At a time when game developers are consistently striving to create something photorealistic and fully immersive, we begin to lose touch with the games that kept us up at night as kids. Luckily Molegato, the developer of Frogun, kept this in mind as this crisp, retro-style puzzle platformer came to fruition.
The story of Frogun follows Renata, the friendly, outgoing, excitable daughter of two world-renowned explorers. But when she’s left at her family's base camp for a handful of days, she takes it upon herself to rescue her parents from the Beelzebub ruins — the most dangerous expedition her family has gone on yet. So, placing faith in her trusty Frogun (a frog-shaped invention that can grab onto anything with its tongue), Renata sets off to the ruins in an attempt to find her parents.
Even though the story is a tale as old as time, it doesn’t become tedious or repetitive. Usually, adventure-based games rely on their story to show the emotional development of character, but Frogun takes us back to basics and reminds us of what is, and always has been, great about gaming — fun. The game can be played with or without the story in mind, which we particularly enjoyed. This instantly makes Frogun replayable, but pair this with its sometimes punishing level design, and you don’t have a choice in whether you want to replay it or not.
The mechanics are relatively simple, with two buttons that control your Frogun and allow Reneta to jump. A short in-game tutorial takes you through holding the R button to slow your jump's descent and allow more space for longer vaults as you progress through realms and become more reliant on leaps of faith. Although this tutorial seems simple to pull off initially, as gaps between floating objects get wider and wider for Renata, these jumps will have you sealing your eyes closed and hoping you’ve got two feet on solid ground.
With a title so dependent on its platforming, the controls are expected to come with an unmatched fluidity, which is where we faced one of the only challenges throughout this game. Although the controls are basic, aiming and landing a successful shot from Frogun feels more dependent on luck than skill. It feels almost impossible to aim the gun at times, and standing straight against a wall or on a platform will veer the target of your gun slightly to the right. But an upcoming patch has promised a few minor quality-of-life changes which will make the game slightly smoother and a little fairer.
After falling and repeating yourself numerous times on each level, you begin to get a feel for the platforming, which is when Frogun’s true colours shine. The story takes Reneta through five different realms, all of which contain a mass of different enemies and obstacles. Additionally, there are several collectibles and goals to meet to 100% a level. Although each completed run will reward you with a bronze fly amulet, meeting specific goals such as collecting every coin will improve the brooch. Unfortunately, there aren’t any rewards or buffs for completing each goal, but the amulet certainly looks pretty when finished.
Within each standard level, a race and a boss battle provide a breath of fresh air before the levels become too frustrating to repeat. The races between Reneta and Jake are amusing but arguably the most disappointing element of the game and are easily the most frustrating element of gameplay that had us stuck for hours trying to progress. With it being titled a ‘race,’ you’d expect to move fast and tactically, but you have to wait for Jake to move before you can even think about it.
Every time Renata gets too close to Jake, she takes damage, which is almost impossible to avoid due to the one-way paths you both have to go down before reaching the finish line. Sure, there are several shortcuts and a few somewhat risky manoeuvers you can complete to get one step ahead, but they have to be executed perfectly, or you may as well start over.
However, the boss battles that commence at each realm's end are a redeeming factor. While you face many bug-based enemies and the occasional rodents throughout each domain, the boss battles introduce towering terrors with an easy-to-memorize moveset. So, repeating the same few moves each turn, you need to knock three to five health points off before claiming your win. As far as boss battles go, they won't put you off completing the game.
But the main draw of Frogun is its pixel-perfect art style and accompanying 16-bit soundtrack, which perfectly captures the essence of retro gaming. Chunky polygons and bright colours dominate each realm you explore, from snow-covered mountains to the depths of volatile volcanoes. Unfortunately, the intentionally simple design can occasionally feel overwhelming due to a mass of mobile objects on the screen, such as falling coins or ribbons, which cause the frame rate to dip. Still, aside from that, Frogun certainly looks the part.
To match its upbeat nature, the soundtrack presents a consistent rising tension while maintaining the bright and fun energy of Frogun. As you delve further into the game and reach new depths of Beezlebub’s ruins, this tension only heightens without losing any of its friendly and approachable atmosphere. The competitive, fast nature of the game is perfectly captured by a vast range of appropriate tunes corresponding with whichever domain Renata has set out to explore.
Conclusion
Frogun sets out to do exactly what it intends. There is more than enough to enjoy in the game, with around a five hours campaign to play through and the added replayability of finding collectibles that you may have missed the first time. And, although the story is simple, at no point did we find ourselves getting bored. Even the frustration of repeating levels is genuinely reflective of early gaming. It's safe to say that Frogun succeeds in evoking that retro-style puzzle-platforming of the '90s.
Comments 25
It's weird that there are 32 bit visuals matched to 16 bit audio...
It looks way more PS1 than it does N64.
It also looks cute as flip! I might be tempted to get the physical edition that's planned for it.
@CharlieGirl Agreed, it obviously looks more PS1, with the crispy unfiltered textures, with visible pixels etc. It's worlds away from the signature smooth N64 look, with its "vaseline filter"
@aznable Aren't there like a million billion games that use 16 or 32-bit visuals with 8-bit sound? Personally I'd really rather have that extra factor of 2 (though really I'd rather have more, no matter how many bits the visuals are).
I'm definitely picking this up.
I'm interested in this.
I'll be grabbing this, anything from the N64/PS1/Saturn era is always interesting to me.
I’m a sucker for the 32-bit polygon era. In fact I just set up my original PS1 again after retrieving it from home
I got some serious Chameleon Twist vibes from this. I mean, clearly a lot of retro love went into it, but predominantly I thought of Chameleon Twist.
@kurtasbestos Yeah that's true. I was shook when I first turned on Super Cyborg, (8-bit?) and the stereo started shaking the whole room. They really went all out for that soundtrack. (Game plays like Contra.) Another game is UltraCore. It was an unreleased Genesis game. Well they decided to pretend that they also released a Sega CD version. And you can pick between the two soundtracks. Square-Enix also re-released the Dragon Quests games. While the graphics got mixed reviews, they replaced the original chip tunes soundtrack with an orchestra. So, sometimes they do upgrade the music.
@aznable It's not that uncommon. Many games for the PS1 used soundtracks that could be mistaken for 16-bit platforms.
I don't understand why having too few checkpoints and having hard races knocks it down 3 points to a 7/10. The races being too hard is more user error while the checkpoints I do agree with, but shouldn't mark it down that much. Game deserves a better rating!
Is this made by the same team that made Toree & Toree 2?
I have to say a Frogun sounds like the best weapon against Beelzebub (a.k.a. the lord of the flies).
I hope there will be more games with N64-era graphics, just as there was a revival for SNES-style games. I love this style so much.
@Axecon Wondering that too... it gives off those vibes!
Love the nostalgic N64-PS1 blocky art style & aesthetic! I’m intrigued so I’ll keep an eye on this one for a sale to potentially check it out.
Tbh though, the homage to this 3D chunky polygonal era just makes me want a new:
.. games on Switch though.
... Wun can only hope.
May pick it up in a future sales someday, the game looks alright.
Oh, a new NintendoLife reviewer? Thank you for the detailed review! I had been intrigued by the game but worried the controls might be too janky. It sounds like it is a smidge janky but as long as it's otherwise fun that can just be an enjoyable extra challenge to get used to. At $12 right now on sale I may not be able to resist grabbing this game.
@wuntyme8 I don't even want a new Musashi. Just port Musashi. Gimme dem crunchy polygons.
"It feels almost impossible to aim the gun" sounds like something that probably should have made the list of cons at the end haha
Jokes aside the look of this game reminds me of Bug on the Saturn
Planning on a Limited Run Games order this weekend, perhaps I'll include this one.
"Frogun sets out to do exactly what it intends."
Is that an escher sentence?
@cammers1995 That's not how scoring a review works. When you use this logic, you're assuming that every game is automatically a 10 and each flaw "deducts points". The score is the score (and the value a score has to a review is another debate entirely), the negative points are the negative points. If anything, the score probably better represents the sum of the qualities instead of just how many mistakes the game has.
just started playing it, 2 bosses in, kinda bored.
edit: it picks up
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