Some might say that Walk The Frog is a euphemism, but I can’t quite place it myself. However, what I can say is that this demo, from a developer with the same name, is absolutely brilliant, and I highly recommend that you give it a go. Not now – read this first, seeing as I’ve taken the effort to put these sentences together. Then you can go.
Frogs continue to creep their way into gaming, and I really can’t see the appeal of the little twerps, but for some reason, they keep winning me over with their cuteness and melting this hard, alpha-male shell I pretend to have. The little chap in question, Froggo, looks unhappy, but how can he be with such a fun puzzle experience?
Picture this: Froggo has to make his way from one side of the screen to the other. Unlike his ancestors, he doesn’t have to get across a busy road or jump on passing logs to reach his goal, as the scenes in question are very, very safe. Well, unless you take into account the dung beetles rolling piles of poo and not washing their mitts before dinner, then rubbing their eyes – that would be a risk.
Really, Walk The Frog could not be any easier to do. You can’t directly take control and instead point and click the path they need to take. However… you won’t know which route to take until you create the actual path. No, not a simulation type of dragging and dropping parallel paths, but rearranging Post-it-like squares, each with an image on it that needs to be placed in order.
There’s only a handful of images at a time and no signs of penalties for getting it wrong, or incentives to do it in one for an achievement. Your complete and utter investment is securing Froggo’s path, helping others and feeling pretty good about yourself. You’d think that something with such a simplistic approach could be enjoyable, but it isn’t.
There’s no health gauges to worry about, no timers, no hair-pulling or nail-biting – just bliss. Walk The Frog is a hand-drawn affair and overall, very, very cute. Are you noting the theme by now? The demo was completed in about 20 minutes or so, from memory, taking snippets from chapters that should feature in the full game.
Honestly, I could have happily played this for the majority of the day, but all good things come to an end. You, however, can experience those feels firsthand by downloading the demo now. Go on – give Froggo a go.
