It’s arcade star Frogger’s 30th anniversary, and Konami is celebrating with a new Frogger game in full 3-D for the Nintendo 3DS! Help Frogger cross the road, avoid cars, and other three dimensional obstacles all with classic simple arcade gameplay.

Frogger 3D has a slick cartoony urban setting. Even the menus have a creative city look to them. For instance, you select your file by picking a hot dog from a hot dog truck! From there you can choose to play the single player game, wireless local multiplayer, a neat “Forever Crossing” mode that we’ll get to later, activate StreetPass (not sure what you get, probably other players’ scores), and Options.

The single player mode is the main meat of the game. Guide Frogger through more than 50 stages. Each has three goals on the map for you to get to, each progressively tougher than the last. Frogger mostly crosses roads filled with cars, but occasionally he’ll have to hop through a casino, climb a skyscraper, or defeat a giant mac truck boss. Gameplay is kept very simple, you just hop up, down, left, or right. No tongue powers or special hops like past Frogger updates. There are power-ups in the form of friend frogs you can piggyback on temporarily, though. Some include a metal frog which is impervious to cars, while the giant frog can smash through any obstacle and crush any enemy.

Coins are scattered about each level, and if you collect enough, you can buy new game modes. Also, as you play, you’ll earn ‘achievements’ for doing things like completing a level without losing a life, hopping on manholes, and other crazy tasks. As you earn these, you’ll unlock concept art and other goodies.

I’m not sure how the multiplayer plays or what StreetPass does here, as I don’t know many people with a 3DS. But the Forever Crossing mode is pretty neat. It’s designed to look like the old classic Frogger, except you endlessly hop over roads and rivers, trying to get as far as you can with one life. I kind of wish the classic arcade Frogger was on here, though. You CAN play a smidgen of it when you first turn on the game at the intro, but after you reach the goal, a truck runs over the arcade machine (I had a Seinfeld flashback right there, did anyone else cringe when that happened on the show?). There is a spot on the menu that’s nothing but “???” however, I don’t know how to unlock whatever it is. MAYBE that’s where you can play the arcade game, but who knows. I think it should’ve been available from the get go in the first place.

Frogger 3D can be a little frustratingly difficult at times, and even though it’s cheaper than most other 3DS games, it’s still a bit pricey for what you get. And the 3-D graphic effects don’t enhance the game much. However, there’s still a good amount of content here, plus they kept the classic arcade gameplay mostly intact, so fans of Frogger may still want to check this one out anyway.

Kid Factor:

Frogger 3D is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Animated Blood and Cartoon Violence. Poor Frogger does get run over, squashed, and tossed at the screen a lot, but I really didn’t see any blood. Maybe some green squishy guts, which I do think counts as ‘blood’ in the ESRB’s eyes, though. No reading skill is needed, as the arcade gameplay is kept very simple. But young players and less experienced gamers may get frustrated at the steep difficulty, which is a shame because classic arcade games are great for young kids to cut their teeth into otherwise.

Tags: Game Reviews