Frogger 3D

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Wireless)

.

Review:

Frogger 3D, released in 2011 on Wii and Nintendo 3DS, is an Arcade-style game with a largely isometric view that is vaguely inspired by the classic road-crossing 1981 Atari arcade game. This game largely follows the same basic gameplay as the original, but expands on that formula with increasingly elaborate levels.

The presentation here is pretty good, using 3D visuals for the main portion of the game, with some retro-style pixel art for some parts of the game aiming to imitate the original. This is paired with some decent but forgettable music.

Frogger 3D’s main campaign mode is a decent idea in theory – take the gameplay of the original Frogger and add new mechanics through the game’s various new levels, making this game an extension of the original. While this makes for some good variety, the isometric view can make it difficult to judge where things are in relation to one another, and the mazelike designs of some of the new levels makes for tedium rather than a fun new challenge.

Perhaps ironically, I think the best part of Frogger 3D is a game mode that seems like it was thrown in as an afterthought, Forever Crossing, which basically takes the original Frogger and makes it a “see how far you can get” endless game. It’s such a simple twist on the original Frogger formula, yet this one minor change made for a really compelling take on the original game’s gameplay.

Frogger 3D seems to have its heart in the right place, and it’s trying multiple interesting things while trying to remain respectful to the classic formula. Unfortunately, most of them just don’t seem to work all that well, and the one that does, Forever Crossing, is a fun distraction, but not really enough in its own right to prop up this entire package. Still, Forever Crossing makes this worthwhile to grab up if you can get it cheap.

tl;dr – Frogger 3D is a take on the Arcade-style gameplay of the original classic that seems to try a bunch of different things, but only one of those things actually sticks – the fun minigame Forever Crossing. That minigame makes this package worth playing, but only if you’re getting it cheap.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}