PlayStation 2

Frogger: The Great Quest

Au final, vous l'aurez compris, Frogger : The Great Quest est loin de nous emballer. Quelques idées étaient là mais la réalisation gâche le plaisir de jeu qui ne semblait pas spécialement déjà bien présent sur le papier. Technique poussive, gameplay imprécis et histoire peu folichonne, voilà le cocktail que propose cette mise à jour du mythe Frogger. On se replongerait plus volontiers dans le jeu original, au détriment de celui-ci, pourtant plus de notre époque.

One of the worst games in Konami's storied history, Frogger: The Great Quest doesn't live up its title, its heritage, or its company. The game unwisely removes the amiable amphibian from the familiar confines of busy highway traffic and a log-filled river into the ubiquitous modern day world of 3D platformers. Gameplay is similar to Rayman 2, since Frogger can glide, swim, shoot projectiles, and perform similar activities. Unlike Rayman 2, however, The Great Quest is a froggin' waste of time.

I really think that some of the level designs are quite good and believe that the game's developers did an excellent job of creating a fun 3D world for Frogger to roam that's filled with lots of enemies to combat and friendly characters to interact with, but it's all for not because the game's control is about as bad as it gets. I've tried really hard to think of a 3D platform/adventure game that has controls as terrible as what's presented here in Frogger: The Great Quest but am honestly drawing blanks. The character movement is very choppy, the jumping is imprecise and it's all made even worse by the game's many camera problems.

So now say hello to its awful next-gen sequel, Frogger: The Great Quest. Don't say hello too loudly, though, or it'll run away and cry. It's an idiot child of a game, you see. It's a 3D platformer, which is games-speak for 'lazy adaptation that rarely works.' And this one must have taken someone, ooh, a whole morning to create. It's a sad, unimaginative and downright tawdry little affair. It can't even muster the energy to throw in all the platform game clichés. It just manages a few like, erm, jumping. And platforms.

On its best day, Frogger is just a pale imitation of a good platforming title. The only thing "great" about this quest is finally being done with it. Hell, the fact that I needed to come back and revisit Frogger to fill up this much space on a page has made this my own personal Vietnam. Ribbit.