Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog (GBA) Review

Received: May 18th, 2019 / Written: August 5th-11th, 2019

(As played on Game Boy Player)

Alternate Title: Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog Advance [ ◯ ]

Year: 2001 | Developed by: KCE Hawaii and Konami Software Shanghai
Published by: Konami

Time to focus on simpler titles for a little bit.

Image from IMDb

This Summer there was a show on Disney Channel by the name of Amphibia which was created by Matt Braly.  I've been watching it, and I thought it was a really enjoyable and creative show; the world-building and locations are interesting, it had a sense of mystery about it here and there, it's clever and funny, the characters are likable (especially Anne Boonchuy and the Plantar family) and how they have a growing relationship as the show progresses, it's got good messages, the episodes are fast-paced yet don't feel rushed, and the season finale was incredible and has got me looking forward to the second season even more on account that there are loose threads introduced in some episodes that are yet to be tied (when's it coming?  I must know!).  Basically, it's become one of my favorite Disney animated shows in recent years, and it's a bit refreshing to watch one that largely centers around frogs.  😃  Anyway, I just wanted to bring up that I watch and enjoy Amphibia before starting this review.

Starting

2001 marked the 20th anniversary of Konami's Frogger, and what made this interesting is that Konami was fully in charge of all things Frogger this time as opposed to having it handled by a different company like the original coin-op outside Japan in 1981 while all the other games in the series prior to 2001 were developed by different companies, and in celebration of that were two games based on his name that November.  First there was Konami Computer Entertainment Papa Yeti Studio's 3D platformer Frogger: The Great Quest on the PlayStation 2 on November 18th which apparently wasn't as great as its subtitle implied it to be (let alone good), though it did introduce a new look for the series and was the first game to have Frogger as a bipedal character wearing clothes.

First checkpoint

Shortly afterward that November 24th came Frogger's foray on the Game Boy Advance in the form of Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii and Konami Software Shanghai's Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog which Europe got to play on the 30th of that month as Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog Advance (a Japanese version was apparently in the works, but got cancelled)--which makes no sense as it was exclusive to the handheld anyway.  Produced by Ren Zhifeng, directed by Shi Lei, and programmed by Li Jun, Li Tao, Li Chunfeng, and Chunhua Mao, this game would be Konami Software Shanghai's first venue.  Temple of the Frog was better received than The Great Quest, but has it aged well?

Literally going up against traffic

When you first turn on Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog you're given a choice of one of five language settings to choose from (English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian), then once you're in the file select screen you can input your three initials and choose to augment the number of lives and continues at your disposal (unless the default five on both counts works for you).  Whenever you clear a stage (even one you've revisited from before if need be) the game will save your progress automatically.

Moving from moving platform to moving platform

high above the clouds

Frogger has just been informed by his friend Lumpy the Toad on behalf of the Elder Council that the entirety of Firefly Swamp is in grave danger by the forces of the evil Mr. D who has stolen all the elements and that the only way to save the day and restore everything is by defeating him at the eponymous Temple of the Frog.  It's here that you're told that you must collect three elemental icons in the first stage of each segment to gain access to the second stage, and to gain access to the boss of the current segment you must gather five elemental icons in the second stage, whereby defeating the boss will restore the element of the segment of Firefly Swamp (fire, earth, water, air).  Frogger's adventure is about to begin.

Fireflies?  In Firefly Swamp?  Ya don't say!  👀

This is a map-based game, and the moment you select a stage the action all transpires from a bird's eye perspective.  Like the 1981 Frogger arcade game Frogger can only move in a square-pattern, only in this game it's action-oriented adventure fare for this time around you can change his position without moving via either the left or right shoulder buttons, you can jump ahead two spaces with the A button which can be used to clear single-tile gaps, and with the B button he can stick out his tongue to get items from slightly out of reach.

Don't be pushed into the holes

While venturing in these stages there are many enemies and obstacles to avoid; Frogger cannot defend himself in any way for this is a one hit and you die kind of game, like the coin-op before it.  Occasionally if you land on checkerboard tiles you'll be granted a checkpoint meaning if you lose a life in any way (whether it be falling in the air or drowning in the water or being damaged by an enemy or sharp object, et al) you will pick up your progress from that point.  Along the way you'll stumble across coins which I suggest collecting as many as you find for you'll need a requisite amount in order to enter the Temple of the Frog while getting butterflies will earn you a new life.

Let's defeat King Ijnek to reclaim the fire element

Like I said earlier, the goal of the first and second stages of each segment of Firefly Swamp is to collect three and five elemental icons respectively for if you fail to collect them all then you won't be able to go any further until you do; luckily you can revisit these stages even if you've beat them before.  The third and last stage of each segment will have you battle a boss to reclaim the element, and once you've defeated the boss in question it's on to the next segment.

Standing on a tile-sized lift of the pyramid

Behind the art for Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog were Ye Lina, Xu Wei, Ji Hongjiang, Chen Chun, Yu Rongqing, and Fang Liu, and they all did a good job at differentiating each segment of Firefly Swamp from the other in terms of color palette, motif, and internal décor.  The first stage of Goblin Caverns is vibrantly green while in its second stage it transpires deep with a wholesomely rocky structure that be quite red at points (with the contrast being set by Frogger and the occasional blue set of tiles that you wind up activating).

Because of course there are conveyor belts

set up in the Ancient Ruins

The Ancient Ruins have got lots of tree leaves below ground level which really pop out and have golden icons on occasion and pyramids adorning it, Sky City has got a good view of the clouds and islands in the sea below you and the ground décor for the interior segments are detailed, and the titular Temple of the Frog in the end has got an interesting design in places (including an isolated spot draped with a magenta carpet with a frog symbol in the middle).  The map screen is all interconnected should you have access to all the stages, it's so seamless.  My favorite segment of the game on a visual sense takes place in Sea Town with the relaxing shades and hues of blue of the coral reef with sea algae, shell, and starfish, which has Frogger explore

… under... water?  😕

Is water not meant to be this frog's kryptonite in the franchise, and... hey wait a second, didn't he lament in Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii's Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic/Frogger: Kodaibunmei no Nazo two years later about not being capable of swimming before the OPART installed the scuba gear?  🤨

And now you're telling me that he could venture underwater without any problems here,

despite showing him drowning upon jumping in water in the previous stages during the same game?

…

Seen here: never been underwater before.  /s

It kind of makes Frogger look like a hypocrite in a retroactive sense...  In all seriousness though I find it rather bizarre that Konami had one game where he clearly ventured below the surface level of the water whereas in the majority of the games that followed he can't (unless it's because of OPART's upgrade in the aforementioned Frogger venue) because of a "childhood incident" impeding him.  Either this is one of those franchises that retcons itself without being aware it's doing that, or it was a huge oversight on Konami's part.  In either case: whoops!  😐

Enemies, enemies, and more enemies

Any time you begin a new segment and before facing the boss of said segment the characters have static profiles when it's their turn to speak.  Frogger's in-game design is okay and his animation is swift when it comes to single steps and slowed down to be more fluid as he hops in the air, though I can't say I'm a fan of him having a chartreuse body color or the way he inflates like a balloon as he springs in the air and then deflates upon touching the ground because something about that doesn't feel right--most of the subsequent games would rectify this, plus give him two sets of colors for his clothes instead of one.

Hop quickly out of the flood zone

In regards to Frogger's enemy roster, there are a various assortment of them: there are the goblins, flies that sprout fire behind them, eels, sharks, swordsmen, winged creatures that resemble skulls but not really since they're cyclopic, skeletal dogs, and slugs to name several, and honestly they pretty much all have a more fluid motion to them than the main character does.  There are even two enemy kinds that harken back to the original arcade game: the slithering snakes here and there and trucks you must dodge in one part of the first stage to avoid becoming roadkill.  The bosses you fight against in this game are all huge and are detailed in their own right, though my favorite boss in terms of concept and design is Mr. D,

Considering the Akumajō Dracula/Castlevania franchise where he serves as a recurring character, that's really cute of you, Konami  💀

if only because of the big twist at the end being that you're essentially fighting Death himself.  It's clever in a cutely bizarre way, since he's a one-off character in this case.  😅

Rattlesnake getting his shock treatment

Stephen Geering (whose prior credits comprised of TerraGlyph Interactive Studios' Scooby-Doo!: Classic Creep Capers, KCE Hawaii's Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor/Ushinawareta Idenshi, and TerraGlyph Interactive Studios' PlayStation One adaptation of the Blue's Clues movie Blue's Big Musical) composed the music for Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog.  This was his first Frogger audio credit and would provide his talents to the franchise again with Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand/Frogger: Mahō no Kuni no Daibōken and Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic.

All aboard the Crustacean Express  🦀

While the soundtrack may not have left a huge impression on me, they do all fit their respective stages succinctly in regards to atmosphere, and some themes I actually found to be quite catchy.  🙂  Some themes I felt to be noteworthy was the blues-style theme for the first stage of Sea Town which I took a liking to for being catchy, the Arabian instrumentation for Sky City's first stage, the title theme is bouncy, the theme for the second stage of Goblin Caverns is menacing in style, the first stage for the Ancient Ruins has got a jazzy rhythm with a neat (albeit muffled) guitar riff during certain proceedings, and the theme for when you fight Mr. D is interesting.  This is one of those games where each boss has their own respective theme attached to them, which I always appreciate.

Sharks

The game's sound design was provided by Jaren Tolman and led by Bradley D. Meyer (both of whom also worked on editing Geering's music) and the sound effects are fitful and most of them would be reused in the subsequent two Game Boy Advance-centric Frogger games of this caliber (like the sound of Frogger getting a life once he eats a butterfly, Konami's pause sound effect, and the ribbit sounds for each move made), and Frogger has different death sounds depending on how he dies.  It's interesting to note that the enemies don't make any sounds when you're distant from them,

Riding the octopus' tentacle to the other side

but if you're in close vicinity only then will you hear sounds coming from them, which has been a recurring trend for the following Frogger games up until 2005.  Terry Jones provided the voice of Mr. D in his only voice over work for a video game, and while it's not of the extensive variety what is there sounds pretty crisp and clear: such as when he says "HA HA HA!" when he preps for his new attack and once you defeat him in the end the way he says "You haven't seen the last of me, Frogger!" in his hollow intonation is impressive considering the Game Boy Advance's technical limitations.

Images from GameFAQs

The package design for the American version of Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog was done by Ayzenberg Group who also did the American package designs for NovaLogic's Comanche 3, Troika Games L.L.C.'s Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, and Konami's Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette on the PlayStation 2, and the cover is... ehh, not exactly appealing on Frogger's freckly end, but it beats the European cover on account that the PAL one is more disturbing by comparison (and less polished, it seems).  Konami would improve his designs on the covers of his games from 2002 onward for the better, but 2001 did Frogger no favors in terms of his games' cover art (especially in the case of Frogger: The Great Quest).  😬

And while I'm at it, I really miss Konami's old logo; it had more character than what they've been using for the past sixteen years.  😞

Riding the airship from Sea Town to Sky City

Over a year ago last Summer I had learned about the post-2001 Frogger games by accident, which is strange because I don't remember seeing them in stores at all during the first half of the first decade of the 21st century back when I was into the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance; I played more than one version of the arcade original and I was aware of its console sequel and 1997 remake that sparked a new interest in the franchise, but anything from 2001?  Nope.  It honestly gives me the impression that these games all came and went, but the fact that there were several of them must mean that there was an audience for them.  After finding out about these games and looking into them, I decided that for my first foray of the post-2001 Frogger titles

I would play the series' Game Boy Advance swansong Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic.  I was curious how an action-adventure game mixed with Frogger's traditional controls would work, and when I played it I found it work well.  It wasn't groundbreaking or spectacular, but the action-adventure elements were versatile and I liked how you had to toggle the different tools of Frogger's companion OPART given the situation and it had replay value as it gives you your final results after you beat it (there was even a section devoted to puzzle-solving), which I guess made up for the lack of character development, compelling themes, narrative depth, and for having a one-dimensional villain.  At the end of the day I found it to be likably lighthearted fare and I had fun enough to want to look into the other games.

Hopping in the air

Last August for my next excursion into the post-2001 Frogger series I would play Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue on the Nintendo GameCube, then that November of 2018 I would play the Hudson Soft-developed Frogger: Ancient Shadow which I also got for the GameCube.  Several months had passed since I last got a Frogger game, so this May I decided to get Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog and Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand for the Game Boy Advance--I got the latter two days earlier, but once I got the former I played that one all the way through it then I continued the second game until I beat it.

Follow the flow until you find an opening

It is fascinating that Konami released two Frogger games within the same week, each of them going in a different direction; one direction (3D platforming like in Frogger: The Great Quest) was heavily criticized for its faulty execution and was not attempted again in the series as a result, while the next several Frogger games would adopt the bird's eye viewed template based on this game (including the iterations that had 3D visuals).  Temple of the Frog was the better-received of the two with its contemporary 2001 reception being generally positive, though I can't help but wonder if it's because this was the first time anyone played a Frogger game quite like this one at the time, because in my opinion having only played it this year I found this game to be just okay at best and slight at worst.

🎵 A whole new world 🎵

This game was produced by Will Shen, assistant produced by Jeff Greenhut and Robert Parnell, and directed by Jun Funahashi (who was also audio manager) with Satoshi Narita as KCE America's president, Takuya Kozuki as executive vice president, and senior vice president/product development Kenichirō Imaizumi.  The idea of an action-adventure game with traditional Frogger gameplay elements is a well-founded one and as simple as the gameplay is it is intuitive which makes it understandable why Konami continued with this formula after the fact when it came to the franchise.  I think the slightness value for me comes from going into this game after playing the other post-2001 Frogger titles, among other reasons.

The dialogue that transpires during the map screen simply involves a freeze frame with the two black bars above and below it where the dialogue is written.  The other games established themselves to be silly and lighthearted, but Temple of the Frog takes itself rather seriously making it lack the endearing charm of the other post-2001 titles; I feel that's also true of the titular frog who has got no idle animation and doesn't have his goofy personality here (on top of me not being a fan of his chartreuse-colored body and inflating-deflating body between hops).

Just when I thought I wouldn't be reminded of Ugly Frogger again  🐸

Oh, and the Frogger in this game is completely different than the one in the post-credit Game Over screen, so that's a big disconnect.

But because this game isn't as lighthearted as the subsequent titles of the series, that can make some of his death animations pretty gruesome and somewhat disturbing considering it was geared towards a family audience.  When Frogger gets fried he gradually dissolves into ash without any exaggerated expression beforehand (and maybe it's the dithering effect when the game is paused, but I could swear that I could see his skull during that process), for one, but the most gruesome Frogger death is this.

😨EEUUGGHH,

d'you see that?  Frogger just got vivisected to death, that's horrifying (you can even hear him croak as it occurs which adds even more to the horrific value)!  At least with Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot franchise it established itself as a series that didn't take itself too seriously right from the start with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, making Crash's various death animations amusing in a cartoony fashion.  This Frogger venture doesn't get that benefit, for what came after would lighten up the mood and tone down the severity of his various deaths to a degree.  Because nothing screams family friendly entertainment like seeing the main character sliced in half, said a highly inebriated Konami employee!  😒

Stage exit guarded by skeletal dog

When losing all your lives you're resorted to a choice between using up a continue or going back to the title screen, meaning you'll have to start the stage over if you agreed to use a continue.  That's fine, but what's less fine is the number of continues you have afterwards: say you begun with nine continues (because you adjusted the number in the options screen) and used it up, the next time it happens you somehow went from having nine continues to seven instead of eight (and then from seven to five, five to three, and then three to one).  That... doesn't make any damn sense in the grand scheme of things.  😕

Shocking obstacles to overcome

When you expire a life it goes down in number the way it should, so what excuses the odd drop in number in the continues you use?  Five testers and not one of them felt the need to inform Konami of this strange nonsensicality?  Did they even use up more than one continue during testing?  Though I guess it doesn't really matter because you can resume from where you last left off with nine continues (or as many as you set) again anyway when loading your progress after taking a break, I just find it incredibly bizarre how the continues go down in number in that fashion.  It's also very short as it takes roughly an hour and a half to two hours to beat depending on how you played it.

If you step on those orange stones those enemies

will not harm you

Now I realize how I might come across, but I neither dislike this game nor do I think it's bad, as it is playable in a know your enemy pattern kind of way.  I do appreciate the sense of challenge in regards to the stage layout, and how sometimes you must either step on a switch or collect an elemental icon in order to progress forward; though it can be annoying if you messed up and have to resume from the last checkpoint (if you got too far from it that is).

Coins, coins, coins

There is an arcade flavor to the gameplay, and this is the kind of game that would require you to hop from platform to platform (and if it's a moving platform, you may to wait until the two are beside each to get on the other one), but if it's a collapsible platform you'll have to be quick in your movement and/or changing your position without moving via the shoulder button.  It's neat how the different segments each present their own challenge: in one stage there are two isolated moments when you must escape a section of the room that's flooding, there are certain stages where you must weave between enemies that come from both rows (the sharks in Sea Town, especially),

Conveyor belts and spikes, not a good mix

occasionally you'll be jumping on conveyor belts which may push you in one direction and depending on the condition you'll have to time your move and/or jump properly (sometimes to another conveyor belt), you can jump over snakes and slugs as well as cannonballs, there are plenty of times when you'll have to play the waiting game in regards to enemies until the coast is clear and spikes that protrude from the ground until the coast is clear, in one stage there are moving walls that will attempt to push you in the hole,

Good thing you can jump over cannonballs

and there are a couple instances where Frogger rides on a magic carpet and you can't stop so you'll have to memorize the path to make it through, et al.  I also appreciate how the five different bosses require different strategies in order to defeat them: when facing off against Sultan in Sky City it's a competition to see how many blue gems you can get more than him (times three), the battle against Mr. D in the end is a literal battle of the elements, and when you have to free the airship from Stripe you must step on the matching switches four times before Stripe repairs it otherwise you'll have to do it again and what makes it interesting is that there are warp mazes involved so you'll have to choose carefully and quickly.

Collect as many blue gems as you can

before the time runs out

So it's got those things going for it, but in my opinion Temple of the Frog does suffer a bit from a lack of charm and lighthearted flair, which I realize isn't fair to say since I acknowledge that this game precedes all the other ones that came after, but that's how I felt.  As of writing this review I haven't yet played Frogger Beyond (which Konami Software Shanghai was also involved in, though I aim to rectify that soon), and I haven't beaten Frogger: Ancient Shadow and Frogger: Helmet Chaos on the PlayStation Portable so I can't reserve judgment for those yet, but of the post-2001 Frogger games that I played and beaten that utilized the top-down action-oriented adventure template I found today's game to be the weakest of them.

Headless soldiers

My favorite of the bunch is still Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic, I found it fun and likable even if I don't consider it high art.  Though in all fairness I don't think the post-2001 Frogger titles as a whole are high art entertainment and they're not setting out to be; they're not groundbreaking, they aren't going to win any awards, they're not going to light the world on fire, they're not going to blow your mind or anything--they are simply harmless and lightweight entertainment, most of them with a likable lighthearted charm about them, and sometimes I don't mind playing something harmless and lightweight once in a while.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Frogger!"

Does someone want to tell him?

If you were curious about Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog, it's perfectly playable and okay, it just doesn't inhabit the charm of the following Frogger games but if that doesn't bother you then you might get some enjoyment out of it.  If you'd like to play a game with replay value, the option to choose one of five languages is a neat bonus and thorough searching of the stages will ensure that you progress further.  It was fascinating to see the roots of the post-2001 Frogger games and how they've adopted and/or improved upon the template, but this is one such Frogger venture I played that I found to be passable.

My Personal Score: 6.0/10

d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b

● So it only took until I played through Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic again recently that I realized that in my review for it I called the villain "Eric von Wiesel" instead of "Eric von Viesel"; I fixed all instances of that, but the perfectionist in me hates it when I get things wrong!  😩

● The Disney Channel series Amphibia has also got an excellent voice cast (including Goofy's Bill Farmer voicing Hop Pop Plantar) across the board, and I've been thinking: since Kathleen Barr voiced Frogger in the console games of last decade, wouldn't it be cool if in the second season she would lend her voice to an Amphibia character (recurring or no)?  It's also got frogs in it, why not?  😃  I don't know if it'll happen, but if it does that would be awesome, but if not then it was just a thought.

● I promise you won't have to wait until it's August again for me to tackle another post-2001 Frogger video game review.

Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW allowed); hope you have a hoppin' great day, take care!