Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: October 30, 2003

The Frogger franchise has been around for a long time, and is about to hop its way into the gaming scene once again. With Frogger’s Journey: The Forgotten Relic, Konami takes the classic Frogger gameplay we all know and love, and applies it to a full adventure title for the Gameboy Advance.

Back in 1981, Frogger was first unleashed upon the arcade scene. It has never left the hearts of those who played it since. In the old days of video games, almost every title followed the same formula (though whether or not it was executed well is another story): simple to pick up and play, extremely difficult to master. Frogger was one of the games that took this formula and did great things with it. To this day, there are still nods to the classic arcade title, including an entire portion of an episode of Seinfeld that was dedicated to it. Even though it was a popular game, it took ten years for its first (unsuccessful) sequel, Ribbit, to enter arcades. After that, the series would not be unearthed until the Playstation-era, when a new Frogger game hit the stores. While most game reviews found the game to be below average at best, the public ate it up. A few sequels followed, and now, in 2003, yet another new entry into the Frogger series has arrived, this time on the Gameboy Advance: Frogger’s Journey: The Forgotten Relic.

Frogger’s Journey is not a Frogger game in the traditional sense; it takes some of the concepts of the original game (i.e., dodging things) and applies them to an adventure game-style setting. If that doesn’t sound interesting to you, then stop reading; that’s about the best that can be said of this game. As a matter of fact, that’s all there IS to say about this game, for the most part. There’s a lot of boring adventure-style segments, tied together with some gameplay slightly reminiscent of the original Frogger. Doesn’t sound that fun to play? It isn’t.

Let’s start by analyzing the adventure portions of the game. At the start of the game, you see a sub-par cinematic presenting a bored Frogger looking for something to do. He finds something; within moments, an airplane crashes into his house. Next thing you know, he’s riding the airplane back to his grandfather’s town, so he can track down his old-timer relative. After that is over with, you are presented with an increasingly annoying itinerary of fetch-tasks to deal with. None of these are interesting in any way; they all have the same format: Talk to person A. Person A says to meet up with person B, because person B has something person A needs. You slowly hop your way towards this fabled person B, aimlessly wandering about until you find the right sprite to chat with. Then, you slowly but surely hop back to person A, who almost definitely has another task for you. Every once in awhile, person B sends you to (insert gasp here) person C, though! Isn’t that exciting? I think not.

The action segments are by far the best portion of the game, but they still aren’t nearly good enough to make this game worth a purchase over, say, an arcade collection that includes Frogger. The traditional “dodge things and time your jumps” gameplay is present, but it isn’t done as well as the original. Actually, it’s not even done as well as some of the other Frogger games on the GBA (or any other platform). The level design is far below average; in fact, it often feels like it was thrown together by a bunch of ten year olds using some “make games without having to program” type of software. It’s that bad. To make things worse, there are eighteen of these levels in all. To add to that, unlike the previous Frogger game for the GBA, Frogger’s Adventures 2: The Lost Wand, there are no multiplayer modes. A step down from a previous game in the series? Not a good move on Konami’s part.

Is there anything good about the gameplay of Frogger’s Journey? Sometimes. Here and there, the dodge/jump gameplay lets out some sparks of enjoyment, as opposed to a constant shower of annoyance and boredom. There were some attempts at putting together a good game, mainly in the abilities. While they usually aren’t that fun to use, they do show that there was an attempt at bringing the Frogger mold to a new level. The super jump, grappling hook, and a device that temporarily freezes objects in place, are all intriguing, but, with the exception of the super jump, aren’t usually put to good use.

The graphics are actually not bad, if a bit average. In the adventure and action modes, nothing looks especially bad, though the game as a whole lacks flair. When talking to the inhabitants of Frogger’s world, who are all animal-human hybrids, very nicely done portraits pop up. These are very creative (for this kind of game). I wish the rest of the game had the same amount of effort put into it by the developers.

The music and sound effects throughout Frogger’s Journey are both well done, and of high quality. It seems as though the team Konami put to work on this title did not have their priorites straight; why the wonderful sounds, but the horrendous gameplay?

I want to be as forthright as I can about my feelings on these newfangled Frogger games: I don’t like them. Taking a classic game that was built on the meticulous design of a single area, and trying to expand it into something much more than what it needs to be is a crime upon the integrity of the original. Now, I have no problem with old games getting updates; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of my favorite releases this year. It’s Frogger, specifically. I loved the original arcade version with a passion, and these new games take the Frogger name, drag it into a toilet, and spit upon it. It would be wonderful if this series could receive a proper update, but looking at Konami’s current track record, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Frogger’s Journey is not an exception to that record.

Score: 5.5/10