Frogun (PC) Review

A Froggy good time.

 

 Frogun is a charming little game released this year from indie studio Molegato. It follows a young girl who must rescue her parents by exploring huge and mysterious ruins. Frogun started as a crowdfunded game and one that recently caught my attention with its bright art-style and me being a fan of platformers, I had to check it out. So is the game any good? Let's find out.


 Frogun follows Renata, daughter to her explorer parents who've gone missing for days after venturing into a mysterious ruins. It's up to Renata to save her parents using the titular "Frogun", a frog-shaped gun that grabs and spits anything it touches. Along the way, she'll explore surprisingly varied ruins with traps in store and meet the likes of treasure hunter Jake, who aims on hogging the ruin's treasure for himself. The story was a decent one with likeable but one-note characters, though there are hidden notes which fleshes some of them out. 

Explore some perilous, but treasure-packed ruins!

 Frogun is a 3D platformer where you control Renata as you navigate the ruins with the Frogun. You'll be beating a bunch of bug-themed enemies and solving light puzzles to advance the stage. The controls are simple with you jumping and aiming the Frogun with analog stick or mouse to choose your desired object and attacking enemies with it. Gameplay doesn't evolve much over the adventure as I feel that unlocking new abilities would've made kept things feeling much more interesting. Thankfully, the boss fights offer a degree of challenge with you memorizing patterns and using the gun to your advantage.

The gameplay is simple at first, but
gets a nice bump in challenge.

 Levels are compact in nature but are dense with with platforming segments that'll make use of the Frogun, as well as a bunch of enemies to beat. There's collectables in the form of notes from Renata's parents detailing their adventure in the ruins, hidden gems that unlock health upgrades, and coins that you'll need to buy new hats. The levels were neatly designed and were fun to zip through-- the races with Jake were especially fun as you must find quick shortcuts to win. You can even speedrun levels in hopes of getting the fastest time in speedrun mode as well. The game is a short one taking around 5-6 hours to beat and for the $15 price it's a good deal, considering it'll last you much more if you're aiming to 100% it.


 Frogun packs colorful and cheery visuals that instantly strike an impression (you'll either like it or not). It's reminiscent of the early cel-shaded 3D graphics of the PS1 era with Mega Man Legends as an inspiration-- which I like. The game ran smoothly on my PC despite some slowdowns and there are a bunch of filter options if you're looking to invoke an old-school look. The cheery soundtrack was good and was pleasant to listen to since there are no VA. Some great tracks were the intro theme, world theme, and Jake's theme.

The presentation looks great,
considering it's made by a small studio.

 All in all, Frogun was a solid game and a great time for platformer fans. While I wished that it offered more, the gameplay was simple, original and fun-- especially with the race segments and boss fights. The presentation was equally great as the visuals give it a unique but familar look and the soundtrack being catchy. If you're looking for fun little platformer to enjoy, then give Frogun a look.