Kero Kero King (ケロケロキング) is the predecessor to Ribbit King, developed by Amedio and published by Media Factory. It was released exclusively in Japan on 2 November 2000 for the PlayStation.
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This is a brilliant game. It's not perfect, in that it can be quite slow to progress and require repeat attempts, and the final opponents are very very difficult in the old school Japanese gamer way. But today you can play with emulators and save states and have a less frustrating time in the final half of the game. It's just wonderful and they don't really make them like they used to.
oh my god the world so dearly needs a major league sport with rules so nonsensical that quite literally anything can happen during every single play
im pretty sure if they released this outside of japan there would have been more than one murder over it
its like the exact middle point of "weird japanese ps1 game made by people who barely know what vidoe games are" and "weird cd rom experiment made by people who barely know what software is" except it also plays great and feels very fully formed
I'm a real patsy for games headed by quirky artists with no background in games development. They're frequently very shallow, and lack the engagement of those built off the back of rapidly-promoted programmers and project planners. My continued support of Keita Takahashi is evident of this.
Yosuke Kihara is less of a familiar name, but he's just the same as your Rodney Greenblats and 326s. Some wee guy sewing toy reproductions of famous album artwork and constructing ukelele dogs. He's also the lead figure behind cult PS2/Gamecube frog/golf title Ribbit King, and the preceding Japan-only PS1 game, "Kero Kero King".
Ribbit King is a very likeable and daft wee game. You take turns launching frogs off seesaws until you manage to land them in a hole on the other end of the course, for a "FROG IN". This is the sport named "Frolf", popular on the planet Hippitron. It's a much less predictable sport than Earth's "Golf". Your frog can land in flowing rivers, on bouncy spiderwebs, get bitten by snakes, or land in any number of other strange hazards. Simply said, it's not a game you play with skill and intent, but a sense of humour. It's a total crapshoot, and inherently much, much better enjoyed as a two-player than attempting to make your way through the campaign.
This applies far more so to Kero Kero King. It's a rougher, more naively designed game. Holes are often placed atop mountainous peaks surrounded by hazards, and the small degree of control you have over the game is much less reliable, with a jerky response on your swing meter. If you get anything less than a perfect shot, your frog will practically strafe in the air to avoid your target. Kero Kero King is very keen on penalising you, often in drawn-out, aggravating ways that send you right back to the start of the course. You will sweat blood and break furniture. This ain't your granny's Ribbit King.
I don't want to write off the game completely, though. It is incredibly cute. Dialling back on the polycount that Ribbit King players have grown familiar with is a start, but there's less of a space between the artist and the game overall. Characters are flat sprites, with geometry reminiscent of 90s graphics software (i.e. I think they were drawn in Microsoft Paint). There's a kind of awkward, unintuitive charm to the menus and overall presentation. The loading screen is a little cartoon frog hopping along. I really, really like it.
But then, there's actually trying to make progress in the game. Being torn apart by bullshit, like Sarah Connor holding onto the fence. I think of myself as a fairly patient person, but Kero Kero King has absolutely broken me. I can't take the humiliation of seeing my frog smack against a wall and swim back to the start of the course, over and over again. This can't be how I wilfully spend my free time. I can't ever let myself choose this over RK. (also, I've just realised the acronym for this is KKK, and that's pretty fucked up)
Never let me play this again. If you have to start a full scale intervention, I will thank you for it.
However, if you want to go for a two-player on this, we'll probably have a very funny night.
Yosuke Kihara is less of a familiar name, but he's just the same as your Rodney Greenblats and 326s. Some wee guy sewing toy reproductions of famous album artwork and constructing ukelele dogs. He's also the lead figure behind cult PS2/Gamecube frog/golf title Ribbit King, and the preceding Japan-only PS1 game, "Kero Kero King".
Ribbit King is a very likeable and daft wee game. You take turns launching frogs off seesaws until you manage to land them in a hole on the other end of the course, for a "FROG IN". This is the sport named "Frolf", popular on the planet Hippitron. It's a much less predictable sport than Earth's "Golf". Your frog can land in flowing rivers, on bouncy spiderwebs, get bitten by snakes, or land in any number of other strange hazards. Simply said, it's not a game you play with skill and intent, but a sense of humour. It's a total crapshoot, and inherently much, much better enjoyed as a two-player than attempting to make your way through the campaign.
This applies far more so to Kero Kero King. It's a rougher, more naively designed game. Holes are often placed atop mountainous peaks surrounded by hazards, and the small degree of control you have over the game is much less reliable, with a jerky response on your swing meter. If you get anything less than a perfect shot, your frog will practically strafe in the air to avoid your target. Kero Kero King is very keen on penalising you, often in drawn-out, aggravating ways that send you right back to the start of the course. You will sweat blood and break furniture. This ain't your granny's Ribbit King.
I don't want to write off the game completely, though. It is incredibly cute. Dialling back on the polycount that Ribbit King players have grown familiar with is a start, but there's less of a space between the artist and the game overall. Characters are flat sprites, with geometry reminiscent of 90s graphics software (i.e. I think they were drawn in Microsoft Paint). There's a kind of awkward, unintuitive charm to the menus and overall presentation. The loading screen is a little cartoon frog hopping along. I really, really like it.
But then, there's actually trying to make progress in the game. Being torn apart by bullshit, like Sarah Connor holding onto the fence. I think of myself as a fairly patient person, but Kero Kero King has absolutely broken me. I can't take the humiliation of seeing my frog smack against a wall and swim back to the start of the course, over and over again. This can't be how I wilfully spend my free time. I can't ever let myself choose this over RK. (also, I've just realised the acronym for this is KKK, and that's pretty fucked up)
Never let me play this again. If you have to start a full scale intervention, I will thank you for it.
However, if you want to go for a two-player on this, we'll probably have a very funny night.
We really did not deserve Yosuke Kihara. And he left promptly after Ribbit King was done to go continue exploring other mediums for his art. With the way a round of Kero Kero creates constant giggles and surprises, along with the art and UI being a goopy joy I feel a simultaneous joy and depression with each time I play Kero Kero King. It's a feeling that is so happy to hit the frog again, but knowing that there won't really be anything like it again.