This game dares ask an age old question. What if those 2 PSOne Frogger games that were kind of neat were actually really boring and bad? That's Zapper. Ironically this game is said to have been a failed pitch for a 3rd entry in that Frogger series, but ended up being rejected. The graphics are actually pretty good for the time, and I enjoy the soundtracks odd, but fun Technobeat vibe, but the game sorely needed a 2nd pass at level design. The first world isn't so bad, but the moment you hit World 2 it all goes downhill. Excessive enemies, pinpoint platforming, and tight corridors all make for the rest of the game that becomes a complete slog to get through despite the fact that the game can be completed in 2-2 1/2hours. Your better off playing just playing Frogger 2: Swampys Revenge instead.

My understanding of Zapper is that it was made because the studio who made Frogger 2 wanted to make another Frogger game but didn't get the rights. Zapper is basically Frogger 3 because of this, and my God is it fun. It's quick and super easy to get a grasp on. Enemies move when you do for the most part, which makes some sections into quick puzzle platforming, but in a different way than the rest of the game is a quick puzzle platformer. The levels are fairly short and have a few secret rooms that bump up the challenge. The difficultly of the game comes from how snappy some of your decisions have to be combined with solid jump timings. I will say that sometimes I wasn't sure if a space was a bottomless pit, or if a specific tile was safe, but the game gives you plenty of lives to mess around with and continues don't really hinder much in terms of progress because of how short the levels are. Lives systems are generally shit, but Zapper's didn't bother me enough for it to be worth complaining about.

I don't know if I just didn't see an intro cutscene or if I should've read some back of the box stuff, but I had no idea of the story of the game until the final boss. I didn't know why I was collecting bird eggs/slightly hatched birds, until I found out in the last 5 minutes that a bird in a science place(?) kidnapped my brother. Still don't know why I've been collecting bird eggs this past hour, but after beating the game I've deduced that Zapper just wanted to watch TV with his brother, and I think that makes Zapper one of the most relatable characters in video games.

An unofficial sequel to Frogger 2 by the devs of that game, Zapper is a fun and short... platformer? Frogger-like? Something along those lines. Some creative level themes, pretty tight controls (not exactly helped by playing on a gamecube controller), and some good music that you can jam out to with the dedicated antennae movement thumbstick (which serves no gameplay purpose, it's sick). My main complaint is with eggs, the main collectible, sometimes being hidden inside crates or other breakable objects, causing you to have to sometimes backtrack through a level to get them unless you're very meticulous with the locate button. There were also a few times where more natural looking platforming areas that don't adhere to the grid made it confusing where you're supposed to go or if you could make a jump. Also while the music is good most of the time, there are a handful of levels where it's replaced by barely noticeable ambient music. It feels like they ran out of budget for that partway through or something, which would fit with the game overall as it's very short. Still a fun time overall though, an easy recommendation to fans of Frogger 2, and if you haven't played that game you should go check it out as well.

This is one of the first games I ever had memories of playing a lot when I was little, mostly because of the easier accessibility, having access on a computer with this installed, instead of a more classic console.

Zapper is a Frogger clone (so much of a clone that even the title is a little too on the nose) starring a cool design for a protegonist: A cricket that uses his antennas to camputer fireflies and emit electricity, solving puzzles and taking down enemies... that is a cool concept even for a pokemon, and I feel his design got stuck in my head for years because of it.

Though in terms of the actual game.... yeah this is kind of a janky Frogger-like experience: short in lenght, a bit too clunky and slow in terms of controls, and wuth a perspective and level design that sometimes doesn't clarify the platforms you can reach and the ones you can't.

Another thing that can be controvertial and stuck with me, is the overall tone of the game: the aesthetics are nice and with kinda unique settings in jungles, ancient temple, wood factories and SPACE (why?), but the game can result a bit too... graphics, surprisingly enough.
Zapper can die in many ways, and most of the time you will see it's corpse chopped in half by an axe, it's skin burned alive or it's body drowning in a kind off disturbing manner..... not to mention that one you defeat enemies you will often see either their interior splattered on the floor or their literal skeletons (even though they are bugs and they shouldn't have one).

Overall I remember having some amount of fun with it: the levels can be nice to navigte and the final boss is a surprisingly fun challenge (even though the final shot of him sees the camera ZOOM INTO HIS MOUTH AND THROAT, MAKING YOU SEE THE WHOLE INTERIOR OF THE BODY AND EXITING FROM HIS BUTT).

Overall I got some nostalgia for this title, but I am not sure I will recommend it today, unless you like the idea of a Frogger game with a more unique tone.

(Also Zapper is a a***ole: he literally uses his younger brother larva as a TV antenna by tying him to the roof of his house..... kind of a stinky bug)

L2AGO #15

More or less the spiritual successor to Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge, Zapper: One Wicked Cricket has you playing as this leapy electric cricket hopping through various ecosystems and environments to get his other buggy friend back so he can watch TV after his friend was kidnapped by a vulture or something... I think there's a plot to this whole game. Anyways, my friend Silverhand's more or less covered the main flaws so I won't go into too much detail regarding that; my favorite parts would have to be the simple yet satisfying laser puzzle solving in one of the end game levels (in general, adding the wrinkle of an electric attack to break down obstacles was a nice touch) as well as the entire purpose of the right joystick serving as a twirly antenna controller, reminiscent of the quack button in Duck Game. Speaking of which, I appreciate that there's this layer of satire that's taken farther than Frogger 2 through dumb enemies (the "ghost" enemies with a sheet and two cut-out eyeholes + red sneakers got me good) and exaggerated deaths; Zapper gets fucked up like Crash Bandicoot when he meets his demise, and it's all in great fun. There's also a late game level that's very similar to those 3D tunnel snowboarding minigames from the Sonic franchise, which was a nice diversion though I do wonder why there's only one of those levels, and plopped at the end to boot. I think the only other complaint I'd have to add onto is that you will need to be using the antenna detector a fair bit to make sure you're not missing the often hidden eggs, otherwise backtracking to previous sections when you often can't scroll the camera to see what's behind you is pretty obnoxious; this also applies to needing to backtrack after getting charges from collecting fireflies to open up blue boxes, though fortunately you don't need to care too much about that unless you want to unlock special cheats. Overall, I enjoyed my sparse time with Zapper as a pretty organic follow-up to Swampy's Revenge and would love to see more of these goofy kinds of sweet & short action adventure traversal games with light puzzle elements.