Frogger is one of the more well known arcade classics from our childhood, so was really a no-brainer for Konami to revamp and spruce up for a 3D release. This one is not to be confused with the Playstation One games which went so far off the original’s beaten track that you couldn’t really see where the origins came from. As it stands this time round, we have an homage to the old school hit.
As before, the objective is painfully simple. Get your amphibian friend from one side of the level to the other, avoiding cars, wildlife, domesticated animals, transport and so on. The good thing is that Returns manages to retain the gameplay we’re used to, but there was not enough resistance to avoid putting new things in. Some of these do work, while others don’t.
One of the positives is the inclusion of 3 extra levels. Subway, Sewers and Swamp. They do, for the most part, keep the idea the same, but try and add the odd piece of variety to the normal A-to-B mission. As an example, the sewers have some dodgy pipes, chucking out steam in a fairly repetitive and learnable manner, but at least it keeps things slightly more interesting than they could have been.
There are power-ups as well, which I feel make the game a little too easy, as most of these involve bringing most of the moving things to a complete standstill. I’m all for having the occasional help, as long as it’s not too often. Problem is, even WITHOUT these little boxes of assistance there are switches to do the same job anyway, which still simplifies things too much. These were never in the original, so why add them now?
This game has the look of a normal upgraded arcade title. Everything has a 3D upgrade and looks solid enough, but there is a slight hint of lifelessness about it all. The main frog character is pretty bland and the other animals are just as standard, moving from side to side as if they’ve been paid to do so. In a way it reminds me of the old Warner Bros cartoons involving the Dog and Wolf trying to beat the other in the art of collecting Sheep. I’m not expecting them to tap dance or start free running anywhere, but a little bit of movement would have been nice, as well as the occasional thing going on away from the gaming area, just to add something else for the eyes to pick up.
The music is monotonous and starts to get on your nerves after 5 minutes, so turn it off when you get the chance. The FX are as standard as you like and do their job as best as they could do really, but there isn’t really any need to have any Hollywood musicians drafted in to compose an Oscar winning score or a huge sound department needed to create high quality noises anyway. It’s a $4.99 arcade game, so it does what is needed and nothing more, which is fair enough.
There are some multiplayer options, but once again we have another game which does not stick to the online code of allowing other people in other parts of the world to play together. You simply have loads connected to the same PS3 or you don’t… and that’s it. There are 4 different multiplayer modes though, so there should be something to cater for all. Race is a standard sprint from start to finish, with the first one home winning. Territories has you competing to hold on to more of the safety pens at the end of the level than your rival. There are also two modes dedicated to a frog’s second favourite pastime, grabbing flies. Collector and Fly Feast both involve having the highest score, but one of them has one fly on screen at any time and the other is a free-for-all and sees you trying to out snack the other players.
The single player isn’t too shabby, but this is more of a standardised, with Arcade, Time Trial, Score Attack and a Free Play option being all that’s available. I’d have maybe liked to have seen the multiplayer part being available for one player with AI opponents, but I guess this isn’t to be.
Frogger Returns pretty much does what you’d expect an arcade revamp to do. It keeps the core game in one piece and tries to add some fresh ingredients to spice things up. Sometimes it works and in other cases, like here, things can be a little off the mark. If the multiplayer had been online enabled, more levels available and the option to play all of the game on your own, then this wouldn’t be as irritating. As it stands we can only look to what is on offer and wonder if perhaps a simple case of putting the arcade original out for sale would have been a better idea.
Konami have already shown they can do these releases right, in the form of Track’n Field on Xbox LIVE, so why not do the same thing here? This doesn’t tarnish Frogger’s name, but it doesn’t make it stand out either. What bothers me more than anything else is that they always seem to go back to the ones that they’ve chucked out already instead of giving us stuff to REALLY get our teeth into. Gradius, Salamander, Green Beret and many more are crying out for new iterations onto the networks and marketplaces.
In the end though we have in front of us nothing more than an average title. It’s not the dearest out there, but it’s also not the most desirable. Let’s hope Konami hop to it and give us what we want instead of what we put up with.
VideogameUK verdict: 6/10
