Page 11 - OSG Presents Video Game Trader Magazine #14

Ultimate Frogger arcade-faithful remake of Frogger even
appeared on the black and white Tiger
Champion game.com. But there's this yawning gap in
For the Nintendo Entertainment System the 8 bit systems, with the little green hopper
being MIA.
Designed and programmed by Kevin Hanley, Brian Until now. Kevin Hanley decided to pick up
Parker, and James Todd of KHAN Games. Music the ball and create Ultimate Frogger Cham-
by Kevein Hanley.
pion. Since the NES is C-based for pro-
Distributed by RetroZone (www.RetroUSB.com). gramming, it eliminates a lot of the head-
aches associated with cycle counting or
Classics. There's a reason they are modes that the 6 bitters had. So he got
called ―classics.‖ Because they couldn't busy with his buddies, and the result is a
possibly be screwed up. Take a game pretty professional looking package, complete with shrink-wrap, cart sleeve, a
like Tetris. Or Pac-Man. These are very green translucent cart shell, a little rubber frog, and best of all, A STYRO-
simple games, easy to get into, easy to FOAM BLOCK!!! I bet that would fetch a pretty penny on eBay!
get somewhere with, regardless of your
skill level, you were able to spend time The instruction manual, by the way, is pretty entertaining. It goes for some
and have fun with these games. Great stuff, right? light jokes, especially in the product liability warnings. You won't guffaw, but
you will get a smirk or two out of it.
The thing about classics, though, is that, as the video game field advances,
developers become more interested in creating new thrills, than understanding Tim to pull out my NES, remove the copy of Bump 'N Jump that has, more or
why the games of the past did so well. Homebrewers, and garage program- less, taken up permanent residence in there, and pop in the cart. Simply put,
mers, fill the void, creating clones or remakes of the classics to share with it is Frogger. It's a single boarder with the screen split into two regions. The
others who don't know what they‘re missing. first is a highway, with five lanes of traffic that you have to hop your frog
through. The frog jumps, traveling a fixed distance each time, so you won't be
The question on many developers minds is, ―what game do I want to pro- nudging in different directions here. Get to the center divider, periodically
gram?‖ For some people, it's finding a game that has never made it to a par- patrolled by a snake, and you have to make it across the river. Here, instead
ticular platform and deliver those goods. (I had been toying with creating a of dodging the obstacles, you have to make contact with them to reach one of
Zaxxon clone starring Tux The Linux Penguin and setting it underwater until I the five home bays at the top of the screen. All the while, a countdown timer
saw Zaxxon RR and abandoned the idea. I wanted a Zaxxon experience, steadily depletes.
someone else did it, I was happy.)
The game isn't bad. Really. But then again, it's tough to screw up Frogger.
In many ways, it truly is surprising that Frogger has never appeared on the As long as the collision detection works fine, you're good to go.
Nintendo Entertainment System. The system had games that captured the
arcade feel (and sounds) of Gyruss, Donkey Kong, and scores of other 8 bit And therein lies the rub, the collision detection is kind of picky. Maneuvering
games. Tengen even tried to bring After Burner to it (which I knew wouldn't through traffic, you don't have a lot of room for error, as even a pixel is enough
work. It couldn't be pulled off on the more powerful Sega Master System, so to squish your frog. Not a problem in the early levels, but later in the games,
the NES had no chance). Frogger even made it to the Sega Genesis, becom- where you have to move with traffic until an opening appears, a jump too soon
ing one of the last official retail releases on the system. Frogger was ported to spells instant doom. As traffic gets heavier and the river objects get more
just about every 6 bit system by Parker Brothers. PSION even made a version sparse, it really becomes a challenge to stay on top of it all without putting that
of Frogger for the Timex/Sinclair 1000 (I had it), making up for the crude toe over the line.
graphics by splitting the action between two separate screens. It was part of It should also be noted that the game has no sound effects, just background
the second round of releases just before the unit was given up on, but a very music. The music starts off with the familiar Frogger theme, but then goes for
an action remix that sounds more appropriate for a military action game like
Rush 'N Attack than Frogger.

The game also features a two-player option. But instead of alternating turns
like all the other versions, here you are both on screen at the same time in a
simple race, building a cooperative score while trying to get more frogs in the
top bays than the other. Interesting, but not interesting enough.
Ultimate Frogger Champion is what it is – a faithful remake of Frogger. Al-
though, and I know this is a bit picky, I wasn't crazy for the background music
and the lack of sound effects. Despite how accurate it is, when there are so
many other versions with the complete package, UFC is actually at a disad-
vantage. I want to give Hanley bigger ups than I am, but I just can't see ditch-
ing the pseudo 3D remake on my computer or my Genesis version or my great
Atari 2600 port or....in favor of it.

www.VideoGameTrader.com • Winter 2009/2010 • Issue #14 • Video Game Trader Magazine • 11