By Molly Dunn
Assistant City Editor
So there’s this video game where you hop a frog across the street in an attempt to round up all the baby frogs. It’s a simple concept. It’s an addicting game. It’s “Frogger.”
Throughout the 1990s, I spent most of my time playing “Frogger.” While all my other friends played “Super Mario Brothers” or “Sonic the Hedgehog” (both great games), I enjoyed hopping my green frog across the streets and rivers. I enjoyed floating across sinking turtles and lily pads. I enjoyed everything about “Frogger.”
I can still imagine strategically working my way across the street as speeding blue and red cars drove by, trying to maneuver through floating logs and avoiding landing on a crocodile’s head. Each level brought new excitement and always guaranteed a rush of adrenaline.
Although it’s been a couple of years, I could probably pick up my Play Station controller and remember all the secrets and tricks it took to finish the game.
“Frogger” was originally released as an arcade game in 1981 and has since seen various incarnations developed for nearly every notable video game console, including “Frogger 3D” and “Frogger 2: Swampy’s Revenge” for the Sony PlayStation. In 2006, “Frogger” was ported to the Xbox 360 as a game on the Xbox Live Arcade.
It’s a shame games like “Frogger” have seemed to disappear among all the new “hip” games of this generation. Whatever happened to racing your brother across the streets and laughing hysterically when an 18-wheeler smashes him? Some of my greatest memories as a child involved this little green frog.
As pathetic as it sounds, I miss “Frogger.” If my dusty PlayStation still had life in it, I would definitely play “Frogger” any chance I could get. Now, I guess the only place to play this classic game is in movie theater arcades or on a low-quality website, but it’s just not the same.
For those of you who miss that little green frog and wish you could hop through “Frogger” world one last time, I feel for you. Maybe one day we will all realize how amazing “Frogger” was and still is and we can bring it back for one last hoorah or ribbit.
Reviews in the Lariat represent only the viewpoint of the reviewer and do not necessarily represent those of the rest of the staff. If you are interested in writing a ‘Great Video Game’ piece for the Lariat, please email us at lariat@baylor.edu.
