Pros: I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this here Frogger game. Frogger gameplay is so simple, but if made well, can feel so snappy and satisfying, simply by moving from square to square on a grid. That movement is the basis, the foundation of Frogger, basic grid movement, and maps designed around that to traverse in, so it shouldn't be too hard for the developers to make a quality little game... But they've screwed up plenty of times before, but not the case here! Movement feels super snappy, doing long jumps to land on moving platforms feels correct (which isn't always the case in other Frogger games either) and there's plenty of platform puzzles and moving obstacles to manage yourself around in brain tingly satisfying ways. It's like each little stage is its own mini Zelda dungeon. This frog's still got it!

You got six worlds here; jungle, snow, volcano, haunted, future, and MAGIC!! With a storyline involving a couple of magician brothers trying to find a wand or some sort of whatever, not the most compelling aspect, but, it is cute and charming, and Frogger himself even has a bit of simple dialogue that I wasn't bothered by, in fact, this version of Frogger is probably my favorite, particularly his simple and clean green character design (Frogger has been through so many different designs... wish this one had stuck). And yeah, each level, as said previously, is actually pretty competently made, has you moving every which way as each zone introduces new mechanics and stage objects for you to interact with in some way. Frogger has the ability here to whip his tongue forward, which can grab collectibles, or even pull in platforms closer to yourself to jump on, standard stuff, but a satisfying tool in your belt. Another godsend mechanic, which I figure was introduced long before this title, is being able to rotate Frogger in place, either clockwise or counterclockwise, to better position your tongue lashes or your long jumps (jumps that skip a square... man, Frogger is kinda like REAL-TIME Chess in a way, isn't it? Heh...), and thank god the Game Boy Advance features L and R buttons, because I wouldn't have wanted a Frogger game like this without them, feels natural, feels right. Anyhow, satisfying little game, and there's even a couple boss fights that I enjoyed plenty, particularly one that had you jumping on piano keys to repeat the notes played by your opponent, I dunno, it's just fun being a frog jumping across piano keys, haha!

Cons: It's short, but one of those games that doesn't overstay its welcome. And there are little things here and there, like some graphics and colors in the background that clash and make it difficult to distinguish exactly what's going on, it can cause a death or two. Also some of the sound effects can be annoying, the GBA sound system doesn't do this one many favors. And in general, there's a lower budget vibe to this, but hey, they gave it their all and made one of the best Frogger games out there, at least from what I've played!

What it means to me: My brother and I were gifted this game one year for Christmas by our stepmother, and like... that was weird, our step mom never got us games? Maybe this one was on sale or something, or maybe they recognized Frogger from the arcade days, so assumed it would be good. Well, I'd say they lucked out, and you know what, so did my brother and I!! This game turned out to be extremely solid! Simple frog game where the main gameplay is hook... you move around! Turns out you don't need much more than that.

this was something completely out of my wheelhouse both in genre/as a Frogger game and as a sequel in an offshoot within its series. it's always nice to branch out though and i'm glad i gave this a look.

the shift towards puzzle platforming or even adventure tinged gameplay was an interesting move and made sense when attempting to modernize the series at the time. the addition of boss fights sounded nasty in concept but i was pleasnatly surprised with the execution. i enjoyed all of them except for the memorization based rhythm one.

difficulty curve was all over the place after the first two worlds but it never became prohibitively difficult, thankfully. still, some of the platforming involving moving platforms can go to hell.

was wavering between the 3 i gave this and a 2.5 but went with the higher score as this was such a pleasant surprise. will dip my toes in with the other GBA Frogger games at the very least (if not more) as they also seem to be along these lines.