So, I haven't finished this game yet. I don't know if I ever will, I always strive to finish every game I buy, let alone review, but this one...this one might fucking kill me if I have to play even one more second of this miserable, horrific little mistake of existence. This score is locked in and nothing the game can throw at me past the point I've played will ever change my mind.
This is the worst game I've ever played, in my entire life.
I want to say that this game was a gift from a dear friend, and I hope they don't get the wrong kind of idea or hold any guilt; I saw the game and footage of the first few levels, thought it looked great, put it on my wishlist, you know how it goes. It was entirely my own judgement and if you're reading this, please don't feel responsible in any way bestie <3
But, this game is like a fucking anglerfish is what I'm saying. Cute low poly aesthetic, nice character designs, fun sounding gimmick - what could go wrong? The borderline aneurysms I had trying to navigate the twisted, logicless grids of these abhorrent worlds say it all.
Every single fundamental rule of game design has been violently obliterated here. The core gimmick is borderline useless within the first world. Renata, the protagonist, only has one speed: SLOW. Waddling around at a very modest pace, the only way to make her move any faster is by grappling onto a surface with her titular frogun. Unfortunately, aiming it is just the worst fucking thing ever.
The gun only fires forward in a straight line from where Renata is facing. There's actually a button you can hold down to aim in a 360 degree fashion, but the vast majority of platforming is done in mid-air, where this function flat out does not work. So you instead have to manouvre Renata around in mid air in a circle, and chances are that you have to do this in less than a second due to breaking or moving platforms that result in instant death if you're a frame too slow. Argh.
This game just desperately wants to be its own Kaizo hack past world 3. Insane precision platforming in a game that controls about as well as a drunken gorilla in an ice rink leads to a world of agony and disaster. The devs make you go to ridiculous lengths to manage one-in-a-million jump timing, hitting switches, and if you fuck up along the way, you have to do it all over again when you respawn at a checkpoint.
Writing this review is hard because all I feel right now is boiling rage. Utter contempt and hatred for this miserable wreck. I swear, the amount of basic game design rules that the devs have failed to understand, I genuinely think it was intentional that they set out to make this game as bad as it could possibly be. Combat is a nightmare too, it's either as simple as pointing your gun at an enemy (and praying that it's aligned correctly and won't send you careening into a pit) and shooting, or getting fucking juggled by enemies that are inexplicably impossible to jump on or grapple onto without taking damage. The logic of the game is completely inconsistent, and feels like they make it up as they go along.
What else is there to even talk about? The music is utterly whatever, only memorable because of the total absence of variety in tracks. Boss fights are fucking nothing. Dodge incredibly basic and boring attack patterns for what feels like forever, then hit them when they inexplicably become dizzy.
Also, don't talk to me about the fucking races. Just a load of shit trying to outrun someone who can skip entire sections of the level, but balances it out by taunting for long enough for you to catch up. It feels barely thought out and poorly incorporated into the core gameplay.
Frogun is a masterclass in deception, and how not to make a 3D platformer. I don't have a single nice thing to say about it beyond anything on the front fucking cover. Dark Souls fucking wishes it broke me this badly. Completely miserable experience, and one I'm sure won't get any better in the sequel.
Seriously, a sequel to this shit. What a world we live in.
This is the worst game I've ever played, in my entire life.
I want to say that this game was a gift from a dear friend, and I hope they don't get the wrong kind of idea or hold any guilt; I saw the game and footage of the first few levels, thought it looked great, put it on my wishlist, you know how it goes. It was entirely my own judgement and if you're reading this, please don't feel responsible in any way bestie <3
But, this game is like a fucking anglerfish is what I'm saying. Cute low poly aesthetic, nice character designs, fun sounding gimmick - what could go wrong? The borderline aneurysms I had trying to navigate the twisted, logicless grids of these abhorrent worlds say it all.
Every single fundamental rule of game design has been violently obliterated here. The core gimmick is borderline useless within the first world. Renata, the protagonist, only has one speed: SLOW. Waddling around at a very modest pace, the only way to make her move any faster is by grappling onto a surface with her titular frogun. Unfortunately, aiming it is just the worst fucking thing ever.
The gun only fires forward in a straight line from where Renata is facing. There's actually a button you can hold down to aim in a 360 degree fashion, but the vast majority of platforming is done in mid-air, where this function flat out does not work. So you instead have to manouvre Renata around in mid air in a circle, and chances are that you have to do this in less than a second due to breaking or moving platforms that result in instant death if you're a frame too slow. Argh.
This game just desperately wants to be its own Kaizo hack past world 3. Insane precision platforming in a game that controls about as well as a drunken gorilla in an ice rink leads to a world of agony and disaster. The devs make you go to ridiculous lengths to manage one-in-a-million jump timing, hitting switches, and if you fuck up along the way, you have to do it all over again when you respawn at a checkpoint.
Writing this review is hard because all I feel right now is boiling rage. Utter contempt and hatred for this miserable wreck. I swear, the amount of basic game design rules that the devs have failed to understand, I genuinely think it was intentional that they set out to make this game as bad as it could possibly be. Combat is a nightmare too, it's either as simple as pointing your gun at an enemy (and praying that it's aligned correctly and won't send you careening into a pit) and shooting, or getting fucking juggled by enemies that are inexplicably impossible to jump on or grapple onto without taking damage. The logic of the game is completely inconsistent, and feels like they make it up as they go along.
What else is there to even talk about? The music is utterly whatever, only memorable because of the total absence of variety in tracks. Boss fights are fucking nothing. Dodge incredibly basic and boring attack patterns for what feels like forever, then hit them when they inexplicably become dizzy.
Also, don't talk to me about the fucking races. Just a load of shit trying to outrun someone who can skip entire sections of the level, but balances it out by taunting for long enough for you to catch up. It feels barely thought out and poorly incorporated into the core gameplay.
Frogun is a masterclass in deception, and how not to make a 3D platformer. I don't have a single nice thing to say about it beyond anything on the front fucking cover. Dark Souls fucking wishes it broke me this badly. Completely miserable experience, and one I'm sure won't get any better in the sequel.
Seriously, a sequel to this shit. What a world we live in.
Reviewed on Apr 25, 2023
15 Comments
Aw man, I mean, other people seemed to like it, but reading this and knowing it's so slow and the controls aren't great kinda kills all the interest I had for this game. Oh well, at least it looks pretty.
Still, amazing review!
Still, amazing review!
The controls were fine. Game is slow paced, but with how versatile the Frogun itself is, you can blitz through stages if you know what you're doing, sometimes in seconds flat. Bosses were okay, nothing outstanding, they did the job.
I do agree on the difficulty spike in the latter half of the game where some levels were pretty pinpoint precise on what you have to do, but its stuff I eventually go through. And I played on the Switch version which I'd easily say is the worst version of the game due to its performance (its been improved but still).
Genuinely don't know how anyone struggled this much on the game, most of the ire I seen it get is from people that very cleary don't want to understand how it works or they went into it expecting Crash Bandicoot or Mario for some reason.
I do agree on the difficulty spike in the latter half of the game where some levels were pretty pinpoint precise on what you have to do, but its stuff I eventually go through. And I played on the Switch version which I'd easily say is the worst version of the game due to its performance (its been improved but still).
Genuinely don't know how anyone struggled this much on the game, most of the ire I seen it get is from people that very cleary don't want to understand how it works or they went into it expecting Crash Bandicoot or Mario for some reason.
Also yeah, the race stages aren't great. I always glitched or skipped Jake in them just so I can nab all the collectibles without having to worry about him LMFAO its really easy to do. Racing him normally was alot more of a shitty time when the game launched cause he'd damage you instead of just bumping you.
Anyway, glitchhunting and speedrun tech was my main appeal with the game even with 100%ing it. It was fun seeing what I could break and what I could skip in the levels with the Frogun's abilities, just made me hark back to the GCN era where I always glitchunted stuff too and the speedrun tech feels so satisfying to pull off. Its definitely a game that could've used more polish and tweaks to be tighter, but I highly disagree on it being the worst thing ever. I've played worse and downright horrible games, Frogun ain't one of them. I do hope the sequel can improve upon it's flaws though.
Anyway, glitchhunting and speedrun tech was my main appeal with the game even with 100%ing it. It was fun seeing what I could break and what I could skip in the levels with the Frogun's abilities, just made me hark back to the GCN era where I always glitchunted stuff too and the speedrun tech feels so satisfying to pull off. Its definitely a game that could've used more polish and tweaks to be tighter, but I highly disagree on it being the worst thing ever. I've played worse and downright horrible games, Frogun ain't one of them. I do hope the sequel can improve upon it's flaws though.
I understand having issues with the game but... honestly a lot of this seems like you struggled to get ahold of basic features. One thing I would recommend is turning on the angle locking. Navigation is much easier when you're locked to angles when aiming. In regards to combat, the enemies move in very set patterns so you can avoid them by staying out of their paths.
While yes, the latter half of the game does get hard, that's generally how difficulty progression works. There are some still tough parts sure but nothing that isn't insurmountable.
I get being frustrated but I feel like your frustration has completely colored your perception of the game into something it really isn't, and you likely kept playing and playing without taking a step back thus further distorting the game in your eyes.
While yes, the latter half of the game does get hard, that's generally how difficulty progression works. There are some still tough parts sure but nothing that isn't insurmountable.
I get being frustrated but I feel like your frustration has completely colored your perception of the game into something it really isn't, and you likely kept playing and playing without taking a step back thus further distorting the game in your eyes.
why did my frogun take of all things lead to this -
@DemonAndGames I will admit that I have some degree of bias here, obviously I still wouldn't recommend the game under any circumstances but don't let my take be the sole one to judge it on
@WaffulSyrup The controls (at least, the default ones and the only ones I was aware of) are not fine lmao, manoeuvring Renata to face one of 4 specific directions in mid-air is just torturous. Honestly, the main source of horrible controls tends to regard aerial movement given how damn slow she is on the ground. The fact that you're only allowed to miss two mid-air shots before the grapple just stops working entirely is another thing that just breaks it. I spent 11 hours trying to get to grips with this damn game, and I draw the line there before my blood pressure kills me. When the game's not trying to do the hyper frame perfect aerial bullshit, the speedrun shortcuts can be fun to exploit, I agree, but the mandatory precision segments in a game where the control scheme directly contradicts twitch-gameplay shit ruins any goodwill I could've possibly had.
@Mirby You know what, I'll try that angle locking thing, but the fact the default controls for turning and aiming are so poor in a game that demands hyper-fast aiming is just too damning for me to look past. And I took a step back, I took several steps back, only to return after a lengthy break and find it to be even worse than I remembered every single time. I'm frustrated because the game is not very good. Is it objectively better than I gave it credit for? Perhaps! But I stand by my opinion of it because this game was just an endless source of misery for most of those 11 hours and if a game illicit that reaction, it's probably because it's not very good. These were my honest, genuine feelings after a significant amount of time giving this game chance after chance, and it consistently let me down. Don't take this personally, because I can see you're a big fan of this game, and I am entirely attacking the game here.
@DemonAndGames I will admit that I have some degree of bias here, obviously I still wouldn't recommend the game under any circumstances but don't let my take be the sole one to judge it on
@WaffulSyrup The controls (at least, the default ones and the only ones I was aware of) are not fine lmao, manoeuvring Renata to face one of 4 specific directions in mid-air is just torturous. Honestly, the main source of horrible controls tends to regard aerial movement given how damn slow she is on the ground. The fact that you're only allowed to miss two mid-air shots before the grapple just stops working entirely is another thing that just breaks it. I spent 11 hours trying to get to grips with this damn game, and I draw the line there before my blood pressure kills me. When the game's not trying to do the hyper frame perfect aerial bullshit, the speedrun shortcuts can be fun to exploit, I agree, but the mandatory precision segments in a game where the control scheme directly contradicts twitch-gameplay shit ruins any goodwill I could've possibly had.
@Mirby You know what, I'll try that angle locking thing, but the fact the default controls for turning and aiming are so poor in a game that demands hyper-fast aiming is just too damning for me to look past. And I took a step back, I took several steps back, only to return after a lengthy break and find it to be even worse than I remembered every single time. I'm frustrated because the game is not very good. Is it objectively better than I gave it credit for? Perhaps! But I stand by my opinion of it because this game was just an endless source of misery for most of those 11 hours and if a game illicit that reaction, it's probably because it's not very good. These were my honest, genuine feelings after a significant amount of time giving this game chance after chance, and it consistently let me down. Don't take this personally, because I can see you're a big fan of this game, and I am entirely attacking the game here.
Sounds annoying AF, used to follow the twitter account of the dev prior to release and even wishlisted it, but a mixed rating on release on steam triggered my "oh this shit is probably buggy AF I'll come back when its fixed". I guess that wasnt the problem though lmao
I watched a mutual play this last summer for the steam fest thing, and it looked like a tribute to those mediocre licensed platformers on PS1. I'm actually more interested after this review, lol.
@LordDarias So like, at launch there were a lot of other little things, like the fact that you'd lose all collectibles since your last checkpoint if you died, among other things I don't immediately remember. They made some changes based on feedback, though it's kinda hacked together in a way that you can tell it was post-launch if you're told about it. But yeah, built on a broken base as it were. Maybe they're actually going to have applied what they learned in the sequel, who knows?
@Vee it's so deceptively normal at first argh like - it's incredibly easy and nonchalant to start with and - argh. I can't endorse paying for the experience by any means, at the very least, but if it peaks your curiousity...
@Vee it's so deceptively normal at first argh like - it's incredibly easy and nonchalant to start with and - argh. I can't endorse paying for the experience by any means, at the very least, but if it peaks your curiousity...
This comment was deleted
@Mattt to be fair it was the longest review I've seen of the game on here I just happened to see it last night lmfao. It was the first one I seen that wasn't bitching about it not being like Crash cause again most of the ire I've seen this game get is about what it isn't instead of criticizing what it does. A ton of steam reviews did the former at launch outside of the bug reports which I felt wasn't fair to Frogun at all. It wasn't trying to be like Crash, or Mario, etc. It just took on an aesthetic and did its own spin on a collectathon.
I can't recall Frogun throwing that much pinpoint precision moments at you on a whim, it definitely did that in a late game level where you had to grab spiders, that's the most the game ever frustrated me outside of the Switch version's performance at launch and the whole losing collectibles after a death (both issues been fixed up last year). The game did feel like it naturally scaled in difficulty as it asked for more out of the player, least that's how I took it using speedrun skips and glitches to break stuff aside cause that was really fun for me. It's a game that rewards that kind of speed.
Despite not struggling with the game as much as you did, and I don't think most people have either. you pumped 11 hours into it and decided it ain't for you. That's fair and I appreciate you giving the game a size-ably fair shot instead of like I dunno playing it for like 5 minutes and throwing the towel. I got nothing against you my guy lmfao. I played the Sage 2021 demo, enjoyed what I played, and when the game dropped last year yeah I had a blast. It definitely has issues, some that got ironed out with patches but I still enjoyed what I played.
Hoping the sequel irons out the issues you have with the game if you do end up checking it out seems to improve a ton.
I can't recall Frogun throwing that much pinpoint precision moments at you on a whim, it definitely did that in a late game level where you had to grab spiders, that's the most the game ever frustrated me outside of the Switch version's performance at launch and the whole losing collectibles after a death (both issues been fixed up last year). The game did feel like it naturally scaled in difficulty as it asked for more out of the player, least that's how I took it using speedrun skips and glitches to break stuff aside cause that was really fun for me. It's a game that rewards that kind of speed.
Despite not struggling with the game as much as you did, and I don't think most people have either. you pumped 11 hours into it and decided it ain't for you. That's fair and I appreciate you giving the game a size-ably fair shot instead of like I dunno playing it for like 5 minutes and throwing the towel. I got nothing against you my guy lmfao. I played the Sage 2021 demo, enjoyed what I played, and when the game dropped last year yeah I had a blast. It definitely has issues, some that got ironed out with patches but I still enjoyed what I played.
Hoping the sequel irons out the issues you have with the game if you do end up checking it out seems to improve a ton.
@WaffulSyrup The pinpoint stuff definitely ramps up towards the midpoint going forwards, those spiders were annoying as hell to deal with as well but I'll never forget the segments where you have to do multiple mid-air grapples over a bottomless pit without any room for error.
I didn't feel the natural difficulty curve either honestly, it does go up over time but I found it to go up in vertical lines rather than curves. Then sometimes a level would suddenly be surprisingly basic, before the bullshit design pops back up in the next one. It's hard to describe.
And yeah, I would never drop something like this after 5 minutes lol, I really try to finish games before reviewing them but sometimes I just can't bring myself to wade through something that makes me miserable to play. Perhaps I'll revisit it down the road and try to give it a more critical evaluation. The prospect of playing the sequel terrifies me and I don't really want to support this series, but seeing as my legacy is now being the Frogun hater I feel like it'd be wrong of me to never play it lmao. It's a shame, I enjoyed finding the big level skips like you mentioned, but the amount of mandatory segments that demand more aiming of the frogun than the game allows just ruined it all for me.
I didn't feel the natural difficulty curve either honestly, it does go up over time but I found it to go up in vertical lines rather than curves. Then sometimes a level would suddenly be surprisingly basic, before the bullshit design pops back up in the next one. It's hard to describe.
And yeah, I would never drop something like this after 5 minutes lol, I really try to finish games before reviewing them but sometimes I just can't bring myself to wade through something that makes me miserable to play. Perhaps I'll revisit it down the road and try to give it a more critical evaluation. The prospect of playing the sequel terrifies me and I don't really want to support this series, but seeing as my legacy is now being the Frogun hater I feel like it'd be wrong of me to never play it lmao. It's a shame, I enjoyed finding the big level skips like you mentioned, but the amount of mandatory segments that demand more aiming of the frogun than the game allows just ruined it all for me.
@Mattt Oh nah dude that ain't your legacy at all lmfao. You're bein hyperbolic. You got comments on one particular review it happens glad it didn't boil into some heated argument or anything its interesting seeing different takes on games I've enjoyed. Don't feel obligated to play a sequel if ya don't want to. Granted we dunno when it drops this year and how much it'll be fixing, but Renata's moveset from the look of it seems to be more slick than the first game. Seeing and playing are two different things though.
>This is the worst game I've ever played, in my entire life.
you gave dmc2 1.5 stars?
you gave dmc2 1.5 stars?
@WaffulSyrup haha yeah the legacy thing is a bit, but it almost feels like it's going that way lol, time will tell how the sequel turns out I guess.
@chucklenuts DMC2 is a boring game. Also a bad game. But I'd rather drag myself through a boring game with really cool designs and killer music than play a level of Frogun.
Like seriously, DMC2 plays at what I'd consider a baseline level of functionality, and even then it's a 3/10, which is not even remotely positive. But I found small things about it that I could consider good things. Frogun just, it can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. That's my stance.
@chucklenuts DMC2 is a boring game. Also a bad game. But I'd rather drag myself through a boring game with really cool designs and killer music than play a level of Frogun.
Like seriously, DMC2 plays at what I'd consider a baseline level of functionality, and even then it's a 3/10, which is not even remotely positive. But I found small things about it that I could consider good things. Frogun just, it can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. That's my stance.
definition of "skill issue" tbh
kaishek
11 months ago