Ribbit King is based around the sport of Frolf, which is basically golf but instead of hitting golf balls you use frogs. This game is just as ridiculous and amazing as it sounds. Before playing Ribbit King I had thought Mario Golf was crazy but this takes the genre to a whole new level. There are several different ways to score points and make combos on your way to the hole. Countless possibilities for legitimate moves make for excellent multiplayer. Whether you're playing with friends or working through the wacky story mode you're bound to have a blast. Lets look into detail on everything thats make this the fantastic experience it is.
Your goal in Frolf is to get your frog in the pond while scoring as many points as possible. This is where Frolf really differentiates itself from golf. The number of strokes it takes you to get in the goal is important but it is often possible to get more points elsewhere by taking a long route to the goal. Every map in this game is completely littered with opportunities to score points. By having your frog swim through water, eat flies, and bounce off of trampolines you can score extra points. If you manage to chain together different things each new things will increase the multiplier for the next item up to times four. However once you hit you frog what is does it out of your hands so its important to look for a good spot to aim that lends itself naturally to combos.
If the gameplay is base of this delicious cake the story mode and it's cut-scenes are the icing. The story is broken up into two chapters and in each the totally hopeless king begs Scooter (That's you) to save the planet. Scooter is chosen to play Frolf because he's the planets only carpenter therefore he at least has experience swinging a hammer. On your journey to become Frolf champion and get the Super Ribbonite need to save the planet you'll come across a host of weird competitors. You have a kung-fu Panda (this was before the movie!), a ditsy princess, a wind-up robotic penguin, and a host of other misfits. The few cut-scenes scene through-out the story are all quite amusing if not just plain ridiculous.
The story is fun and amusing but multiplayer is where Ribbit King really shines. Its such an easy game to learn that anyone can jump right in and have a good time. Also its so unpredictable at times of what will combo together that a new player does have an honest chance to top a more experienced player. The core gameplay is so fun you could honestly just have fun playing solo just trying to set high-scores and finding ridiculous combos. However, the computers AI is mostly make enjoyable rivals. The AI can both spot unnaturally great combos while at the same time be so dumb they can't shoot up a hill. Its a wild balance that actually comes together decently well to make for a reasonable difficultly level.
As soon as I started playing Ribbit King I honestly felt this game was made just for me. It has personality and charm you'd expect from a weird Japanese game with its colorful visuals and silly story. However, the key to what makes this game so great is the wonderfully designed gameplay. It a near perfect combination of luck and strategy like what you would expect a great boardgame. This makes for a superb multiplayer experience yet its so fun and unpredictable one can still easily enjoy its single-player campaign. No matter how you experience Ribbit King this game definitely needs to be on your gaming bucket list.