Frogger: The Great Quest

Frogger: The Great Quest

Whose idea was it to suddenly turn Frogger into a humanoid pirate frog?

Genre(s):	Platform
Platform(s):	PlayStation 2 Microsoft Windows
Release Date:	PlayStation 2 NA: November 18, 2001 EU: May 24, 2002 Microsoft Windows NA: September 14, 2002
Developer(s):	Konami Papa Yeti Studio
Publisher(s):	Konami
Country:	United States
Series:	Frogger
Predecessor:	Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge (by release date)
Successor:	Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog (by release date)

Frogger: The Great Quest is a 2001 platform game developed and published by Konami of America in association with Papa Yeti Studio for the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. The Game Boy Advance version was also released, but is a separate game.

Gameplay

Frogger: The Great Quest is a platform game aimed at a young audience. The objective is to lead Frogger across a kingdom in search of a princess. There are hints hidden in each level, on how to complete it. Bonus score can be achieved by collecting coins and gems, and there are stones that give activated abilities. There are enemies in the levels, that Frogger can kill with a melee attack or a ranged attack. Frogger can jump, and when in the air can glide by pressing the jump button again. Frogger can also swim.

Plot

Frogger's quest for a princess begins when he hears about a frog that was turned into a prince by kissing a princess. First he chases after a rumour of a river princess, which turns out to be a boat. Then he finds his way to "Fairy Town" where he is given 5 tasks he must complete to be allowed to meet a fairy princess.

Why It's An Ugly Frog

Insanely ugly graphics and visuals that can be compared to budget games released in the late 1990s on older systems, since the graphics have horrible color palette and also are undetailled to the point of making it look worse than some PS1 and Nintendo 64 games, games such as Rayman 2: The Great Escape look better than this and it was on the PS1, N64 and Dreamcast and the game came out in 1999, 2 years before this game came out.
- The biggest examples of the unappealing and grotesque designs for the characters, like Frogger's ugly redesign and there are other characters that look frightening.
- The textures are also really unfinished and ugly looking too, sincd they lack colorful colors and also are undetailled and feel like it came from a PS1 game due to how bad it is, this is not helped by the horrendous lightning.
- The characters models are also terrible, even for a 2001 game, and almost feel like bootleg characters rip-off from some other franchise, especially the characters other than Frogger, such as the kids that feel like they we're rejected from shows like Horrid Henry (which ironicaly was released later than this game).
The controls in this game are some of the worst of the franchise, as they are not only extremely bad and clunky, but they also are a huge mess, meaning that you would have no idea of what you were doing, which itself is already a major red flag since this is a platformer and good controls in a platformer is mostly needed for making them good, or at least making them not bad.
- Speaking of that, the controls are really terrible since they are very clunky and unresponsive, which isn't surprising considering how badly this game was programmed and also made.
- The platforming sections are horribly bad since they are hard to get though because of the fact that the controls are so bad that it is counky and that sometime, the platforming sections are almost impossible to do without difficulty, this is mostly the reason why this game is so bad in the first place and also why it feel unplayable to play.
The camera is really bad even for the time the game was released, since it is extremely troublesome to move and feel like it wasn't finished, and also feel like they took Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon camera and make it much worse than it already is, un which that game was also developped by Konami (Mystical Ninja is an amazing game, howewer).
- Not to mention that the camera could maybe make the game harder (even though it is easy) and could cause some cheap deaths at times, especially if there are enemies that are behind you and that the camera move in the worst time possible.
The voice acting and dialogue are repetitive, cringe-worthy, annoying, and sometimes laughable. Frogger's voice doesn't fit his character at all.
- In one part of the game, when Frogger battles against Dr. Starkenstein, the latter says at one point says "Okay, this is pissing me off!". Just to mention, this is said In an E-rated game made for children.
- In the beginning cutscene, there is an infamously bad moment when Frogger says "Find me a princess before I bust!!" when he wishes to find a princess for himself. This is a kids' game and lines like that are extremely suggestive.
The character Frogger was flanderized beyond recognition and now became a really annoying character that feel like he could been in shows like Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon or Modern Family Guy, due to how bad he was flanderized here.
- The main reason why his character suck here is mostly because he is obseded with the goal of kissing a princess to become a prince to live happily forever, while it isn't really a horrible thing, that doesn't fit the Frogger character at all, but this isn't the worst part of his character.
- The worst part of his character change is also the fact that he say many innapropriate things for a E-rated game, such as "Find me a princess before i bust", this is also the reason why not only this version of Frogger is so much hated but also the game itself, not to mention that nowadays, Frogger is mostly remembered because of this game, which had nearly destroy his reputation as a character.
Speaking of the cutscenes, while the game's story is coherent, it is very stale and predictable, and is very bland, it is also a huge downgrade from the previous games.
- The writing makes Frogger come off as a selfish-minded hero who wanted to put the princess in a situation and he still expects to earn a kiss from her despite setting up the conflict, yet the princess still thinks he's actually attractive when Frogger defeats the final boss. If the game was written better, the princess wouldn't actually be into him.
You attack enemies by spitting or using frog-fu at them instead of just simply jumping on them, which doesn't even fit the Frogger franchise at all.
Speaking of the way Frogger attack, the combat in this game is extremely terrible, since the combat is mostly based on luck and also, it is extremely bland and boring at the same time, jumping on the enemies would had been better.
- Also, the combat is horribly unresponsive to the point of making it one of, if not the worst combat system you will ever see in a game, sometime the attacks take 4 seconds just to do one punch, we are not making this up!
The music, while actually good for the most part, is not even fitting.
The game does not even feel like a Frogger game. It feels like a cheap and generic three-dimensional platformer game with the Frogger character thrown into it, which in itself isn't a bad thing except for the fact that Frogger is not himself in this game.
- On terms of that, Frogger's redesign, as stated above, looks terrible. In the original games he was an actual frog, while in this game he's an anthropomorphic animal that wears clothes and speaks in natural language instead of croaking.
It is so painful to play that there is no replay value at all, and even if there's would be some replay values, you might never come back to this game after you beat it.
The game is very easy, as it was aimed toward younger gamers. It is also possible to beat the game without taking a single hit, no, we really aren't joking.
- Another thing that make this game really easy is the fact that there is a huge number of shortcuts, intentionnal or not, this would also make the game shorter to beat as stated before.
- Some of the levels are actually easier to finish when you play with the glitchs than playing normally, for exemple in level 3 you can just go to the pirate ship and doing a jump to going higher in the board, without even collecting the keys, this make the levels way shorter too, as stated before.
The Microsoft Windows version does not allow you to change the graphical quality or resolution.
The game is very short, as it can be beaten in two hours if you are smart or patient enough.
The number of glitchs in this game is really awful, since at times you might be stuck in wall, had some textures being glitchy, or even some massive shortcut that will make the game shorter to beat and finishing faster a level.
Occasionally, you can get stuck in sections of a course, which forces you to reset your console or close the program on your personal computer, depending on which port you play.
It's not even possible to collect all the coins, gems, or even all the magic stones in the game because of where they're hidden in some levels such as Slick Willy's River Boat, The Catacombs, and Goblin Trail.
In the Catacombs level, you can't kill ghosts, but they can kill you.
Overall, this game had decent concept but was horribly executed and nearly destroyed the reputation of not only Frogger himself but also the entire franchise, since nowadays the franchise is mostly remembered for this horrible game and not the 1981 original game or not even any other 3D games except maybe the PS1 duology, the reputation of the franchise would not be redeem until the release of Frogger Beyond, which was at least a decent game and saved the franchise.

Redeeming Qualities

The soundtrack is pretty good, despite not being that fitting.
Lumpy the toad makes his debut and would return in Frogger Beyond.
It has its "so bad it's good" moments, especially in the hilariously bad cutscenes, the voice acting and the game's glitches that bring so many moments that are so stupid, corny, and awful that it's funny to laugh at.
The Game Boy Advance separate game based on this game, while mediocre, is actually better than this game.

Reception

Frogger: The Great Quest received extremely negative reviews and is considered to be one of, if not the worst Frogger game ever made and also one of the worst game of all time to the point of sometime being compared to other notoriously bad games such as Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and even Bubsy 3D, the game got a score of 32/100 on Metacritic for the PS2 version.