A retro frog game that doesn’t involve crossing a road?! Whatever next! Froggie is a 2D platformer that takes its inspiration from the computer games of the 1980s. Monochromatic. Block based level design. Simple 2 frame enemies. Usually these games are a love letter to the tricky and skill based platformers of that time but Froggie swings severely in the opposite direction. This game is incredibly basic and easy.
Your Froggie can move, jump and wall jump. The game has 100 levels (in theory) but at the beginning you’ll get up to speed with the multiscreen levels – running and jumping across the odd gap here and there. It is very gentile stuff as you get used to Froggie’s physics. Our titular character has a slight run on when you stop moving him and so you need to take that into account as the platforming gets spikey and then enemy filled. Froggie loves to place an enemy on a small platform and whilst thankfully, a single jump on their head removes them from play, it means you aren’t really aiming for a platform landing but an enemy one instead.
Over the course of the first 50 levels, wall jumping, a few moving platforms and about 4 switches to open doors are brought in. Snakes are joined by roof spiders, a few robots and mushrooms that shoot projectiles quite slowly. You’ve seen this all thousands of times before, and whilst the monochromic 1-bit style graphics do a lot of heavy lifting here, Froggie is perfectly playable. It is just incredibly safe and dull. I was waiting for the levels to get more complicated or something interesting to shake things up.
That duly came at the end of level 50 when a “Thanks for Playing” screen popped up. I was confused as the game boasts a 100 level length. Well levels 51 – 100 are the first 50 levels but you are now going from the exit door to the entrance door. This includes all the early levels where its a single jump, a single wall jump, a single enemy and so on. It’s a bizarre way to pad a games length. This could have been a really cool twist if the level designs were not so rudimentary. Nothing feels different or more challenging when going backwards. On the odd occasion it does, its because you’ve got to wall jump up a screen instead of falling down it. I was bored and annoyed by the time I stopped. I was playing this on PlayStation and the platinum pings at level 50, as if the publisher knew this was not the selling point it thinks it is.
I feel like Froggie is a missed opportunity. The character handles well, except for some edge of the ledge issues with wall spikes triggering deaths even if you haven’t gone over the ledge yet. The graphics have style. The music, whilst repetitive, was fine. If you then can’t create a compelling level design to give a reason for the player to enjoy the game, its all for nothing. I’m not sure who this is pitched at either as its so easy and the retro graphics will likely not appeal to early or new gamers. This slice of retro gaming is only rose tinted in aesthetic only. A shame.
Review copy provided by the publisher. PS4/PS5 versions reviewed.
