Frogger the Great Quest - Nitro Rad

[Music] I always find it really interesting when really old properties try to figure out how do we become relevant again in the modern day how do you even modernize this type of gameplay do we keep it the same with new graphics do we make new gameplay entirely or do we experiment elaborating on the existing mechanics in a new way the latter is probably the most challenging but usually the most rewarding approach when Frogger came to PlayStation that's the route they took they kept the grid based movement but they had it more to it and turned it into a platforming adventure game it took them two tries to get it right but blitz games made it pretty cool albeit short interpretation of what Frogger could now be so the next step seems obvious right let's continue to flesh out that sort of gameplay there's still so much you can do with it and make it a bit longer maybe and of course heighten the quality even further now that we have new hardware to work with coming hot off a Swampy's revenge blitz began working on a sequel but a Konami turned down their pitch so they reworked their game to have an original character instead so they were still able to release it that project became zapper in a way this is sort of like the true sequel to Swampy's revenge it was the same developer the same type of game except with improved graphics more content and new mechanics as far as what Frogger could have become this is pretty good but I guess Konami was not interested in making more Frogger games in that style at least not currently with 3d platformers continuing to rise and arcade like gameplay becoming less and less relevant Konami instead decided to reboot the series entirely reinventing Frogger from scratch blitzes offer was turned down and Konami turned to their own in-house studio Papa Yeti instead but well I think they're an in-house team at least they seem to be an American branch within Konami that's at least where the credits seemed to imply to me I couldn't really find much info about that studio as they were very short-lived but either way it seems like Konami wanted to handle this Frogger game themselves instead of outsourcing it a third time in a row this time they would take the pac-man world around ditching that arcade style completely in favor of being a modern type of platformer well as bummed as I am that they didn't let blitz follow up on Frogger - I do like 3d platformers however this game is kind of surrounded in a ton of infamy I'm always hearing about that terrible Frogger reboot but I don't actually know anything about this game other than the fact that everybody says it's bad but people also told me pack world 3 was really bad and I actually ended up liking a lot about that game despite me not really liking some of the design choices but yeah I guess I don't really know for sure until I try it myself now huh let's see how this goes it couldn't possibly be as bad as Hasbro's Frogger on playstation right right oh dear lord it better not be oh god I'm scared now why did I say that that's an interesting title screen I like how the options are on the scroll on the right that's kind of cool and the environment here is pretty pretty pretty pretty you know what I meant but I don't know man that's what Frogger looks like in this game that's that's him I guess they did a total redesign he used to be a frog looking frog but now he's like a man looking frog I guess I just wanted to design to more closely resemble that of other platformers at the time so they made a more human-like I understand that decision but this design just looks I don't know it looks something about like kind of like yeah how should I say this it looks like it's from a bad dream or movie I think it's mostly in the expression you know acrost arms a smug face why does he keep sticking this tongue out this it's no stop it's gross oh I got a demon safe I'll did sure that works maybe that'll be telling if what's to come who knows okay we get a pre-rendered cutscene a frog or hanging out in a swamp with his buddy lumpy the toad lumpy the toad looks I don't like lumpy the toad he explains that he's unhappy with living the same old boring life in the swamp after lumpy tries to warn him about how dangerous the outside world is Frogger overhears two children explaining that classic fairy tale of The Princess and the Frog he picked up the Frog frog turned into a prince this gives Frogger a disgusting frog boner is that what he's doing what is his face what is this man I thought Frogger looked kind of weird I swear every character in this game is a damn eyesore a lumpy the toad looks like Jabba the Hutt if he grew like mold and muscle overall next time then and oh my god the human characters don't even get me started I think these are actually the ugliest 3d models of human characters I've ever seen in a ps2 game at least from a triple-a developer like this is putrid looking it looks like a video game adaptation of Angela anaconda except in color and why does this kid sound like tails who are you anyway a goblin oh this kid is tails because of a terrible accident after seeing a shooting star from her wishes to find a princess that he can kiss and become a prince I wish I may I wish I [Music] could go to prison ice like what does that mean what is that supposed to mean don't answer that we all know Froggers been visited by the fairy frog mother who grants him three gifts to help him fulfill his wish he can now see magical things like fairies and whatnot that he can now collect and interact with things that are magical like runes and stuff and he cannot die [Music] no yeah like yeah like frogger was just granted immortality why is this just like a throwaway detail Frogger you cannot die you're immortal you're invincible what I get that this is just like a story reason for why you die and come back you know explaining the game mechanics but I didn't need a story reason to know why Raymond or Mario comes back after you die it just turns it into this a bonkers detail that the plot just glazes over like it's nothing Frogger then sets out on a great quest to find a princess he can smooch with his big disgusting frog lips that's the plot he just learns what a princess is and goes yeah I want that this entitled little frog just thinks he gets to kiss a princess as if anybody's gonna look at his disgusting Shrek look and ask to be like that's hot I don't care if you have magical powers or if you're a mortal or anything like that there's no way anybody is ever going to kiss this freakin abomination and now we can start our quest I didn't have to play the game very long before I started noticing a lot of similarities to Rayman 2 weirdly enough the moves that's almost identical you've got a hover move you can climb up vines and your main attack is a projectile at which you're able to fire at enemies while locked on and you can strafe left and right even the swimming controls are similar this is straight-up Rayman 2 but uh while they copied Ramon's moveset they certainly didn't copy the degree of Polish these controls are not good they're really floaty and can be incredibly unresponsive as sometimes landing on a simple platform is way more difficult than it should be the jump propels you into the air way too high Oh way too fast and the descent after the arc has no weight to it you feel like a dang balloon it's so hard not to overshoot every single thing you're aiming for even with that hover move now right there no come on please I just no I just I just want it can I can I please can I just I just want I just want to get that why is this so come on please this happened so much I really don't like this hopper move actually you know like plenty of games have thought up very creative ways of making your character descend slowly whether it's flapping some wings or a voodoo magic or swinging a character around like a helicopter or helicopter hair even Froggers version of this has some croaking I think that's what he's doing but like like really big and holding it in so he's like a balloon that that floats I think I understand the idea on paper here but this looks really strange the way he has to Crane his head all the way back how he holds his arms back it looks like a phantom from Hell coming to rape your soul or an alien invading it like it's free succumbing to take your toes or something the weird sound it makes really brings that together you know at Globox there's another frog like character that's had a similar animation for the exact same move but it did not look uncanny because they did it at a really goofy kind of way this just looks I don't know man the posture and what he's doing with his throat in that sound effect for it to I don't know it's just really creepy speaking of creepy ho my god dude okay so you know how you like eat bugs to get your health back right because he's like a frog you know you press circle to look up a bug right okay so I press the button so we can look you see a frog goddamn gremlin from hell that's terrifying and even worse there are no moves that even use the tongue at all like the most iconic things a frog can do is hopping around and licking stuff up right they had a move like that in the previous game so why the hell opted out for this you're a frog Frogger act like one the swimming controls are worst of all it really doesn't feel like I'm in control it's more like I'm only suggesting him where to go like I'm steering him in a general direction but won't quite do what I want exactly like the jumping it's way too loose and floaty oh no not this again okay look I just want the coin please can I just can I just swim into the coin is that so much to ask for can I please just do this incredibly basic action without it being a task and a half every time he jumps it looks like he's about to take an explosive dump midair why does it sound like he's breaking his legs every time he lands from any height - no that's just landing sound and you better get used to it because you're gonna hear that non-stop I keep getting stuck on stuff - like it happens all the time and not even just in midair either no I've gotten stuck by literally just walking around I'm not even joking like are you seeing this why does this happen oh and the camera is just as bad as the control sorry it can't go five minutes without clipping underground or getting stuck in a wall or just freaking out in general and the camera controls what camera controls the right stick doesn't even do anything you can click it in to enter a first-person view by elting it does nothing the camera controls can't even be bad because there are none oh no sorry you press the l2 button to recenter the camera that's it that's all you can do this isn't an adventure RPG like Zelda this is a platformer there's faster action here in more vertical movements you need to be able to control the camera I want to be able to look up and down and all around not just zip it in the general direction I'm looking in and what's more the game is combat oh good combat that's something platformers rarely get right I think Rayman 2 and Ratchet and Clank are shining examples on how to do it well but that's because those games understand that combat in a platformer should probably involve the same type of action and movement that platformers are known for otherwise I find the mechanics don't really flow together jumping around to dodge projectiles strafing left and right navigating an open space has to return fire that's awesome the Frogger at least tries to do it that way but they mess it up so bad the first problem and this is hilarious you can't move forward or backward when you're strafing and the enemies don't have projectile attacks either they don't just stand there and shoot at you like in Rayman or ratchet no they're gonna run towards you and since you can't back up the axis of rotation quickly shrinks until you're zipping around in tiny circles and the camera implodes you can also do a generic karate attack which happens automatically when pressing the shoot button if an enemy's close to you but the animations take way too long it's nearly impossible to do it this way without taking any damage yourself there's no rhyme or reason to it the character models just mash against each other until somebody dies you know how like kids smash their toys together to make two characters fight that's the combat there's also these magical runes you can use three in total but they barely do anything you can cast fire in ice to help defeat enemies but I swear it barely helps at all the most efficient way to take out these guys it seems is by standing somewhere they can't get to entering first person then just shooting at them remember oblivion where you could cheese the arena by standing up there and shooting down arrows that's the entire game here I'm not joking some of these enemies are freakin terrifying - I thought the shark from banja was scary but I would have had some serious nightmares if I saw these things as a kid and they're terrifying for the wrong reasons it's not because they pose any threat to Frogger no they're easy as heck it's because they look bizarre and horrible the enemies can barely even land a scratch on you in this game you have so much health and there's not even really any consequence to dying anyway you just respawn nearby without losing any progress at all well progress there's not much progression in this game's levels because the goal of most of them is just so nothing there you do nothing your goal in any given level is always just to find something if some levels are linear with you reaching an end but most levels are fairly open areas banjo and Mario style it's always just a needle in a haystack find this key or find this guy it's usually one of those two and while looking for these does require a solid amount of exploration there's so little to do that you could beat each level in less than 5 minutes if you just know where to go imagine two Mario 64's levels were like okay explore the level and find the one star it's just sitting somewhere oh you found it okay level over that's it that's the old arrested level that's what this game is like the maps feel so lifeless - most of them barely have any NPCs at all to populate the place with some of them barely even have any enemies either instead they just throw frog coins everywhere but these frog coins are perhaps one of the most worthless collectibles on the damn planet they can't give you extra lives you're immortal remember so what do they do well if you've collected enough you can buy some concept art between levels but one look at this game is probably enough to know that the concept art is not worth looking at I don't mean to be rude to the artist or anything but it's not good so you have these gigantic levels with very little to doing them and tons of worthless coins everywhere just to fill the empty space it's like there's barely anything to do here there's barely even any real platforming as some levels have you jumping across platforms but for the most part these levels don't even seem like to have jumping as a central mechanic in mind you just run around and look through the thing it's pretty boring the only level that I thought was sort of neat is this one here where some frankenstein-looking dude kidnaps you and he got to find a secret way out of his castle they find a hidden exit in the room you're stuck in and you changed the time of the great clock to trick the door to opening since it's scheduled to open at a certain time the visual design screens bootleg Rayman 2 the texturing seems to be somewhat similar and it's super vibrant and fairytale-like but the textures are really oversaturated and not very detailed the amount of blinding bright green on the screen at any given time is almost nauseating if the camera didn't make you sick enough already that's gotta be one of the worst waterfalls I've seen on ps2 I mean hell plenty of n64 waterfalls look way better than this oh Lord the fairies oh they look so gross it looks like it looks like something out of Tim Burton movie like an evil henchman character that you're supposed to be disgusted by but no they're fairies here to be magical and fun I hope you like looking at them because you're gonna be doing a lot of it whenever you go to fairy village they're all just standing there in a straight line perfectly spaced apart staring you down Oh what is this supposed to be a cult am I gonna die like what is this you need to give old bruiser some honey at first I don't like that I don't want to have to think about the implications this big ugly blue bear is trying to suggest I swear to God every line of dialogue in this game is written as grossly and as uncomfortably as possible a lot of times characters just say things that make me really uneasy what the hell is going on with the text is freaking out it looks like a like a physics error but it's text how does this happen the enemy dialogue makes no sense you ever have an enemy walk up to you and go hello this guy here's T posing he's coming after me but he's in a T pose they can damage you after you kill them - sometimes I'll kill an enemy and its hitbox must linger or something because I'll take damage even though there's nothing there anymore you're not so tough one thing that really tripped me up was this part right here you got to get a key for this door but after I got the key the door would not open I started to wonder if maybe I missed it maybe I didn't get it but no I did I went back and double-checked yet the door remained locked I ran around in circles for like 20 freakin minutes whatever what the hell to do until I tried mashing a circle button near the door for the sixth time and then voila it just opens it turns out the input is just really touchy you have to be standing in the exact spot and there's no prompt either so you have no way of knowing whether or not this door is supposed to open oh right I forgot to talk about the green rune this one makes you go faster which is actually incredibly helpful because it means you beat the game faster any item that makes you have to play this game for less time is great in my books but not even that can save you sometimes like here why do I have to wait for her to walk this slow why did she take this long why does she take this long why is she taking this long please walk faster walk faster I swear to god I'm gonna blow my own dick off with a rocket launcher the game's got this running gag of Frogger finding a princess just for it to be the wrong one the first princess he learns of turns to be the name of a big boat the second ones a fairy princess and then the princess of the undead I think it's supposed to be an homage to you know your princess is another castle or whatever I guess okay I've cloud on the game long you guys know I tend to be one of the more optimistic reviewers out there I like to see if even the worst of games have at least one interesting idea so let's see what good I can take from this game that's rich coming from even me huh I'm sorry guys I'm really a loss here I really am I really cannot bring myself to say anything good about this game Doug this this boat looks a lot of cool and again this level was kind of cool I don't know this is one of those rare cases it's the kind of game that's so bad there's really nothing that even I can take from this every jump every obstacle every level and BC every line of dialogue it's so consistently unlikable that honestly I'm impressed I really think the only way you can make this game worse is if we're all so frustrating but luckily it's so easy a monkey could beat it there's absolutely zero challenge here it's really boring but at the very least I guess I'd prefer that over it being frustrating but that's also just because I have to finish the game to review it and I understand that perspective is unique for most it's kind of hard to say which Frogger game is worse the one that mechanically functions but is crushingly frustrating or the one that is quite easy to finish but doesn't function properly at all objectively speaking I think the great quest is worse but I definitely had a worse time finishing this one whichever one truly is worse that's up to you so I guess we'll talk about that ending now I'm gonna put up a spoiler warning here as much as I doubt anybody's gonna care but you never know after three dead ends Frogger finally arrives at the castle this final level really sucks everything looks exactly the same it's really hard to navigate and remember that door problem I had before every single door in the castle is also like that again I thought that perhaps I missed something these things would not open I have to revisiting them all for a fourth time mashing away at circle they just decided to open the very final part had you climbing this tall tower which is a fairly cool set piece but it's still pretty damn confusing you'll hop between towers as you find a way to continue ascending but the level is designed to loop around with this deceptive string of coins that leads back where you were before look at that isn't that really inviting the way the castle caves in it draws your attention it looks like that's where you're supposed to go but no if you jump down there you fall into a trap this is where I was before and now I have to spend all the time climbing all the way back up what a pain in the ass the final boss is really bizarre it's this character that's never mentioned or even alluded to the entire game you just show up in this dweeb with glasses you've never seen before is trying to get the princess the whole game there's no main villain but then at the very end it just decides it has one it's so funny because if you think about it this guy's here for the exact same reason Frogger is yet the game she's gonna pretend that Froggers on the right even though he's doing the same thing this boss fight is insultingly easy - he just strafe and shoot and eventually he dies after being rescued she looked at his disgusting Shrek looking ass and goes that's hot and actually kisses him are you joking I'm sorry but I don't buy it it's the most plot convenient crap ever but then again if humans all look as ugly as this they probably wouldn't have terribly high standards yeah I know I know this happened because Frogger wished for it but man I don't know I just really did not want this entitled disgusting little frog to get that kiss he just decides out of the blue that he gets to be a prince he doesn't earn it there's no character development through this plot no he just decides he gets what he wants and the writers go yeah I hate it think about this - like Mario saves people out of his own desire to do good right but Frogger no he wished for the situation he had to deliberately put somebody in danger to save them and even then he's only saving them to get what he wants not because he actually cares about people need a rescue that is pretty selfish what an unlikable character man it was bad enough that he's annoying and uncomfortably strange the entire game but once I really put some thought into his motivations I realized that it's kind of messed up after the credits we see snippets of Froggers new exciting life battling foes and saving the day again and again which I admit is sort of a nice way to show that in the end he really did get the best out of his wish no idea why is a frog again though Oh was the kiss only temporary did he turn back into a frog I did the princess marry him in the Frog forum I don't even want to think about it and that is Frogger the great quest this game sucks like it's terrible top to bottom there is nothing good about this game which honestly is something I'm having a hard time comprehending usually I can find something but not here well at the very least I guess I could say it falls closer into the so bad it's good category similar to Sonic oh six you know the kind of bag that's fun to laugh at you could play through this with some friends over and I could see you having a good time laughing at all the glitches and the bad writing I guess of my tone throughout this video was telling if anything it's that I didn't have an awful time playing it it is a horrible game but it did get some pretty good laughs out of me this game is pretty worthless too it is dirt cheap so it's the kind of game we're gonna be at a pawn shop of the Buddy you're both gonna see it for five bucks in the shell if you're gonna look at each other you're gonna go oh no we gotta play this dude but of course as a triple a video game this is downright unacceptable Konami should feel embarrassed honestly they must have been a laughing stock for releasing this this game is Frogger and name only it has nothing to do with the series it doesn't even have the same look or feel or even a single move even remotely similar to the old games take a look at pac-man world it is a rebooted version of that series that plays very different but there's still tons of stuff there to remind you that it's pac-man they figured out how to make the dots work what to do with the ghosts how to implement the fruit all of the trappings of classic pac-man are there they're just recontextualized to make sense as a platformer but this doesn't resemble Frogger even in the slightest you could replace this character with literally anybody and it wouldn't make a difference the only thing connecting this to the series is that truck on a shirt a little nod to the original but not enough to call this a Frogger game if you want to play the real Frog or three plays a purr I reviewed that game a couple of years ago and while I did enjoy it my verdict at the end of the day was that it was simply a Frogger clone but and now that I have the context for why it's a Frogger clone it turns out that it wasn't really clone after all in a sense it kind of was the real Frogger all along this is an all-time low for the series it's pretty much the Sonic o-6 of Frogger it really is but uh luckily it's only up from here the next games will return to the tile hop and gameplay from before which good thing too because swampies revenge left me wanting a whole lot more of that next time we'll be taking a look at the Game Boy Advance Frogger games including the port of the great quest there's whole world the portable Frogger games out there and I am so ready to hop on in so we'll see you guys next time with temple frog of the lost one and more [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Nitro Rad

Views: 544,741

Keywords: nitro rad, review, frogger, the great quest, frogger the great quest, bad games, platformers, reboot, terrible reboots, frog-fu, konami, ps2, playstation, rayman, immortality, frogger game, platformer games, gross, bad frogger game, pac-man world

Id: --90BUxq_Nw

Length: 24min 46sec (1486 seconds)

Published: Sat May 23 2020