Frogger

After an hour of Frogger, Fantastic Four is starting to look pretty good

Publisher: Hasbro Interactive
Developer: Millenium Interactive
Genre: Adventure/ Platform

Frogger in the arcades was a safe, if repetitive, game, memorable for both its great opening music and simple gameplay. Hasbro has taken this basic premise and brought it into the 90's as an all-new PSX game, and yes, it’s still just as repetitive. This is just the beginning of Frogger’s problems, however -- you can also add terrible audio, control, and design to that list.

Frogger's ten environments are all inspired by themes in the original game, with moving logs and alligators to avoid while you guide your frog to safety. But the closeness of the camera makes it impossible to tell where you’re supposed to go, so it gets frustrating very quickly. Also, you can’t just float around, either, as there’s a time limit. Add even more frustration.

The terribly poor control makes it difficult to jump from platform to platform as well. Add to this an impossibly high level of difficulty and you have an unplayable game.

A multiplayer option exists, but unfortunately its split screens make the playing area smaller still, with the end result that players can't see what's going on and take cheap hits all the time. The only thing it's really good for is showing that the phrase "misery loves company" is true.

The graphics, it has to be said, aren’t that bad. The flat-shaded polygons give the game a pleasant cartoonish look. But that's it on the positive side. The rest of the game conspires to make Frogger one of the worst PlayStation games yet seen. Avoid it at all costs.