Frogger is one of the most recognizable games on the planet. While not quite as famous as Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, it nevertheless has made a lasting enough impression in its arcade heyday to be "up there" with the VIPs of the gaming world. 

Despite this, however, the series hasn't been quite as exploited as its peers, and certainly hasn't had a high profile outing in quite some time. Unlike Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, Frogger is a name that has never been mentally associated with anything other than the original arcade title, due to his subsequent games' failing to make any impression whatsoever. 

So, if we can say one good thing for Frogger 3D, it's that it keeps up tradition.

Frogger 3D (3DS)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released: September 20, 2011
MSRP: $29.99

Frogger 3D faithfully builds itself on the core of its famous ancestor, putting players in control of a frog that hops along an invisible grid and charging them with the task of avoiding cars, snakes, pits, and other deadly forces in order to reach a goal. It's a simple and timeless formula, but naturally Konami has plenty more to add. 

Each stage must be played three times, with the goal moved to a more difficult location each time. Starting on the second turn, coins also appear dotted around the level, providing an optional challenge. Each goal must be reached within a time limit, and some stages have regular appearances by huge trucks or car chases to keep things extra dangerous. If the frog is squashed three times, the stage is lost and needs to be started again from scratch.

In several stages, our heroic frog has access to "friend" frogs, which grant temporary bonuses if he hops on their back. The "Vore" frog will eat tomatoes, opening up new paths, while the "Big" frog can leap across obstacles otherwise inaccessible to smaller amphibians. 

Frogger 3D's biggest problem is that its stages generally come in two varieties -- boring and annoying. The boring levels are simply retreads of the classic "hop from A to B while avoiding cars" dynamic, which is about as compelling as the original arcade game -- inoffensive, but hardly amusing. The annoying levels try to be more gimmicky but invariably fail due to these gimmicks' adding nothing but frustration. 

Such contrivances include a slot machine that spits out coins -- coins that are indistinguishable from the pile of gold you're hopping across, so you can't see what's coming -- and trucks that randomly speed across roads, crushing any player who wasn't clairvoyant enough to get off the road in time. Many of these gimmicky traps come without any warning whatsoever and are fully intended to kill the player the first time around. In games specifically built around death as a mechanic -- platformers like Heart of Darkness or Limbo -- this can be an endearing trait. In fact, the varied and brutal deaths are often amusing in themselves. In Frogger, where you're plodding a small frog along a map, only to be boringly squished, it feels like a massive waste of time. 

Some of the ideas truly are clever, but it takes only a few seconds to realize that clever ideas don't always make fun games. For example, there are "boss" stages that make innovative use of the core Frogger gameplay, but they rely on repetition and take far too long to deal with. Yes, it's "smart" to have the frog push a trolley of spikes along a street to puncture a truck's tires before it speeds in from the background. However, it's a chore to do that four times in a row. It feels like work, not a game. 

Not all the ideas are dreadful, and a few cool enhancements do pop up. This mostly concerns the aforementioned ally frogs, who can be rather fun to use. There's even a "Metal" frog that can smash cars out of the way -- although staying near them too long will kill your frog in a resulting explosion. Walls that can be climbed and can allow the player to jump greater distances provide some deeper puzzling elements as well. 

The graphics also actively contribute to the challenge, and only in negative ways. The skewed perspective of Frogger 3D often makes it hard to accurately judge where danger is coming from or where it's going to land. Sometimes, the game actively exploits this, changing to an even more skewed, almost isometric angle just to confuse and annoy. Levels that would be too easy rely on bad graphical design to artificially keep things tougher. But again, the alternative is to present a level normally, which would make it simple and weary. There's never any middle ground between insultingly easy and insultingly annoying.

There's a multiplayer mode, but it's not online because this is the year 1992. There's also Endless Frogger, which is the classic arcade title stretched across an infinite map. Unsurprisingly, this is the best part of the game, since old Frogger is better than any of the new stuff. 

I tossed the game aside when I hit the aforementioned coins stage, because Frogger 3D is a fool's errand of a game that often relies on cheap ambushes to be challenging but remains utterly tedious when it tries something less surreptitious. It has a handful of interesting ideas, but none of them work well enough to create an engaging videogame, and everything else is just old school Frogger with graphics and perspective changes that nobody asked for.

It's a shame because the first few stages are relatively cool and present a lot of promise. It's also not badly made, just designed poorly, with a lack of charm and character to make up for it. Perhaps the frustrating stages could be more easily forgiven, or the tedious stages more easily slogged through, if there was any humor or character in there, but this is not the case. It's just a very drab, mediocre game, spiked with moments where one wants to throw the 3DS on the floor.

Perhaps the worst thing about Frogger 3D, however, is that it could have been on a cellphone rather than sold as a $30 game. Given that its longevity is mostly made up of stages that repeat themselves, that the gameplay input is simplistic, and that the core mechanics are considerably shallow, there's really nothing that should have stopped it from being released on iOS or Android platforms. The only thing that justifies its place on the 3DS is the fact that it has "3D" graphics, but I turned those off because they make the game's traps even harder to gauge. When your big selling point detracts from the enjoyment of your product, you're in trouble.

Developers need to be more careful when creating handheld titles, because the market has changed so much. A game like Frogger 3D would have been acceptable five years ago, but with mobile games easily able to offer their own arcade experiences, it's not good enough to throw up something like this and expect to be taken seriously. Hell, this game doesn't even look very good, with boxy graphics and zero visual effects. To say it could be on a mobile phone isn't rhetoric -- it's a straight fact. 

Ultimately, Frogger 3D is a game with nothing to offer the world but boredom and irritation in equal measure, and isn't worth playing even for those who are desperate to flesh out their 3DS library. 

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Sir Tobbii

Aww, I was hoping this would be good.

LegendPenguin

Score for the toiletries?

FireFox516

That header image is fucking hilarious. I can't stop staring at it.

Chris Carter

That's sad. Tak Fujii has been talking this one up for months.

@Legend
3/10

Kickastronaut

3/10 for TE.

Bulkmailer

The GBC one sucked too.

PappaDukes

So it's worse than Gears 3 ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

amtalx

You got this game for free didn't you, Jim? BUY YOUR GAMES, YOU CORPORATE SHILL.

themizarkshow

Another 3D flop... looks like a trend is developing.

tuoman

Would you buy it for $2.00?

AlexMorgaen

Awwww, but Tak "One Mirrion Troopssss" Fuji kept going on about this on his Twitter and he had me sold

Tyson The Tool

Jim Sterling - laying down the law one shitty game at a time

quantumcatphd

Maybe this is a good thing. It might be the first drop in a flood of shovelware to be ported to the 3DS. That would increase the 3DS's library manyfold!

RockWallofMight359

I get the feeling you would have been just as critical if they had delayed this long enough to make it a better game.

Mr Andy Dixon

I just came here to say what PappaDukes said :)

Perfidious Sinn

Looks so much worse than Frogger: He's Back! on the PS1.

Which, as you know, is the greatest 3D platformer of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNtkMmYkiZs

DrRockso87

Wait, Frogger? FROGGER?! This was actually in development as a $30 3DS title? I mean, sure, there's... 3D and probably some nice levels but I can play the original Frogger at work right now for free. Why the hell would people pay $30 for this?

acetated

Alas, poor Frogger, I knew thee well...

One of my first gaming memories before even SMB... Talkin bout dat C64.

YouWithTheFace

i got and am currently enjoying it along wit crafting mama and kirby
review is 3 for the mobile users btw

Corduroy Turtle

You guys ever notice how games rated below a 5/10 never have a .5 attached to them? It seems like review scores get less specific the lower they are.

jawshoeuh

is this game about French people? ho ho ho

Scissors

@Konami

This could have been on the eShop. Currently the only other game on 3DSWare game is Let's Golf. You're game would have stood out more, and probably sold better at a lower price point. This game is destined to clutter up bargain bins everywhere.

Laharl-KOTNW

Only 5 points lower than GOW, not bad.

LegendPenguin

@Mag - Thanks!

lateralest

It really sounds like crap.

Darren Nakamura

Not surprising.

PixelKnot93

Not surprising. ;/ It looks terrible.

The fact that Swampy's Revenge on the PS1 has better graphics is a dead shame.

TheLupineOne

Not buying this any more. Alos, who wants to buy a game about eating tomatoes unless it's Kirby?

xxbrothawizxx

Still waiting for the real games coming in November and beyond....

free touch

i was actually looking forward to this... and will still probably get it sooner or later... Frogger is a good time waster... and good "in between SF4 matches" waster.

DerfelCadarn

Y'know, the Frogger game for the Dreamcast was surprisingly decent, with some damned entertaining multiplayer as I recall.

idontcare444

Sounds like maybe your not too good at Frogger, I'll buy it, love this games and I liked the last outing of the franchise, bought it on WiiWare, kind has the same flaws as this one, I'll still enjoy it,

What no Seinfeld reference ?

tmsmyth4

Jim you're just bitter you had to pay real money for this game ;) Money earnt from writing this < money spent on frogger 3D, unlucky!

Dvazquez5138

Dvazquez5138

Ive learned not to pay attention to any review done by Jim Sterling. It's all about bashing with him. Furthermore, this game is actually pretty fun to play, not deep unsurprisingly but a nice way to waste some time.

Joey Crump

sorry, but this review is bull. first, let me pose one thing that was glaringly obvious and frankly retarde.
"I tossed the game aside when I hit the aforementioned coins stage,"
Don't see it?
"I tossed the game aside when I hit"
See it now? No?
"I tossed the game aside"
Hmm. Well, this stupid reviewer failed to mention that this is literally about a third of the way through a game. A THIRD. Call me old-fashioned, but isn't it kind of stupid to "review" a game you HAVEN'TACTUALLY FINISHED? Yeah, sure, you can play through half a game and get an idea of how you feel about it. but quite frankly, reviewing a third of a game is complete bullshit. you, sir reviewer, are an utter moron who should not be reviewing games. as a game, it gets much less tedious further in the game. but you wouldn't know that, would you? No, you're too busy reviewing games you've barely played. well done, good sir. well done. for everyone else who's commented here, please know that this is an awful review. this game is not the best ever, but it is nowhere near as bad as this moron who calls himself a journalist would have you believe. the "skewed perspective" happens in maybe two or three levels, and isn't hard to get around, either by turning on the 3d or memorizing the stage a little bit. you know, like we do when we play pretty much any platforming game ever. it honestly sounds like you just weren't good at the game, threw it down, and wrote a rage-review. Destructoid, why, WHY do you still have this man on staff? Seriously, this is one of the stupidest reviews i've ever read. other glaring idiocies present:
"Unlike Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, Frogger is a name that has never been mentally associated with anything other than the original arcade title, due to his subsequent games' failing to make any impression whatsoever. "
this is a false comment, and shows an entirely too obvious lack of research. i admit not many frogger games have been well-known, sure, but some =/= none. the frogger games for the playstation and dreamcast were both well-recieved and remain to this day the most popular games. by the way, as an aside, this is more opinion than anything but i feel reviews should be written in an unbiased tone. reviews, believe it or not, are NOT there to bash a game or to gush. they are there to inform people of a game's quality, THOROUGHLY, so they can be assisted in making a purchase decision. this review is horribly skewed and biased. just saying. next! "Such contrivances include a slot machine that spits out coins -- coins that are indistinguishable from the pile of gold you're hopping across, so you can't see what's coming" first of all this statement is actually false - in the two or three levels that involve coins the backgrounds are bright white, and the coins are both easy to see and patterned. skewed opinions are one thing, but flat-out LIES? shame. "and trucks that randomly speed across roads, crushing any player who wasn't clairvoyant enough to get off the road in time." you say this as though it's in every single level. funny thing is, it's literally only in the first world. Interesting. Wonder why you didn't mention the more clever traps later on in the game? OH WAIT. "but they rely on repetition and take far too long to deal with." if three minutes is "far too long" then you literally should never play a video game, ever. seriously not a single level in this game takes longer than three minutes unless you mess up, and then it's YOUR fault, not the games. "In Frogger, where you're plodding a small frog along a map, only to be boringly squished, it feels like a massive waste of time. " actually there are a majority of unique death animations for many of the obstacles, in addition to the (not mentioned at all! hey look more bad information) achievements of sorts you get for them which are frequently amusing if not funny. But you wouldn't know that, would you, mr. "i only play through a short bit of games before i make an official review" guy? "The boring levels are simply retreads of the classic "hop from A to B while avoiding cars" dynamic, which is about as compelling as the original arcade game -- inoffensive, but hardly amusing." by your logic here, every platformer ever is "jump from a to b" and every shooter is "shoot guy a, turn corner, shoot guy b" yes, at the core, that's what we're doing, but it's HOW that's varied that makes it interesting. same thing applies here. usually there is 1 (out of 10 or 11) level per world that is classic-y, and each one has a new twist. "There's a multiplayer mode, but it's not online because this is the year 1992. " hey look how informative this sentence is!!! except wait it literally doesn't tell us anything about the multiplayer god freaking forbid a person should want to play locally. "oh it's not online so WH O GIVES A CRAP" is NOT, i repeat, NOT an informative statement, just saying, man.
"if there was any humor or character in there" oh hey those achievements are at least an attempt at humor. oh and the many deaths of frogger. oh and also the random wtf moments. but wait, you wouldn't know about those since you only played through 1/3 of the game. oops, sorry! "Given that its longevity is mostly made up of stages that repeat themselves, that the gameplay input is simplistic, and that the core mechanics are considerably shallow," hey look you just described literally EVERY PLATFORMER EVER MADE. moron. "When your big selling point detracts from the enjoyment of your product, you're in trouble." and uh...who exactly said 3d was frogger 3d's big selling point? maybe it's the return to classic gameplay, varied level design, or first legit portable frogger game in forever? Nah, definitely not. tl;dr, this man is a moron and should not review games. also, on a somewhat ironic note: "With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty" uh what are you arguing exactly? also it sounds like you specifically make your reviews controversial. seriously? how freaking old are you? like, 13? a review shouldn't be about being different. it should be about being informative. pricks like you give journalism a bad name. "dedication to brutal honesty" oh so saying things about a game you didn't finish is honestly? well, f*** me i've been doing it wrong all my life. "Likes PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3" WHY THE HELL ARE YOU REVIEWING A PLATFORMING GAME. Honestly, this game isn't that good, and i do at least agree that the graphics really aren't anything special, but come on. You're just a horrible reviewer. Learn to journalism, man.

Nightsama

The likelyhood of anyone actually reading this is low, I just thought it was a travesty that someone could actually type of such a huge wall of text to defend this game and not be ridiculed for it.