Fugdale’s Funhouse

Review: Everyone from my generation will remember the arcade classic Frogger. This game reached the peak of popularity in the 80’s when all the kids used to pump their allowances into the video arcade machines instead of towards the latest Xbox release. The object seemed simple enough. Move your frog from the bottom of the screen, through 4 rows of traffic and across 4 rows of floating logs into one of the 5 lily pads at the top of the screen. If you managed to get all 5 lily pads filled, you would progress to a more challenging level.

However, if you played at all like I did at that age, you rarely, if ever made it past level 2 or 3, because the game packed quite a challenge. So, now that we have reached the age where these classic arcade games have become quaint and antiquated, along comes an all new take on Frogger. In this version you don’t get the bird’s eye view of the traffic, but you must still use the same controls to accomplish the same task from quite a different perspective.

You start in front of several rows of moving obstacles and must move through them in a 3D environment. As you pass a row of traffic or floating logs the row in the foreground becomes opaque so you can still see what lies ahead, but now you can’t always see what objects will come moving in from the sides of the screen as easily as the original game. As you move side to side, the screen scrolls with you giving you different vantage points. Although you might assume the new version would provide you with more sophisticated controls along with the updated visual effects, you would assume wrong. Your frog still jumps quickly in one of four directions and you will have just as much of a challenge getting him across without him splatting or drowning as before…if not more so.

Despite the modern feel, the game still has all the charm of the classic version and having it in 3D now allows new players to experience the challenge for the first time.