You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you? There is nothing worse than being a frog.
Have you ever played Frogger? Even if you never touched this toad’s joystick, you likely know exactly what you are looking at from a single screenshot. The story of Frogger is simple: why did the frog cross the road? To get to the river, and then a protected “frog home”. But safety is key! Our frogs must cross five lanes of alternating traffic before hopping across some logs and turtles that are recklessly murderous. Oh! And the alligators! And snakes! The continual traffic may speed up over time, but that swamp gets more and more crowded with critters trying to consume you. And the worst part of all of this? All you can do is hop in one of four directions. Dodging is all you got. You are beset by danger on all sides at all times, and there is not a single thing you can do about it.
And that is key to the Frogger experience.
Frogger was released in 1981. It is one of the earliest arcade games, and is one of the kings of the “single screen, stuff happens” era that preceded the scrolling age of Super Mario Bros. And, on some basic level, you could make the argument that Frogger is another Pac-Man clone. In the same way that every first-person shooter traces back to Doom, or how Tekken 8 is Street Fighter with a few bells and whistles, Frogger is simply the story of a character in a maze where there are more than a few malcontents attempting murder. But Pac-Man has something up his sleeve that Frogger could only imagine: the power pellet. Ol’ Pacs can turn the tables on his pursuers, and become a gobbling machine of Kirby-like proportions (and whether I am referring to Nintendo’s Kirby or Jack Kirby’s Galactus is an exercise for the reader). What does Frogger have to defeat his foes? Not a damn thing.
Let’s run down some of the classics: What about Space Invaders? That is a game where offense is the whole point, and if you do not shoot, you do not survive. Galaxian is similar, and Asteroids is another (oddly space-based) title where you must shoot to live. Berzerk? Missile Command? Once we get to 1980 and Pac-Man, it is obvious that fighting off enemies was the main way to play a videogame in the early days. Pac-Man playing the victim most of the time was a deviation! Even Rally-X, ostensibly our first “racing game”, emphasized using smoke screen “items” against opponents, thus being more the ancestor of Mario Kart than Gran Turismo. The same year as Frogger, we saw Mario grab a hammer in Donkey Kong, Galaga blasting the universe to pieces, and Scramble scrambling to give us our first real shoot ‘em up. Later (but not much later) years would see Donkey Kong Jr. dropping fruits on opponents like the chef utilizing deadly buns in BurgerTime, or Dig Dug giving a generation inflation fetishes that would last a lifetime. Then the most common verb in gaming hit its stride: Kangaroo and Popeye could punch with the best of them. From Asteroids to Zaxxon, if there was a controller in front of you, there was inevitably some attack, trap, or powerup that would empower your digital avatar to obliterate its opponents.
And Frogger never got so much as an extra hop.
And today’s article is going to be a little short in honor of Frogger. Frogger has no defenses. Frogger is powerless. But, another way of looking at it is that Frogger saw no need to add “a second thing”. Frogger moves in four directions, and that is it. Frogger has to deal with rows of moving stuff, and that is enough. Frogger is just the story of a handful of doomed frogs, and there need be no gimmick or hook on top of that. You are a frog. It sucks to be a frog. Give it a shot.
And that somehow became one of the best videogames of all time.
What better fate could there be for a frog?
FGC #718 Frogger
- System: All of the above. It was released initially in arcades, but wound up ported across generations any time there was a possibility. For the record, any screen shots from this article are from the Arcade Archives edition available on the Nintendo Switch 1 or 2.
- Number of players: One frog? Two frog? They all wind up the same in the end.
- Favorite… uh… Thing: I like those alligators. Big Pitfall vibes from those guys. Oh! I have to review Pitfall at some point! I keep forgetting to do that!
- Feel the Love: The one variable thing you can do is pick up a lady frog on a log on your way across. A number of people miss this extra frog, though, as, since it is something moving on the screen, she is assumed to be instantly deadly. Like, you know, every other goddamned thing in this frog’s life.
- Goggle Bob Fact: I considered playing other frog-based games for this article, but I felt it best to let Frogger shine on its own. Also, I played Crazy Frog Racer, and woke up in the wrong state.
- Did you know? Frogger is a Konami game, but it was initially published by Sega in the US. So this frog could either grow up to hunt vampires or go fast.
- Would I play again: Frogger is addicting and fun. I will inevitably guide these frogs along at some random point in my life before I am flattened by a truck.
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Pepper Grinder! Time to drill to the heavens! Please look forward to it!