The Frog Detective dropped into game pass and more than a couple of sites referred to it being something along the lines of a “cult classic” or a “fan favourite” title… having played it I must have really, really missed something along the way here… unless “cult classic” is a term given to a game which provides an easy 1,000 Gamerscore these days (in which EastAsiaSoft have been releasing updates to “cult classics” rather than “blatant shovelware” for years) or I’ve just missed something huge.
There will be spoilers here… if you intended to play if for the easy 1,000 then you’ve probably already played it, if you haven’t played it these may save you 2 hours of your life that could be spent playing something more worthy of your attention.
February 1st
From the outset this is as basic as they come, there is nothing in the game that couldn’t have been done on a first-generation PlayStation or Nintendo 64… not only are the graphics incredibly basic, it’s all first person so the level of animation needed during gameplay is minimal.
It’s also incredibly easy… A needs object B, C will provide B if you can find D and give it to E so they will give you… and so on, it becomes one large chain of fetch quests, in a usually very small location with a cast of animal-based characters.
There is an element of humour to the game which, it turns out, is the sole reason for sticking with the game through the three cases on offer… three cases that apparently were originally released as separate instalments, all bundled up together in this Xbox release.
Case 1 sees you sent to an island to solve the mystery of a ghost haunting the residents, once you’ve established that the ghostly sounds are coming from a cave you have to collect the items need to make dynamite (which include Gold and Pasta apparently) you blow the cave open and discover what is making the noises… and that’s it… really, that’s all there is to it.
In this case that Character B had entered the cave to practice in secret for a dance contest, and the noise of their radio is funnelling through the cave system which sounds like ghosts to the characters outside.
End of case and there’s a long scene, of said dance contest, interspersed with the credits… and it’s onto the next case.
Case 2 is in the woods, and a party/parade for a new resident has been vandalised and nobody knows who it was, repeat the same process as before… collect object A for character B and so on, which leads to the discovery that the parade was destroyed by the new resident (an invisible witch) who had lost their glasses and was fumbling about… case closed, long scene of a new parade, credits… case closed.
Case 3 is in the wild west where someone has stolen all the towns hats, repeat process as you find object A to give to… you know the drill… it’s dumb, so simplistic that it borders on barely doing anything at all, and almost feels patronising by the end… as you solve the crime and find the hats the only twist of the game is revealed.
Throughout the game you’re referred to as the Number 2 best detective around, behind Lobster Cop… seems Lobster Cop has spent too long enjoying the stardom and has been lax on the crime solving side, and has gotten worried that with Frog actually solving mysteries, he’ll lose the Number 1 slot so has framed Frog for stealing the hats.
The case ends with Frog locked up for a year in the Bad Room in the Sherriff’s office with just a computer to spend his time on, as he posts the story on his blog, a character from the first story sees the injustice and helps him out… Lobster Cop is fired and goes to work in the post office, the Number 1 crime solver position is now free… only to be filled by Mystery Monkey from the haunted island who discovered the set up perpetrated by Lobster Cop to frame the Frog.
Case over… cut scene, credits… end of title.
Now there is simple gameplay and there’s mindlessly simply gameplay… were this aimed at kids then fine, but it’s not (as far as I can see) and it feels cheap, this is truly a Crapfest title in disguise… it’s only the humour which drags it above what I’d describe as “Gamerscore fodder” that we see being given 6 monthly “updates” to add another 1,000 to your score.
Even then, the humour grows old in Case 2, the interruption in each by the developer explaining that what Frog is saying isn’t strictly true, is obviously going to happen in every case… and stops being funny in the second case.
You could argue that playing all three cases back to back to back isn’t really how they’re meant to be played, but even if you had no idea what you were doing or had never played a game before, you could complete all 3 inside a couple of hours… on their own it’s barely 40 minutes play which would leave you feeling cheated… like Jusant this is a title I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for… it ended up with a score of 53% boosted by the humour.