Stephen Geering - Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand (2002, GOTY 3rd Place)
Composer: Stephen Geering
Console: GBA
Game Release Date: 2002-11-05
Bootleg Release Date: TBD
Ripper: TBD
Runtime: TBD
Console: GBA
Game Release Date: 2002-11-05
Bootleg Release Date: TBD
Ripper: TBD
Runtime: TBD
It is about time to begin the GOTY2021 countdown. This was a pretty epic year for me. A lot happened from getting covid to lots of life changes and learning. All in all it was a good year but I had a better 2020. I will write that this year’s GOTY is a mess and definitely an outlier. I think this is the first year since I started recording GOTY that 2 GBA games won. I think it is also one of the only years wherein any GBA game one (closest was a year in which a GBC game won 3rd).
As always I never do GOTY based on what was released that year but rather the best 3 games I played that year. It is extremely rare that I play a game that I play a game that came out that year. If we actually go by games that were released this year I played only two come to mind. They are the remaster of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron and the SMW hack, A Plumber for All Seasons. However, despite both of those games being solid they still don't match up to my top 3. Without any further ado, let's begin with 3rd place.
3rd place is a little known GBA game called Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand. This is the direct sequel to the GBA game, Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog, set like a year later. I had been eager to play this one for a bit, especially after replaying the first game earlier in 2021. While Temple of the Frog had so much going for it, one of the standout things for me was the intensive plot. Spoilers but it ends with Frogger facing off against Death himself and mastering the 4 elements. Yes, all of that in a Frogger game.
It wasn't until around June when I went camping for the first time that year that I got around to playing Frogger 2. That trip I had also brought up Shadowalker (J2ME) and Survival Kids 2 (GBC). When I had some extra time out there I gave those games a shot. I played this one on my 3DS.
Staying on topic, Frogger 2 is a grid-based, top-down platformer wherein you play as Frogger. The Eternity Wand, an object that holds together the forces of light and darkness has been shattered. The wand also keeps intact the very concept of magic. This time Frogger has been enlisted by Hocus, a mage who was in charge of the Eternity Wand. Hocus warns that because the wand is broken magic will begin to distort reality itself. The wand shattered into pieces. Frogger must go to 5 islands in the magic world where the shards landed and retrieve them. The inhabitants of the islands with the shards have also changed becoming distorted and evil versions of themselves.
From there it's like the first game. Go to each level in the world, collect 4-5 cards per level to open the exit and reach the boss who has the shard. A bit similar to the first game, bit with cards and magic instead of the elements and power. I won't spoil more of the plot but I will write that it gets crazier as the story progresses. It seems like the stakes are even higher than the first game.
Now where this game truly excelled was the difficulty. Frogger 1 saw you maneuvering around fantasy vehicles, aggressive insects, and with the last few levels lots of precision platforming and level elements to make things more challenging. Frogger 2 proceeded to go even farther with levels that push the games engines to the farthest it has gone. It was a true sequel, building off what the first game established and pushing it to its limits. The difficulty curve was far steeper here. With the first game it was the last world that the difficulty really ramped up with those conveyor belts. In this game they must have expected you to have played the first one because the difficulty curve ramps up much faster.
While the first game was challenging this went even farther. Plenty of platforms that required quick maneuvers before they disintegrate (like constant turning left and right), enemies that would outright follow you or groups of enemies that followed complex patterns, enemies that were far faster than Frogger and extremely long levels with multiple checkpoints and winding paths. Many levels had bonus paths you could take to get extra lives and such. Those proved even harder than the regular paths. Some levels (specifically the futuristic island) had sentinels scanning grids for you and car robots that followed strange paths that made it hard to plan ahead. For the developers it seems like they were given free rein to go as hard as they wanted. I am glad they did. Each level presented its own set of challenges that required me to get better at. There were never any times I felt the game was too easy (a problem I faced in Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2).
Nothing about this game came without hardship. I had to retry so many times to do levels, game-overring and so on. The world I enjoyed best was the last one as well as the robot island. The boss was easily the hardest in the game, what with you having to do a Simon says puzzle. After like 12 attempts the boss choked and did a bunch of very simple patterns I was able to follow. Like all Frogger games you only get one hit and you die meaning you had to perfect nearly everything to beat it. This includes perfecting bosses because even with the final boss there is no checkpoint.
To increase replay ability this game also comes with time attack modes, just in case you want to make things even harder. I did the time attacks for island 1 but left the others. Maybe in the future.
In summary, this game was outstanding and a perfect sequel to the first one. It did all the things a sequel should do and more.
Like the first game the music was composed by Stephen Geering. The soundtrack keeps the unique sounding instrumentation and MIDI work. It has the same instruments and gives roughly the same feel as the first game. While the soundtrack for the first Frogger's Adventure was funky and upbeat this one experiments a bit more. It uses more ambient sounds, more upbeat work, some jazzier instrumentation and generally more uplifting than the previous soundtrack. I’d say I still prefer the first one but I haven't heard enough of this games soundtrack to decide yet. Thankfully this blog post forces me to assemble and tag the soundtrack so I will add it to my collection after this.
Unfortunately there is no easy way to rip this games soundtrack. There is one rip on YouTube but I believe that is just the uploader recording himself standing in each level. Each track is 10 minutes long too, far too long to compile into a soundtrack here. I tried ripping it myself but this game uses a non-traditional engine (read: not Sappy) so ripping it is a challenge. I still haven't figured out how. I may just do a dirty recording at some point but until then I am not going to link it. Should a good rip ever appear then I will update it below.
Comments
Post a Comment