Frogger

The Good
Back in the early Eighties, people were used to games such as Space Invaders and Galaxian, where they moved their laser left or right across the screen while shooting aliens swooping down at them. Then Konami’s Frogger appeared out of nowhere, and players suddenly found themselves controlling a frog, and they could move up - not just left or right - toward their five homes on the other side within a time limit.

To reach these homes, however, they must cross a busy highway to a median strip, and from there negotiate a river full of logs and diving turtles, and finally into all of their five homes. Fifty points are awarded to the player for reaching one home, but more points are awarded for bringing their lady frog along with them and gobbling an insect. The game starts off easy, allowing players to get used to the game. It eventually gets harder, with the game introducing snakes, alligators, and otters into the mix. The level design also differs slightly and everything is sped up, requiring them to time their moves carefully.

Besides the gameplay itself, Frogger was innovative in two other ways. There are more ways you can die, such as being run over by a vehicle, letting the timer expire, staying on a diving turtle, missing the homes, being eaten, and falling into the river. The gameplay is complemented by well-composed music. As well as the standard songs, the US version of the game has “Yankee Doodle” thrown in for good measure. The animations are brilliant; I like how the skull and crossbones are formed when a life has been lost. The game also has that “just one more go” vibe to it.

The Bad
I can’t find any flaws to this timeless classic.

The Bottom Line
Frogger is a refreshing change from the shooters that dominated the arcades way back in the early Eighties, and it contained many innovative features such as the use of background music and the number of ways you can die. The graphics and sound are excellent, and the game’s addictive nature will keep you coming back for more. Two thumbs up, way up!

The Good
Official 6809 arcade game clones were rare. Zaxxon and Pooyan on the CoCo, Moon Cresta on both the Dragon and CoCo, and Frogger, also on both spring to mind. So any official port was always welcome, but if truth be told this was a pretty unexciting version. The graphics are not at the highest resolution possible, going for colour over higher resolution black and white PAL/mono green PMODE 4 colour set. This actually works well, for once the Dragon colour set is perfectly suited for depicting a non space/sci fi setting. The sound is ok for its time, but within a couple of years games like Shock Trooper and Fire Force did so much more on the same machine. Where the game shines is the gameplay. Just like Frogger in the arcade, it is a cute and highly addictive game, albeit one that is pretty easy to clock.

The Bad
If this had been made a couple of years later I suspect we would have had better sound, graphics and a bit more innovation. It feels a bit like a budget release, serviceable at everything, but nothing outstanding.

The Bottom Line
Cheap no frills Frogger. Nothing else need be said. Playable, addictive, but feels more like a budget release than a full blown release.

The Good
For some odd reason I didn't have high expectations for this game, even though I was aware of its classic status. However after playing it I was thankfully proven wrong, as this is arguably one of the best arcade games ever made, and the ColecoVision port is definitely up to delivering the Frogger experience to home consoles as far as gameplay is concerned.

The main objective of the game is to guide a group of frogs from the bottom of the screen to the top. You'll have to cross a road and then a river, but before you can reach your goal you will have to make your way past cars, trucks, snakes, turtles, crocodiles and other hazards, with each new "stage" adding several new obstacles for you to overcome.

Both strategy and reflexes are important in this game (and they should be important in any respectable action game), because while you have to move quickly in order to avoid getting eaten or squashed, you'll also have to think carefully about where you'll need to go, because you might end up in a dead end or surrounded by obstacles with no way to escape. Since there's also a time limit, you'll have to think quickly and while each stage has basically the same layout, the different positions of the obstacles means you always need to examine it every time you start again. This adds a bit of replay value, somewhat absent in other titles like Galaxian for example where every stage is pretty much the same.

The sound features a very catchy song that I can't get out of my head and nice (not annoying) sound effects. The graphics are less sophisticated than the arcade version, but still respectable.

The Bad
I've found myself coming back to this game many times but then again each play session lasts for about 5 minutes. This certainly isn't the next Final Fantasy so don't expect to spend hours and hours on this game. Then again, that's Arcade gaming for you.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, I'm not sure how other versions of Frogger are but this one comes highly recommended for its extremely accessible gameplay but fun mechanics. Definitely one of the better arcade games of the time, and thus, also one of the best for ColecoVision.