Frogger 2 Text Review

Frogger 2 Review Sega Dreamcast

Frogger is one of the most recognized figures in gaming. Many people still remember playing Frogger for the first time at the local arcade. So, in 2000 Hasbro Interactive and Atari decided to team up and make Frogger 2: Swampy’s Revenge for the Sega Dreamcast, the sequel to 1997’s Frogger on the Playstation. And while the gameplay has changed a bit, it is still Frogger, and even now its guaranteed fun.

When the game first loads, you are greeted with bright colours and very nice graphics with a well crafted menu screen, where you must actually hop into what game mode you wish to play. What are the game modes you may ask? There is story mode, retro mode, and multiplayer. One more thing I must add before going into the review, the whole game has a very nice techno soundtrack and great graphics accompany the game the whole way.

So first off there is story mode. The story in this game is just Swampy the crocodile snags all of Frogger and his wife’s babies, and they have to go after him. Not original, but who goes into Frogger looking for a story? Story mode gameplay is you basically hopping from one end to the level to the other like in the original, but rather than being one small map, the levels are very large, and each of the 5 baby frogs as checkpoints. There are 3 difficulty levels, but all they do is affect starting lives, to be more exact, 7 lives for easy, 5 for normal, and 3 for hard. I wish they could have done more with the difficulty than just lives, but that doesn’t matter. Anyway, along each path to another baby frog, you must hop your way through volcanoes, space, a haunted mansion, and more! But the real difficulty isn’t in beating the game, it’s getting all 25 coins in each level. To get these coins you have to go out of your way and face even more danger, and you have no hints to where they are. By collecting all 25 coins, you get new Retro levels and multiplayer characters. Overall, the initial story mode may be easy, but getting all the coins will take some time.

Next you will notice the Retro mode. This mode is just different takes on the retro style of Frogger. The graphics put you right into the arcade cabinet, while using the new style of frogs. The level designs are very unique as well. One level has you fighting your way through oncoming traffic, and another level is entirely water-based. The goal in each level is not only to get to the end, but to beat the best time. The time limits are perfect in my opinion, every time I finish I barely have 5 seconds left on the clock. After you get the high score you can also enter your name so you can try to have your friends beat your time.

Finally this game has multiplayer for up to four players. There are three types of modes. The first mode is much like the retro mode, first to rescue 3 out of 5 frogs wins. And here is the problem. Even with 4 players, the game expects you to somehow get 3 frogs of your own. This make for some very long matches. Another bother in this mode is you can step on your opponent’s head, making them immobile and makes for some cheap deaths. The next mode is sort of like story mode, where everyone just hops up until one gets to the end. Unlike retro, this mode is actually possible to win at in under an hour, and is very fun to play. The final mode is much like snake or Tron’s light cycles, where each frog tries to kill the other frogs with their tail. This mode is very fun, but sometimes the Dreamcast’s D-Pad likes to fake you out, resulting in some cheap deaths. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, this game is D-Pad only.   

Overall, Frogger 2 is a very enjoyable game, and people of all ages will love to play it. With story mode offering an addicting collect the coins side quest to unlock new content, the retro mode packing in retro gameplay with all new twists, and the multiplayer making for some great Friday nights, this game is an absolute must for the Frogger fan out there.

Overall

Gameplay: 9/10 Very addicting and fluid like the original, but controls sometimes result in cheap deaths.

Graphics and Sound 8/10 they suit the game very well, but nothing memorable

Replay Value 9/10 there is so much to do in this game; you won’t get bored for a while.

Multiplayer 6/10 Very fun in short bursts, but you’ll probably just pop in Chu Chu Rocket after an hour.

Originality 10/10 the greatest take on Frogger ever imagined

Final Verdict: 9/10 this is a must have hidden gem for your Dreamcast collection.

Reviewed by: AJ Ryan (Metroid0070)