Superfrog HD is a remaster of the Amiga game that was released for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3. However, there are some changes to the level design. The game is a platformer with 24 levels spread across six worlds. You start off with the “new” levels, which are the easier, reamstered versions in widescreen. At the end of each level, you play a slot minigame to unlock the original levels, which are much harder.
There is a simple story to explain why you are controlling a frog. You see, there were a prince and princess who were in love. Then along came a witch to whisk the princess away and turn the prince into a frog. The prince must then travel to save the princess. The controls are simple. The prince can jump and since he is now a frog, he can jump really high. Unfortunately, the controls aren’t tight and the prince is way too floaty. There are times where you expect him to stop but he doesn’t and so falls to his death. Other times you want to jump but it is just a tad bit off and you fall over the edge. It can get pretty frustrating with how slippery he can be.
There are two power ups that you can obtain during a level. The first allows you to slowly float down after a jump, which extends the already long jump and is an extremely useful ability. The other ability is being able to throw items to help defeat enemies from a distance. Without this ability, you would have to jump on top of them, or even forced to avoid them as they cannot be killed by jumping.
The prince has a health bar. Touching an enemy or certain obstacles will decrease it. Lose all five slots and you lose a life. While this sounds fair, it is not since there are spikes which are an instant loss of life. It’s unfair because of the slippery nature of the controls so that you feel that the death is not your fault. Hit boxes are off as jumping slightly away from the center of the enemy will cause you to lose health and stun you.
While there are a lot of flaws with the game, the levels are fairly easy. Lose all your lives and you will have to repeat it from the beginning. The levels are big and it is easy to get lost in them. There are heaps of collectibles and they are mainly for achieving higher scores for the leaderboard at the end. There is a generous time limit, as long as you’re constantly moving and not staying at one place for too long, you won’t run out of time. While the gameplay does not evolve at all during the game, you can feel yourself getting better and more used to the controls. You’ll go longer without worrying and you’ll find the plentiful secret areas. The only negative is when you accidentally die by touching a spike as it always feel cheap.
At the end of each world is a simple boss battle. You basically just spam the throw button while dodging their attacks. It never evolves too much other than adding in some enemies that fire projectiles at you. The difficulty slowly rises and the last world has a heap of elements that make it a frustrating experience. Not only does it put spikes that are easy to blend into the background, but it puts numerous enemies that rapid fire projectiles. The worst part is if you get hit and you get stunned, you’ll sink like a rock losing all control and probably fall on top of a spike. It is a very cheap and lazy design that sucks out all the fun that you can in the beginning of the game.
Overall, Superfrog HD, despite the mediocre and negative reviews, isn’t actually as bad as those make it sound. The graphics looks great and it is a colorful 2D platformer that works well. Yes, the spikes are cheap, as is getting stunned by a simple touch. However, there is a huge exploration aspect and nothing beats speeding your way through the platforming in a perfect run.
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