Frogger

The Good
This was one of the first PC games I really ever remember playing, so I've always had a place for it in my collection. Although a re-visioning of the original, it's still a insanely fun game.

Gameplay-

Talk about addictive ! The levels are arranged in blocks from beginning to end. The first level block consist of the "retro" levels, remakes of the original game. Cross the road, river, and logs to get to the baby frogs. Simple. But it gets faster as time goes on and gets hectic. The next level block is made of pond and road levels. But you get to ride on birds, balloons and turtles. But these levels are fairly non-linear. Which means you can get the frogs in any order you want to. And the levels have numerous enemies throughout them. Dogs, bats, rats, slugs, raccoons and spiny slugs. It's a heck of a lot of fun especially in the western levels ( yes western levels) when you have to avoid falling boulders ! But the later levels make good use of Frogger's new abilities: power croak, super hop, and a long bug grabbing tongue. Most of the bugs are worth about 60 points though. Super hop is good for jumping over certain enemies. And croak lets you here the baby frogs croak back to get a better idea of their location.

Sound-

Do do....do do DO DO.....do do do do do do DO DO ! Um... sorry about that. He he..I got the western level music stuck in my head. Needless to say the music is catchy. All of the level blocks have their on music and different music for most of the levels. Plus if you put the game disk in a cd player, you can listen to all the tracks ! The sound effects while good, sound a bit scratchy at times. Like the sounds of the bugs. But everything else is well done. Like how Frogger gulps when he swallows a bug. And the croaks all sound realistic.( I know I'm running out of stuff to talk about when I'm discussing frog croaking sounds.)

Graphics-

This is where I could go on forever. For a Windows 95 game, the graphics look shockingly smooth and have held up pretty well. When I say smooth, I mean the textures aren't pixelated at all. Nice and clean. Despite having a polygon look to it, it's done in a unrealistic style that's almost like...OK I hate using the cartoon analogy, but that's the only comparable thing I can think of. But anyway, another cool aspect of the graphics are some of the subtleties. You can see the clouds in the car windows when they pass by, or out on the water. The rats in the sewer levels shake their heads when they land on the pipes. The baby frogs kick their legs in anticipation of your arrival. Fish in the water. Dead fish skeletons in the water. Plus the water looks thirst inducing. Too bad you die when you jump in it.Sigh

Tech specs-

This whole review I'm trying to do different. For any PC games I review in the future, I'll include this. As for the specs, they are not bad at all ! 640 by 480 resolution, support for the Voodoo 1 video card, and you can't beat the cd format. Plus it takes up almost no space. So if your a freak about hard drive space consumption fear not.

The Bad
Tech specs-

I'ts somewhat tricky and tempermental to try and get running on new machines. It will run, but be prepared to fool around with the display properties for a while. I can it running on my new machine, but no music. I gave up on why weeks ago.

Gameplay-

Some of the longer levels tend to be repetitive. And after you find a frog, it sends you back to the start of the level. Err. And why is it Frogger STILL can't swim ? That's totally absurd. Frogs ARE amphibious ! Oh well.

The Bottom Line
If you want a good game to unwind with, I 100 percent recommend this game. If you're looking for game with tons of replay vale, try Frogger 2. But If you like games overall, get it. You'll love it !