a game make'.

It's a sad, sad day for the inhabitants of Toontown. The proprietor, Marvin the Gag King, has left for that great animated feature film in the sky, leaving behind his last will and testament, which bequeaths the whole of his sprawling metropolis to the Toons who inhabit it. The trouble is, the silly old huffer declined to tell anyone where his will was…