The Frog Detective games have always been up my alley as the perfect dumb adventure games with quirky and completely absurd, yet family friendly humor, and are always a easy one sitting experience that take about an hour or less every time. Corruption at Cowboy County continues the formula of featuring your favorite #2 detective solving some mysteries with premises that don’t even try to take themselves seriously, and as an added bonus, you can even ride a scooter around the town and the surrounding hills if you want to further cosplay the wild west life. While you don’t have to play the previous two Frog Detective games, Corruption at Cowboy County has some fantastic callbacks and is a fitting and wholehearted love letter to the scores of fans that have enjoyed the franchise’s previous offerings. Ultimately, the gameplay and story aren’t anything complicated, but the coziness alongside the surprises have done it again for me. Thanks for everything Grace Bruxner, it’s been a pleasure.
Crime is not real, it was made up by the american government to sell us TV shows about hot single lawyers.
If there's one game series that I could say "I'd be cool with this having infinite sequels", Frog Detective might just be that series, because once again, this game is an absolute joy to play through. All the cosy vibes of basically playing through a cartoon episode are present, with the extra little bells and whistles such as scooter riding and the way that soundtrack progressively gets denser as you go on making for charming little additions. Love the humour as always with the way it's so aggressively dry for the most part and then throws in some really out of left field jokes especially, really makes every interaction a joy to read through. It was also really neat how this actually did tie back into a lot of what the previous 2 games did and led to a strong sense of finality to the trilogy as a whole, truly making it feel worthy of being the final game. At the end of the day though, this is more Frog Detective, if you liked the last 2, then here, have some more Frog Detective :)
Peak Fiction. You can also get sick with it on the scooter so GOTY. The best conclusion to a trilogy in gaming, truly
Song Accompaniment
I consider my last three posts as meditations on the function of 'disposable' art in relationship to memory construction, and characterization. They have been partially about uplifting generally 'disposable' artistic experiences. Consider this the final raid boss post on this topic.
I'm going to be as blunt and straightforward about this before I move on. I think the Frog Detective series would have been much better if it adopted a full on episodic approach before popping its 'finale'. I said the exact same thing about Liar Liar 2, its good but a bit too soon for it to be a capstone.
This is a very bold and startling view of mine but I think if we look at the popularity of Sherlock Holmes in the 1920s, western cartoons, and radio shows we get a different picture. Two of my favorite western shows are My Little Pony and Home Movies. The Frog Detective series taps in to a similar pro social approach to solving problems that MLP presents, and the slow social awkwardness that Home Movies depicts. These examples are all popular and memorable, with MLP still having a strong aspect of memory within it's creation. All of these example build up their audience over years, presenting them with specific charming social dynamics that really flesh out their cast before finally after many episodes freeing them via an ending. Yes it makes sense to free them at some point, The Simpsons and Family Guy are great indications of the inevitable flanderization that happens if you never do, but if you have an enjoyable world you should be free to explore it for a while.
That said, we shouldn't pretend that this has never been done before in videogames. The defunct Telltale had a lot of examples with this with their successful Walking Dead series and, more endearing to me, their 3 season run of Sam and Max. With that said nobody has reference a scene from the Walking Dead episodes in years and I can tell you immediately three really amusing gags from the Frog Detective series and only like 2 across the 2 seasons I played which is like 10 (I didn't bother with the 3rd season it looks pretty bad) games to Frog's 3. This is probably in part because of how forumalaic and quip focused the Sam and Max style by design is. Regardless, low overhead 'episodic' games have been a process in hibernation ever since the liquidation of Telltale, but if anything the excitement people had around those titles should cause people to be more interested in taking up that mantle and running with it.
Any dev is free to abandon their own series or patterns for whatever reason. That said it should come as no surprise that the first 2 games in the Frog Detective series were development projects mainly with the goal of getting used to the engine. This is obvious once you take into account the size and number of internal spaces in each episode. Episode 1 has no buildings and is small. Episode 2 has buildings but no way to enter them. Episode 3 has several quite lush internal spaces. Frankly the introduction of internal spaces in this episode was incredible but I think effected the writing and puzzle design. Since this was the first game with an internal space I hadn't really thought to explore around and look for things to pick up, this is partially probably a result of Detective's highlighting aura for interactable objects remaining the same despite the slightly more complex poking and prodding for items. On top of that, what made some of the dialogue work was the fact the characters were so clearly isolated as clear outside actors so the humor didn't quite express properly (though I think there are less lines during the case overall to with a stretch towards environment ambitions and a lush finale which makes this feel like the least funny of the 3 episodes overall).
Yes, I thought Frog Detective was good, I thought Liar Liar was good to, but they both ended abruptly and early. My friends have made remarks before about how I seem to over consume games, the reality is that I'm often replacing the 'comfort' of a long running show with an interest in the authorial penmenship of a specific developer or how people mod around a game that came out (various interpretations of Undertale for example). While this for the most part works for me, this is in part because there's no long running episodic games at the moment. A lack of reiterating on your own characters in a followup piece is going to cause a chain reaction of people to go back to MMOs and other online multiplayer games instead of being able to see comfort in individual smaller episodic games. It's hard to make this point stick forward but people often take away comfort best from small individual experiences that build over time. This is one of the reasons why television has been so successful to begin with.
You could say that maybe I'm a little too frustrated with this but the other issue here is that this is part of why remakes have been churning. What we apply as nostalgia is instead just having a comfort memory where we want to grab that pattern again and explore a tale through it. Gamers have been mainly taught to care more about gameplay than narrative, meaning that they will just play the same old tune with better graphics (hence the commercial popularity of remakes). The only reason this is the case though is that games like Frog Detective haven't been done more and don't go on for long enough. I would like to have considered the Frog Detective series as a wake up call to devs that people will long for episodic cozy experiences, but unfortunately the fact that this is likely the last game in the series makes me believe it'll take a while until that's fully realized.
I was genuinely excited about Deltarune Episode 1 when it dropped because I was under the impression over the next couple years, that we be seeing an episode spontaneously ever year or so. Not the case, apparently its now closer to every 2 years which I imagine is in large part because of how the overhead on the development side has bloated.
I recently made a list following the Wholesome Direct releases that you can find here I realized after I was done that sure a majority of them look endearing. Even Frog Detective was on there. How wholesome can you be when you show me a small world and then don't take advantage of everything that can be done with it? When I remember A Short Hike a game I genuinely love I smile over how much I liked it, but then afterwards I get kinda sad. I don't have a lot to work with on the characters or the story. It gives me the incredible world and treats it as a 1 time resort I can come back to be never shows me anything beyond that. It creates this sense of futurelessness, everything that I experience with the characters is momentary and I wont know them well enough when its all over.
I didn't get that with MLP, while the show ends in a way I'm not fond of, MLP gave me a rich historied world with a dynamic cast that I got to know in depth over the course of 70 hours across 8 years of production. With comparatively little overhead for each episode. I remember and could tell you more about a character like Fluttershy than a lot of novels I've read. It's not all about me and what I want, but I think there's something to be said for the idea that there is something being squandered both financially and emotionally by not sticking to a great cast for at least a little while longer. No wonder Nintendo is so hyper dominant, they have the good sense not to mess with their cast too much but they have large overhead so they have to make concessions towards mechanical iteration. In my view the best way to attain indispensability for 'comedic' or 'lighthearted' art is to take this and just make the characterization a little more rich and develop something ongoing beyond just mechanical depth.
Give me Homestuck, give me Yakuza, free me of the crushing abruptness of videogame characterization. We don't need any more mechanical depth, good writing is lagging out hard under the weight of ambitions. When am I gonna feel like I've been around a character long enough that I feel I know them? I'd rather jump the shark than hop out of the pond early.
I consider my last three posts as meditations on the function of 'disposable' art in relationship to memory construction, and characterization. They have been partially about uplifting generally 'disposable' artistic experiences. Consider this the final raid boss post on this topic.
I'm going to be as blunt and straightforward about this before I move on. I think the Frog Detective series would have been much better if it adopted a full on episodic approach before popping its 'finale'. I said the exact same thing about Liar Liar 2, its good but a bit too soon for it to be a capstone.
This is a very bold and startling view of mine but I think if we look at the popularity of Sherlock Holmes in the 1920s, western cartoons, and radio shows we get a different picture. Two of my favorite western shows are My Little Pony and Home Movies. The Frog Detective series taps in to a similar pro social approach to solving problems that MLP presents, and the slow social awkwardness that Home Movies depicts. These examples are all popular and memorable, with MLP still having a strong aspect of memory within it's creation. All of these example build up their audience over years, presenting them with specific charming social dynamics that really flesh out their cast before finally after many episodes freeing them via an ending. Yes it makes sense to free them at some point, The Simpsons and Family Guy are great indications of the inevitable flanderization that happens if you never do, but if you have an enjoyable world you should be free to explore it for a while.
That said, we shouldn't pretend that this has never been done before in videogames. The defunct Telltale had a lot of examples with this with their successful Walking Dead series and, more endearing to me, their 3 season run of Sam and Max. With that said nobody has reference a scene from the Walking Dead episodes in years and I can tell you immediately three really amusing gags from the Frog Detective series and only like 2 across the 2 seasons I played which is like 10 (I didn't bother with the 3rd season it looks pretty bad) games to Frog's 3. This is probably in part because of how forumalaic and quip focused the Sam and Max style by design is. Regardless, low overhead 'episodic' games have been a process in hibernation ever since the liquidation of Telltale, but if anything the excitement people had around those titles should cause people to be more interested in taking up that mantle and running with it.
Any dev is free to abandon their own series or patterns for whatever reason. That said it should come as no surprise that the first 2 games in the Frog Detective series were development projects mainly with the goal of getting used to the engine. This is obvious once you take into account the size and number of internal spaces in each episode. Episode 1 has no buildings and is small. Episode 2 has buildings but no way to enter them. Episode 3 has several quite lush internal spaces. Frankly the introduction of internal spaces in this episode was incredible but I think effected the writing and puzzle design. Since this was the first game with an internal space I hadn't really thought to explore around and look for things to pick up, this is partially probably a result of Detective's highlighting aura for interactable objects remaining the same despite the slightly more complex poking and prodding for items. On top of that, what made some of the dialogue work was the fact the characters were so clearly isolated as clear outside actors so the humor didn't quite express properly (though I think there are less lines during the case overall to with a stretch towards environment ambitions and a lush finale which makes this feel like the least funny of the 3 episodes overall).
Yes, I thought Frog Detective was good, I thought Liar Liar was good to, but they both ended abruptly and early. My friends have made remarks before about how I seem to over consume games, the reality is that I'm often replacing the 'comfort' of a long running show with an interest in the authorial penmenship of a specific developer or how people mod around a game that came out (various interpretations of Undertale for example). While this for the most part works for me, this is in part because there's no long running episodic games at the moment. A lack of reiterating on your own characters in a followup piece is going to cause a chain reaction of people to go back to MMOs and other online multiplayer games instead of being able to see comfort in individual smaller episodic games. It's hard to make this point stick forward but people often take away comfort best from small individual experiences that build over time. This is one of the reasons why television has been so successful to begin with.
You could say that maybe I'm a little too frustrated with this but the other issue here is that this is part of why remakes have been churning. What we apply as nostalgia is instead just having a comfort memory where we want to grab that pattern again and explore a tale through it. Gamers have been mainly taught to care more about gameplay than narrative, meaning that they will just play the same old tune with better graphics (hence the commercial popularity of remakes). The only reason this is the case though is that games like Frog Detective haven't been done more and don't go on for long enough. I would like to have considered the Frog Detective series as a wake up call to devs that people will long for episodic cozy experiences, but unfortunately the fact that this is likely the last game in the series makes me believe it'll take a while until that's fully realized.
I was genuinely excited about Deltarune Episode 1 when it dropped because I was under the impression over the next couple years, that we be seeing an episode spontaneously ever year or so. Not the case, apparently its now closer to every 2 years which I imagine is in large part because of how the overhead on the development side has bloated.
I recently made a list following the Wholesome Direct releases that you can find here I realized after I was done that sure a majority of them look endearing. Even Frog Detective was on there. How wholesome can you be when you show me a small world and then don't take advantage of everything that can be done with it? When I remember A Short Hike a game I genuinely love I smile over how much I liked it, but then afterwards I get kinda sad. I don't have a lot to work with on the characters or the story. It gives me the incredible world and treats it as a 1 time resort I can come back to be never shows me anything beyond that. It creates this sense of futurelessness, everything that I experience with the characters is momentary and I wont know them well enough when its all over.
I didn't get that with MLP, while the show ends in a way I'm not fond of, MLP gave me a rich historied world with a dynamic cast that I got to know in depth over the course of 70 hours across 8 years of production. With comparatively little overhead for each episode. I remember and could tell you more about a character like Fluttershy than a lot of novels I've read. It's not all about me and what I want, but I think there's something to be said for the idea that there is something being squandered both financially and emotionally by not sticking to a great cast for at least a little while longer. No wonder Nintendo is so hyper dominant, they have the good sense not to mess with their cast too much but they have large overhead so they have to make concessions towards mechanical iteration. In my view the best way to attain indispensability for 'comedic' or 'lighthearted' art is to take this and just make the characterization a little more rich and develop something ongoing beyond just mechanical depth.
Give me Homestuck, give me Yakuza, free me of the crushing abruptness of videogame characterization. We don't need any more mechanical depth, good writing is lagging out hard under the weight of ambitions. When am I gonna feel like I've been around a character long enough that I feel I know them? I'd rather jump the shark than hop out of the pond early.
Frog Detective 3 is alot like Elden Ring in that you can summon the Scooter anywhere at any time but unfortunately they depart in the fact that the Scooter doesnt have a Double Jump.
Biting critique of the US justice and reform system.
frog detective said abolish prisons :)
adorable. i cried. agh i love frog detective :)
adorable. i cried. agh i love frog detective :)
Jogado no Xbox Game Pass dentro da coletânea Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery. Uma ótima conclusão para uma inocente e divertida trilogia. A história realmente foi pra lugares que eu não imaginava.
E VOCÊ PODE ANDAR DE PATINETE ELÉTRICO EU TO FELIZ DEMAIS
E VOCÊ PODE ANDAR DE PATINETE ELÉTRICO EU TO FELIZ DEMAIS
More classic Frog Detective, better with friends than solo but still a consistently silly and fun experience.
Miles better than Frog Detective 1 and 2 simply because of the introduction of the little scooter! I actually enjoyed this one, so I’m happy that the third installment wasn’t a let-down like the first two.
this game has everything. plot twists, commentary on bureaucratic and police corruption, prison abolition, THREE credit sequences, and most important, a frog doing scooter tricks in the wild west
Best frog based detective mystery game starring the second best detective who is a frog detective.
Frog Blog: New Vegas.
ACAB, especially the lobster ones
ACAB, especially the lobster ones
fantastic wrap up to the series, the fake end credits gag was 10/10. still a shame how long it takes to log/remove items from your journal but the items were more spaced out so at least it didnt feel as brutal.
all in all though the best game of the bunch easily, also gay representation in a game you love to see it
all in all though the best game of the bunch easily, also gay representation in a game you love to see it
While I was playing Frog Detective 3, my wife was doing a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle but still wanted to hear all the dialogue, so I had to come up with different voices for each character, and reading it out loud in my basic American accent is how I realized just how Australian some of this dialogue is
10/10 for coziness, would narrate again
10/10 for coziness, would narrate again
Some of the BGM was a bit lacking but the wit and charm of the series continues to go strong. A powerful conclusion to one of the most gripping trilogies in all of gaming. The credits song was also a nice surprise.
I don't have that much else too say about this and I typically ramble a while. So the following are some notes from my Dragon Quest XI review :)
Dragon Quest XI is a phenomenal game. It stands firm as one of the greatest JRPGs I’ve personally ever experienced, and I expect is among the greatest titles within the genre of all time.
I have a lot to say about this title so for those of you who may not want to read 158 hours’ worth of thoughts, I’ll summarise it briefly here: The gameplay, polish and presentation of Dragon Quest XI is off the charts. Everything works and looks exactly as it should, there are basically no instances where you’ll find yourself against impossible odds or hit a wall of “bullshit”, it just works. It’s also incredibly accessible to players of all preferences and skill-levels, this game was made to be enjoyed by anyone and in my honest opinion, it succeeds. So, let’s get into it a little deeper.
And to borrow from the blog post of a brilliant mind:
Thanks for reading
- Frog Detective x
I don't have that much else too say about this and I typically ramble a while. So the following are some notes from my Dragon Quest XI review :)
Dragon Quest XI is a phenomenal game. It stands firm as one of the greatest JRPGs I’ve personally ever experienced, and I expect is among the greatest titles within the genre of all time.
I have a lot to say about this title so for those of you who may not want to read 158 hours’ worth of thoughts, I’ll summarise it briefly here: The gameplay, polish and presentation of Dragon Quest XI is off the charts. Everything works and looks exactly as it should, there are basically no instances where you’ll find yourself against impossible odds or hit a wall of “bullshit”, it just works. It’s also incredibly accessible to players of all preferences and skill-levels, this game was made to be enjoyed by anyone and in my honest opinion, it succeeds. So, let’s get into it a little deeper.
And to borrow from the blog post of a brilliant mind:
Thanks for reading
- Frog Detective x
What an absolutely delightful end to the trilogy. What a fun, silly little game. A joy. Some fun new mechanics, a great story, some good jokes and commentary. Great stuff.
Frog Detective 3 sees the conclusion (for now?) to the story of the eponymous amphibian, taking them to the sands of Cowboy County to solve the mystery of the missing hats. New gameplay elements include a scooter, which also allowed for a larger environment... and that's it. The rest is the same point-n'-click, item trade chain type of game.
Anyone who's made it to game three in the trilogy already knows what it's like, and whether or not it's for them, but nevertheless: Frog Detective is a great pick for young kids, who will probably adore the cute visuals, witty writing and the scooter. As for the adults, it's a bit more hit-or-miss. There's very little complexity to the investigation, so it's up to how much the jokes land.
On a side note, it's such a bummer that none of the games in the trilogy used the magnifying glass for something.
Anyone who's made it to game three in the trilogy already knows what it's like, and whether or not it's for them, but nevertheless: Frog Detective is a great pick for young kids, who will probably adore the cute visuals, witty writing and the scooter. As for the adults, it's a bit more hit-or-miss. There's very little complexity to the investigation, so it's up to how much the jokes land.
On a side note, it's such a bummer that none of the games in the trilogy used the magnifying glass for something.
Riding a scooter means you can solve crimes fast :-)
This review contains spoilers
My man EARNED that hat
* Played perfectly out of the box on Ubuntu 20.04 via Proton 7.0-5
* Played perfectly out of the box on Ubuntu 20.04 via Proton 7.0-5
There is probably a reckoning coming for cozy games at some point, but I don't care, the frog has boots, and it's funny. It is so unbelievably funny.
This review contains spoilers
Taking aim at the carceral state and boldly declaring that all Lobster Cops Are Bastards, Frog Tec 3 emerges as a masterwork of an anarchist polemic. Well, not quite; anybody who thinks that anarchism is naive and idealistic will not be swayed by any evidence presented in this game, because it's smart enough to not stray far from the silly sensibilities of the series to deliver its message. It's simply a way to interrogate some of the ingrained assumptions of the genre that were seemingly taken for granted in the first entry and more gently mocked in the second. It also helps justify the Wild West setting, which at first seemed to be a tad too specific of a genre for the grand finale, but it works because such a setting is known in the popular imagination for exploring the intersection of the law and lawlessness. It's also a perfect fit for one of the series’ running gags, which is the Detective’s insecurity over his oddly shaped head that cannot host a hat. Of course, the fact that I had to spoiler tag this review thanks to the plot twists attached to its politics is a big indication of how much more ambitious these games have gotten, which is quite welcome. In addition to a new scooter (and accompanying sweeping music track) to traverse the larger space, the game pulls off a gag I'd have previously assumed to be outside the scope of these microgames, and then does another just a few minutes later. What a delight that Frog Tec went out on such a high note!
If you’ve played the first two games, you know what to expect: another short, cute, simple, and silly walking sim. More of the same, but it’s a nice little game to play through in a short sitting.
The biggest of all of the trilogy, this last game features a much bigger map, a mechanic involving a scooter, and a plot twist I could never have imagined.
Seeing how they were concerned about bringing a worthy ending to this whole journey with the frog detective and showing details and characters from past games is something very good.
I was very happy since the end gives a great end to everything.
Now I'm waiting for a new story for the detective as this last one left me wanting even more!
Seeing how they were concerned about bringing a worthy ending to this whole journey with the frog detective and showing details and characters from past games is something very good.
I was very happy since the end gives a great end to everything.
Now I'm waiting for a new story for the detective as this last one left me wanting even more!
A gripping mystery that will change the way you view the world. The perfect ending to the trilogy
This review contains spoilers
They gave this frog a gay love story and it really doesn't get any better than that.
This one was awesome. I spent a lot of time just cruising around on the scooter. Crime isn't real.
Quite possibly the perfect game. (8/10)
An emotional rollercoaster, only problem is that it's too good. Goodbye detective, you are a frog.