Frogun Review

Frogun is a 3D platforming title in which you take control of Renata, the daughter of two renowned archaeologists. After heading out on a dangerous expedition, her parents tell her to stay behind for her protection. After a couple of days of eagerly awaiting the return of her parents, she takes the frogun to follow in their footsteps and find out what happened to them.

Frogun's gameplay is as complex as you want it to be, and this is one of its most charming aspects. As a completionist and 3D platformer aficionado, I tried to complete the entire game by getting all of the items per level, but anyone else that doesn't care can choose not to. That said, skipping on the collectibles will rob you of the full experience of Frogun, as I believe the title is focused more on those that seek to complete the game entirely.

Completionists will have to play every level at least two times, though you'll often find that only playing it twice becomes an increasingly difficult task the more into the game you get. To fully complete Frogun, you'll need to acquire every coin in the level, get two emeralds, a purple skull, collect a set of notes, pass the level without dying, and pass the level within a specific timeframe. Although at first I was hellbent on trying to pass every objective in one run of the level (kind of like an additional trial for myself), I quickly found that was impossible; there are far too many coins and collectibles to finish it within the time limit to get the speedrun as well, meaning that you'll have to play every level twice... Not that I think you'll mind.

If you're a fan of 3D platformers, passing these levels several times won't be a challenge, and it'll instead be a refreshing and exciting experience. Whether you try to get all of the collectible items in one run or focus on each individual challenge, the worlds are genuinely enjoyable. At first, I thought passing the level twice would become irksome, since I'd need to do a speedrun and ensure that I didn't make too many mistakes, but I found the timeframe to be rather forgiving, and it made me respect the level design team for their efforts. Although the levels are short — often being able to pass them within the minute — they can extend into seven or eight minutes of exploration, making Frogun feel full of collectibles and fun, but not so much that it feels overbearing or difficult to handle; finishing Frogun 100% feels feasible because of this. Unlike Yooka-Laylee, where you enter an open-area world to search for pagies, Frogun gives you a clear goal with each one, and this simplicity reminded me a lot of one of my all-time favourite platformers: Super Mario 64.

My first worry with Frogun, something I encountered in the very first level, was that Renata's movements felt a bit uncomfortable and clunky. She doesn't move very fast, can't jump very far, and doesn't have any unique abilities that she can use to make either of these two flaws more manageable. The reason I was worried was that I feared the later levels would be too punishing for Renata's limited move set and slow traversal controls, but not only did her slow movement stop feeling like a problem pretty early on, but the later worlds are expertly built to accommodate for her downfalls. Going into Frogun expecting Mario-esque platforming that involves numerous moves and traversal abilities is a mistake because, despite sharing a genre (and visuals, though we'll get to that later), Frogun plays a bit more like Yooka-Laylee's collection-based gameplay.

I believe that playing through Frogun while trying to move fast throughout the level is experiencing the game wrong, and those that give it the time to play it like a collect-a-thon will find more enjoyment. Each level is built expertly, and it's easy to get lost in any of them while looking for the last collectible to finish it, making it an enjoyable exploration-based title, fitting for a daughter of archaeologists.

Even if you opt to play through the levels and do very little collecting, Frogun offers a wide variety of them, each with its own unique playstyles. Some demand you race Renata's rival, others include boss fights, and each individual cluster of levels has new foes to overcome. While playing through the levels, no two felt alike, despite the game's simplicity.

Frogun expertly handled the graphics and audio; I'm usually fussy about these two categories, often finding a flaw in the audio design for games, but Frogun blew me away with the cute sound design. The footstep sounds that Renata makes, the retro filters that you can apply to the game (easily one of my favourite features), and even the music are all captivating and very reminiscent of older platformers.

Frogun is a 3D platformer done right. Despite missing fast-paced platforming and movement abilities, Frogun's collectibles and unique levels allow it to be an enjoyable experience through and through; it'll definitely become the next game in my library that I complete 100%.