Arcade Week: Day #2

Why did the frog cross the road?
To get to the other side and make sure your quarters or whatever currency you had (I’m British and can’t remember for the life of me) is going to good use after accidentally getting run over by a car. Yeah I don’t get that joke either.

Frogger is a game about life kinda, if that life was just crossing a road and a river and hoping to god you can put yourself in a small portion of a bush. You get 3, 5, or 7 lives depending on the difficulty setting and you have to get at least 5 frogs into the different holes. However, if you fail and lose all your lives, or the time is up, it’s game over! It’s a pretty simple game all things considered and it’s one that is still enjoyed even today. However, Frogger hasn’t gone on to the best things after this game but oh well. At least people still want to play the original and not…Frogger’s adventure or whatever.

Good gameplay, sweet music, I hate alligators so much

Frogger has been a widely debated game in most communities. It has a variety of theories and interpretations and I truly don’t think any of them are wrong. However, in my opinion, you shouldn’t be looking for a surface story with Frogger. If you ask me, Frogger is not a game with any true story, but instead, a game of ideas and themes. Reach and you’ll find a large handful of interesting and thought provoking metaphors and symbolism. My favorite symbolism is easily that of the bagua kind and frogger delivers in spades. The normal player may not truly grasp the bagua symbolism but I’ll give an easy, almost surface level explanation of its appearance in frogger. Bagua, in the simplest terms, is 8 symbols (earth, water, fire, wind, heaven, thunder, water, lake) represented by the Ying Yang symbol which is used to represent opposite forces. These opposite forces are represented by black and white, complete opposite colors. In Frogger, there are 2 main colors playing against each other, green for the frog and leaves and blue for the water. These 2 colors fight against each other in the screen and if the frog jumps in the opposite color or force, it dies out, just as if the balance of Ying Yang would be broken, the world as we know it would collapse. The frog’s true goal is not just to cross a river, but it’s instead a truly bleak and almost nihilistic uphill struggle to maintain the good in the world. As for the 8 symbols, Frogger is a very nature-filled game which covers a lot of the symbols, but it’s not that simple. Heaven is used to represent a strong and undivided force. Obviously, this would be the river, a strong unbeatable force that can kill on touch. The only thing you can really do is avoid it. Earth is used to represent something open to nature. In a meta sense, this can very well represent the player. You open yourself to frogger and let it’s nature and gameplay flow through you. A very clever breaking of the fourth wall. Thunder represents fast movement. This can represent the strong, powerful currents of the river that can so easily kill the frog, who I will further discuss later. Water represents challenges and deep meaning. In another meta theme, this represents not only the game, but the frog’s (Ying) arc and battle against the river. (Yang) In a meta sense, the game itself is a challenge, as most games are, with further deep meaning, the things we’re discussing at this very moment. In a frog sense, the frog’s battle against the river or evil is a monumental challenge. It’s almost pointless in the sense that this is a high score sense, the frog can never truly beat the river. However, through this challenge, the frog can find deep meaning within himself. This isn’t clearly stated in the game, you’ll have to look close for it, but eventually, the frog accepts the fact that he will never defeat the river. He will never defeat evil. However, he finds meaning within the struggle. It is a brilliant parallel to the story of Sisyphus. The mountain represents knowledge and the wise. You may not see this at first, but to me it is very clear that this represents the leaves. The leaves are not wise in a normal sense, but wise in the way that it protects the frog through the struggle. They’re his only protection against Yang. Wise lies in the ones who’ll uphold good. Wind represents the wealth and prosperity. What wind represents in frogger is not clear inside of the game but you’ll have to look at the real world implications of frogger. The frog must traverse through this river, who through context clues you can infer is not a river, but a flood. I mean, it’s endless! It’s an endless pool of Yang, evil, and while the frog, Ying, has to fight through it, the wealthy prosper and live high up. The frog will never reach them, the frog will never defeat the flood, the frog just lives. This leads me to the conclusion that frogger is a communist game through and through. Fire represents reputation, which in my opinion is the creators almost predicting the future. Frogger, itself, had a strong reputation. Most people know it and it’s one of the most popular arcade games of all time. Lake represents joy, which is found by the frog through the absurdity of the challenge presented to him! This game is positively brilliant and an easy ten on ten in my eyes!

Frogger, as if I need to explain, is a game about dodging cars and hopping over logs with a frog to catch flies and jump in the ponds on the other side of a river -- sometimes carrying a girl frog with you for extra points. Complicated setup.

I've never been that big of a fan of Frogger and the million types of Frogger-esque imitative games that it spawned (like Freeway on the 2600) but it also has its place in game history. The design is simple and somewhat satisfying but very repetitive even with variations in the levels as you progress forwards. The challenge is simple and easy to understand.

It's fun, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to someone other than to take note of its importance as a big hit in the golden age of the arcade.

3.5 - Good: Good but still lacking something that propels it to greatness

I'm just trying to get my frog friend home, calm down, world!

My local community pool had this classic as a cocktail cabinet and I would always enjoy throwing some quarters at it after my swim lesson or whatever. The music is instantly recognizable, probably because one of the songs is Yankee Doodle, which is weird, but whatever. Jumping between and around things while just trying to get home is pretty hectic as the speed increases on higher levels and the variation in obstacles makes things even more action-packed. Maybe I just get too greedy for points and always go for the flies and the lady frogs, but I'm not that stellar at this game, but it's still a good time.

Until I die of a heart attack from Frogger-related stress, that is!

Review from thedonproject.com