Frogger is a game that will always be steeped in nostalgia for me. In 1981, my family was moving across country and one night we stayed at a fancy Holiday Inn with three swimming pools. They also had a cocktail Frogger machine, and I have fond memories of playing it with my dad.
We later got the home version for the Atari 2600 and played the crap out of it. A few years later, I got Frogger II: Threeedeep for the Commodore 64 and put quite a bit of time into it. In college I found out about the Starpath supercharger for the Atari and its superior "Official" version of Frogger. I traded for a dub of the game in the mail, and I could get the game to load if I got lucky.
I even wrote to a videogame magazine that my most wanted game sequel was Frogger (Kids, be careful what you wish for). A couple of years later, I played the arcade original again, was struck buy how purple everything was and more or less forgot about it.
So out of childhood nostalgia, I downloaded the Live Arcade game, and truth be told I wasn't expecting much. Once I switched to original mode (The enhanced version did nothing for me), I was pleasantly surprised. Frogger seems deceptively simple; you clear the road and the river to get your frog home five times per level. It doesn't even use a fire button!
But unlike the home versions, there is no option to warp from one side of the river to the other and the patterns quickly get tricky. I have yet to complete the fourth level, but it feels like I could get there with a just little more practice. As a bonus, the achievement points are pretty well thought out and add decent replay value.
If you like Frogger, this is a solid version. Recommended.
2010 ben langberg, all rights reserved.