Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami Media: Cart/1 Players: 4 Genre: Puzzle/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Frogger has definitely been busy over the last year. Not only has the street crossing pseudo-kamikaze frog experienced an array of face lifts ranging from an updated graphical appearance to the development of a new and believable story, he has also seen steady and consistent work on numerous consoles. Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand is Frogger's most recent immersion. It rekindles the same ideas as the first Frogger's Adventures game and throws in enough extras to make the game an adequate sequel and a brilliant addition to the Frogger family. Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand utilizes the same basic graphics as its predecessor. Players control Frogger through a top down perspective reminiscent of the original Frogger. A variety of colors exist throughout each level producing a nice sense of each different environment, which ranges from lightly colored snow scenes to dark menacing caves. Frogger himself has a sort of comic strip, humorously animated appeal. The other characters such as enemies are equally inviting.
Gameplay: Frogger's Adventures reinvented the classic game of Frogger by transporting it into a modern, appealing world for the Game Boy Advance. Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand makes use of the successes of Frogger's Adventures and throws in a few welcome surprises. Having already established a great gameplay environment, Frogger's Adventures 2 upgrades Frogger's Adventures ' style with new levels and some added challenges. Frogger's mission in Frogger's Adventures 2 has Frogger traveling through different lands in search of pieces of the shattered Eternity Wand. He must retrieve five shards in order to stop the world from being overrun in chaos. Each shard is located in one of five different areas. Just like Frogger's Adventures, Frogger leaps through different locations filled with hazards and obstacles such as mazes or enemy filled lands. At the end of each area, Frogger must use his hopping skills to defeat that levels boss and retrieve the area's wand fragment. Frogger's Adventures 2's exciting new feature that separates it from its prequel is its multiplayer features. Three different games, Reverse Tag, Balloon, and Race, are available for up to four players. Reverse Tag takes the rules of tag and reverses the responsibilities. When you are 'it', your opponents must catch you while you must run from them. Balloon is a simple variation on a 'capture the flag' styled game. Race sets up identical obstacle courses. The first person to end the course wins. Also available for single players is the 'Time Trial', which lets you replay any previously completed level and attempt to outperform each level's times.
Difficulty: The challenges in Frogger's Adventures 2 are slightly harder than those found in Frogger's Adventures. Most of this is due to different layouts and more confusing obstacles you will encounter. Defeating bosses at the end of each level increases with difficulty as the speed of each of the bosses' attacks increase as you move towards beating them. One thing I felt missing was an ability to toggle the speed of obstacles such as moving enemies or platforms. With that ability lacking, the game's difficulty is quite standard and veteran gamers may find that completing each of the level's zones is easy and unchallenging.
Game Mechanics: Much like everything else in Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand, controlling Frogger's movements is identical to the setup in Frogger's Adventures. There aren't many complicated arrangements of key presses necessary to get through a level in Frogger's Adventures 2. Movement is directed by the keypad. Turn in spot by pressing the shoulder buttons. Jump over objects with the A button and use the B button to lash out your tongue. Though simple, it can seem a little awkward when facing a complicated series of directions and tight fits that Frogger must maneuver through. You may often find yourself jumping off of a ledge after forgetting to rotate Frogger correctly. The intriguing model of Frogger's Adventures along with new surroundings and obstacles makes Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand a wonderful addition to the popular line of games. Frogger may be an old toad in the video game world, but his titles keep rejuvenating themselves for new and old gamers alike.
-==Boy, GameVortex Communications AKA Kyle Prestenback
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