- Developer: Half Past Yellow
- Publisher: Merge Games
- Release Date: 12/07/2022
- Price: £19.99 / $19.99
- Version reviewed: 1.0.4
Introducing: Time on Frog Island Switch Review
The Switch definitely has no shortage of cute exploration games where you set your own pace and just explore, craft and befriend simply as you like it. With Time on Frog Island we get a fresh froggy entry to the genre.
The game starts with you getting shipwrecked on a small island. You quickly realise that your beloved ship is in need of repairs and missing a few parts. Luckily, the island is inhabited by humanoid frogs. They’re a diverse bunch ranging from a farmer to a priest to a diva and finally to the chief of the village, an axolotl. All of them have their individual problems and that is where you come in. Tit for tat bartering is on your menu and you will need to fetch various things and solve interesting puzzles to turn the frogs into friends and convince them to give away necessary parts for your ship.
Want that sail? Deliver this letter to get it!
Repairing your ship is your main concern. The few broken planks can be found floating next to the shipwreck and pose no problem. Finding the sail, rudder, rope, and steering wheel, however, force you to run around the island fulfilling the wishes of its froggy inhabitants. What makes this delightful, if a bit repetitive, is the fact that some of the quests can be completed in various ways. Perhaps you don’t want to gain access to a place by helping out someone but simply drop into the location from above to collect what you need? This, as well as giving you special abilities (A frog’s jump! A frog’s tongue, even!) are possible and freshen up the game.
Once you manage to leave the island, postgame awaits. Here, you can continue playing to collect various achievements by helping even more frogs, bartering for money and becoming a house owner and part-time farmer. The quests and gameplay after the credits roll are as charming as the main mission. However, they don’t take a lot of time either, so that the overall game might feel short. It’s short, but sweet, my reply would be.
Toad-ally great graphics
Time on Frog Island has a lovely cartoony artstyle. Both your character and the frogs you interact with are well designed. The idea to use graphical speech bubbles instead of text is a nice one, and the fact that different colours are also represented by different symbols in these add further praise for accessibility.
Time on Frog Island‘s soundtrack is laid back, fitting for a game focussing on casual exploration. More emphasis has been given to the various sound effects you can enjoy while traversing the island. These are well done and fitting.
No bugs in the story
While the game plays well on Switch both docked and handheld, with only a few stutters here and there, I’ve encountered a nasty bug placing objects on the ground. Sometimes you place an object only for it to pass through the ground and vanish into, well, wherever these objects vanish to. This is not game breaking, as the objects reappear after quitting the game and reloading, but quite shocking if it happens to a part needed for ship repairs that you worked so hard for to get. It can even happen to your character trying to walk over a bridge at times.
Conclusion
Time on Frog island is a charming game that does a lot of things right. The story is pleasant and well executed. It’s a delight to play and I couldn’t put it down even after completing it. For those of you who are into achievements, there are quite a lot of them to get and they require you to finish the game more than once.
PROS
- The world is cute, has a variety of inhabitants and the story is charming.
- The puzzles are great with more than one way to solve them.
- The main story is completable in a few hours.
CONS
- It can get tedious to fulfil the wishes of your froggy friends as you will be running around fetching a lot of stuff. You can only carry one item at a time!
- People like me, who are navigationally challenged, will find it hard to navigate the world for a lack of a map.
- Because of the short time in which you can play through the main story, some people might consider the price too high.
Verdict
Time on Frog Island is a great little game and well worth your time and money. If you enjoyed A Short Hike or Haven Park, it is the right game for you!
