Frogger

"Frogger: A small improvement over the first, and I mean small."

Frogger for the Game Boy Color. A good game, I have to say. They did a good job on remaking the old one for Atari and other systems, which was made by Sega/Konami. It’s a fun, classic game that they made a little bit more challenging throughout these years. And most people found this a good thing.

Story: (4.5/10)

Hmm, a bad part about the game. The game doesn’t have much of a storyline. What happened is that you are at one end of a traffic filled highway, and you’re home is at the other. You try to get yourself back home by running across and dodging the vehicles. Not much storyline, I mean its about a frog who’s trying to get home!

Gameplay: (8/10)

Yes. Good gameplay. As I said before, you are a lonesome frog at one end of the road. You have to cross various obstacles to get back home, such as a busy highway, or move throughout a fast moving river, hopping on the backs of turtles, logs, and occasionally alligators. You can earn extra points by snagging flies to eat, or by escorting a female frog across the road with you. To top it off, you have to do this all within a time a limit. Use the D-Pad, and the D-Pad only to move up and jump from obstacle to obstacle. The levels are frustrating but long. Occasionally they are fun to see what you have to do. Some other annoying enemies are the snake, which frolics throughout the level, hissing. If you touch it, you are instantly killed. Beat the level faster for more points, or go for all the bonuses.

Graphics: (6.9/10)

Decent graphics, considering this was made very early. The stage graphics could use a little work, while the start screen and some other cinema like scenes have very nice graphics. The cars and buses are usually shown in vivid colors of purple, blue, yellow, red, and green, and have nice movement. The logs, stones, and alligators you have to run over also move with good graphics and are shown with nice shades or gray, brown, and teal. Even Frogger himself is shown with a nice color of dark green, and his legs and arms are noticeable and drawn well. What makes me give Frogger this score is how it is compared to other games on the Game Boy Color. They quite possibly have much better graphics.

Sound: (6.1/10)

Average sound. When Frogger moves, you hear a nice ''flip flop'' that matches with the movement of a frog very nicely. The tunes that play while you go through the levels are standard for a Game Boy Color, but they get annoying and make you want to turn the speakers off. I think Sega/Konami did a great job with the sounds of the movement of the frog, because it really shows.

Hardness Factor: (5.6/10)

Hard only the first few times through. Then, as the game progresses, it gets a little easier, then really easy. After a few weeks of playing you may find yourself beating the game without dying once. In conclusion, it’s only hard if you are not used to this game and other games like this, but it is really easy after you master it and its concepts.

Replay Value: (7.1/10)

Since you are doing mainly the same thing through every time, the replay value of this game is above average. Classic arcade hits, such as Frogger, usually almost ALWAYS have good replay value. This one’s replay value isn’t that great, mainly because of the fact it DOES get boring after the first five or so times through.

Overall: (6/10)

Even though Frogger had good gameplay, all of it’s other concepts were average to pretty bad. This game is fun- but only fun for the first two or three weeks of owning it. It’s not the game you could just keep playing and never get bored of it. It was only a small improvement over the first, but just small. Maybe if Sega/Konami would shape up a bit on Frogger’s storyline and challenge, then it could have been considered a much better game then it was critiqued to this day.

Buy/Rent/Not? If you don’t like the sound of this review or the others, don’t even bother to rent it. If you like the genre or the Frogger games, buy it. Or if you are just curious or wanted to see if this was a as good as the first one, rent it. You probably won’t want to buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/02, Updated 08/09/02