70th game played so far
Genre: Action
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1981
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Sega
Why did the frog cross the road?
Because he wanted to get home from work.
There’s premise of Frogger for you. Cross the road, avoiding cars, trucks, racing drivers, snakes, crocodiles and sinking in a river. It’s an old action game, and one of those we both remember well. I know I spent many an hour playing this game. It’s a noble goal you have, and a fun game to play it with.
Our Thoughts
Going back some time down memory lane, to Frogger… it was ages since I last played this game. And the reason we chose to play this next is because I suddenly had it in my head to find out how to procure myself a pet toad. Oh the japery! These sudden outbursts can be quite… interesting at times. In spite of this I am very glad that my tangential thinking led us towards playing Frogger.
I believe that in our review of Peggle we talked about how much the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Principle leads to some incredibly addictive gaming. It’s a bit of a glib idea but it can be found in most games on this list in the first fifty chronologically. So I apologise in advance for mentioning KISS when we cover the likes of Arkanoid, Pac Man and Asteroids.
Possibly more than even that – a lot of arcade games are like that. It shows how things changed, but also how casual games are still popular. While these days, many of the expensive games feel like they should require some time investment, simple games like this provide you with a good opportunity to jump in and play immediately. Frogger clearly have this down: Your frog just jumps backwards, forwards, left and right. Avoid the cars and don’t drown in the water. That’s all you need to know. And yet it’s addictively hard.
It really helps that every level adds something new; faster cars, snakes, crocodiles and even a malevolent looking otter. Do otters even devour frogs… South Park taught me that they liked clams. They still seem dangerous.
Aside from the quaint graphics and the delightful 8-bit noises there is not too much more to mention about this game. It’s fun and addictive. It’s very retro, but the gameplay is good… and for me, the memories are better.
Final Thoughts
Are you one of the few people never to have played Frogger? SERIOUSLY?! Fine…. visit this site and you can play it for free.