Froggers Adventures: The Rescue
It’s Frogger. Again.
Tags: Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Larry McCormick on Dec 31st, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| No | |||
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I’m really starting to pity gamedome’s most popular amphibian, it seems his troubles will never end. Not only that, but his latest starring roles have him typecast… he never gets to do anything new or interesting. Frogger’s Adventures: The Rescue is no exception, unfortunately. If you’ve played any of Frogger’s other recent outings, you’ll know exactly what to expect from this one.
The story is window dressing so I’ll give you a gist. Basically what it boils down to is a big evil bad guy invades Frogger’s home turf and eventually kidnaps his woman while the little booger colored hero has to hop his way across dangerous areas trying to rescue her. And yes it’s as [un]spectacular as it sounds.
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This game is targeted squarely at the younger set, even more so than the GBA Froggers. Frogger’s repertoire is very limited – he can hop one square, jump completely over one square, rotate in place and use his tongue to trigger and pull objects. Frogger has to avoid enemies and collecting 50 coins will earn him an extra life. Hopping onto a checkerboard secures a restart point. That’s basically it. But simple doesn’t automatically mean bad. The problem arises when the developers can’t even pull “simple” off right.
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Due to the 3D nature of this game, it can sometimes be difficult to judge what kind of surface Frogger can hop onto and what kind he can’t. Expect to die more than a few times because of the ambiguity in the level design. There are also plenty of disappearing platforms, which aren’t in and of themselves a problem since they’re part of the challenge. The problem is that you have to be so precise with the controls that tapping the directional pad one time to many or just brushing against a wrong button often means certain death and heading back to a restart point or worse, having to continue the level you’re on from the very beginning. Even if you’re an expert gamer, I can promise you that wrong button/pad presses will lead to your death a few times because the game is so unforgiving. This malady is most noticeable during boss fights.
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The graphics are OK, but nigh sickeningly kiddie. The in-game visuals feature lush, colorful worlds and cartoony enemies to contend with. They’re decent but certainly not exceptional. Luckily there are no framerate problems to speak of in this game. However, the animated cinemas are awful. The background shakes and the characters and BGs dont blend very well together, they physically hurt my eyes. These sad little interludes basically look like a high school kid’s computer graphics project. Or more precisely, like something a high school kid with very little talent slapped together four hours before his project was due.
The music is pleasant on the whole. It works well within the context of the game but it’s nothing you’re going to remember after you’ve switched off the power. The cartoony sound effects are fitting if a little sparse. Nothing to complain about here.
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There are a few key game modes: story (guess what that is), challenge (time trial) and multiplayer. Story is the main single player game while you can try to beat your best times on story levels you’ve already completed in the challenge mode. The multiplayer mode is utterly devoid of fun. They consist of a few different quickie mini-games that up to four players can compete in. But frankly, they all suck. New ones are unlocked as you progress through the main game, but fear not! They suck too! Unless you love 3 to 30 second diversions that are often more luck than skill, that is.
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The bottom line is that while playing Frogger’s Adventures: The Rescue, I wished someone would have rescued me from having to endure with this mediocre, canned title. If you’re a huge Frogger fan then I suggest picking up one of the GBA games, they’re much better and Frogger’s antics just work better in 2D. If you don’t have a GBA, well then at least wait until this game is about $15-20 before plunking down the cashola. I can only fully recommend this game to parents looking to give their child a completely nonviolent game. As it is, The Rescue has its moments, but they are too few and far between. The fairly high production values help keep this one out of the cellar but there are many, many better games out there.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Nonviolent fun for the kids + Pleasant graphics and sound |
5.4 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Control could be better - Deja Vu, I'll always remember you! - Multiplayer is completely worthless |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| If you're still thinking about buying this one, wait until it hits the bargain bin. Unless you really, really love the newer Frogger games, in which case we're not qualified to help you. | |
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Tags: Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue
Posted by Larry McCormick on Dec 31st, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
