Frogger celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. I can recall playing Frogger on my Atari 2600 and loving it, so when I was given the chance to review My Frogger: Toy Trials for the Nintendo DS, I leapt at the chance (pun intended).
I'd been forewarned that this was more than just the Frogger that had to dodge cars and make his way around obstacles in the road, but I figured that it might at least show my kids some of what was so fun about some of the "ancient" games, as my children call them.
Sadly, while the game is not too bad in its own right, it bears about as much resemblance to the original Frogger as it does to a role-playing game - which is to say, not a whole heck of a lot.
The game starts with A LOT of dialogue before you can do anything but press "A" to continue. And when I say "A LOT," I really do mean A LOT. We must have sat pushing the "A" button for 15 minutes reading through the early parts of the story before we could even do anything with our character. The story is cute but a bit overdone. Basically, there is a company you can mail a drawing of your ideal pet into, and they'll send you back an egg with that toy pet inside. The hero of the story (you) has sent in his drawing and is just waiting for his pet to hatch before entering the Toy Trials put on by the same company that created the pets. Apparently, though, our hero doesn't draw very well, because he ends up with a frog rather than the dragon he had hoped for. You enter anyway, of course, and are off to learn gameplay through the first trials.
In the first trial, you learn the basic movement commands of the game. You control Frogger in single jumps using the control pad on the right side of the DS. For bigger jumps, use the B button, or the X to jump straight up. As you make your way through each level, you'll be collecting coins in order to buy healing fruits and special costumes for Frogger. Each of the levels we've played so far is very linear, and it is usually easy to figure out what you have to do to get through the level. Doing it is often a different matter, but at least you know what you should be doing. The graphics for the game are simple and cute. Your "enemies," for example, in the first trial are little coconuts and can be avoided, because they hop back and forth on a pre-determined track.
As the story continues, your frog runs away and down into the sewers. Agent L has to come to his rescue by rolling along a path to get to him and pulling him out before he drowns. This particular part of the game uses the touch pad and is much more challenging than the other two trials that came before it. It reminds me of Marble Blast with a green marble with eyes. This particular game was one that my 8-year-old daughter had to have me finish for her because she simply couldn't tap the stylus accurately and quickly enough on the touch pad to make Agent L roll fast enough to rescue Frogger before he drowned.
Once Frogger is rescued, and this is when your pet is named "Frogger" rather than just "the frog," you and your pet must work together to pass five trials to prove you are the best before going on to the next round. The second trial is mostly just a dodge 'em game like you'd expect from a game called "Frogger." You have to make your way through a maze that has the little coconut bad guys moving on tracks through it. Just time when you move your pet right, and you should have no problem getting through without any penalty.
The third trial is similar to the first in that you're using Frogger's special abilities to make your way through the maze. Here, they add goat-like enemies and even butterflies. Of course, I personally wish Frogger could shoot out his sticky tongue and eat the butterflies, but no such luck. This trial took quite a few attempts to get through, not because I couldn't figure out what to do, but because I kept getting the control scheme confused in my mind. The good thing about the trials is that they introduce what each button on the DS does and how it will make Frogger interact with his environment. It just takes some practice to remember what does what.
The fourth trial found me saying "stupid frog" quite often to my DS and anyone else who would listen. It combined all the elements of the other trials but was way harder because of that. You had to time your jumps just right along the path so as not to run in to the butterflies around you. (Again, I ask, why can't I just eat them?) And you'd have to remember which buttons to use to turn, to do a big jump and to tap the screen to do a launch jump. Needless to say, I couldn't hold the DS in my hand and complete this level. I had to set it down, giving up the idea of this being a handheld game. In other words, things were getting complicated. The nice part about the game is that you can retry as many times as you need without having to go all the way back to the last time you remembered to save. And, of course, you can save whenever you aren't in a trial or mini-game. So there really is no excuse to have to go back through a lot of the story other than forgetting to save manually.
In the fifth trial, you're given a chicken costume. Yes, that's right; you dress up your frog as a big fat chicken. In the chicken suit, Frogger has different abilities. He gains the ability to peck down hard walls but sacrifices the ability to jump. You can change costumes at checkpoints scattered throughout the level, and you will need to often. Frogger also gains the ability to swing by his tongue at specific hook points in this trial, as well as to push or pull objects with his sticky tongue.
When you've finished the trials and think you are ready to move on to the next round, you discover that the trials were only an initial elimination round. The game introduces the mini-games as a way of eliminating the other players and of letting you move on to the second round.
The first mini-game in the story mode is a water race. Since Frogger is afraid of the water, he floats on a lily pad rather than swimming. You have to blow into the DS microphone in order to "push" him forward, and use the L and R buttons to steer. Hope you've got some good lung power, because while I was playing, I got really lightheaded from trying to exhale for so long and for so hard.
The other mini-games are more fun and don't cause me to feel dizzy while I play. Afro battle uses the stylus and touch pad again to roll Frogger around the board, knocking down opponents before you are knocked down yourself. The Bat Race is about what it sounds like, your typical race to the finish line using the control pad and buttons to do a special ability. Final Battle combines the control pad with the microphone. You sneak up behind enemies and yell into the microphone in order to get them to scatter. It seems that every game with mini-games created these days has to have some form of Dance Dance Revolution, and this one is no exception. Dancing Game is a bit different in implementation, however. Instead of responding to cues on the board (left, right, A, Y, etc.), you tap the Frogger icons on the bottom screen in time to the music as the buttons on the bottom show up. There are four other mini-games, but they need to be unlocked as you advance through story mode.
Overall, the game is fun, and there isn't much wrong with it. There are parts where it is too difficult for my elementary-aged children, which is what I would think of as the target audience. And there is a ton of dialogue to read. But the story itself isn't enough to make my kids want to play the game to find out what is happening. It doesn't grab you the way an adventure game should, and it isn't "just there" as an option the way games that are designed to be different mini-games are. You have to play it to unlock the mini-games, but there really isn't a big reason to play it just for that. For us, it is one of those games that we'd rent first; if the price was low enough after renting, we probably would buy it. The kids pick it up every now and then when they are bored with other games, but it isn't the first one they will pick up when it's time to play a handheld game.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
