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E3 2011: Frogger 3D Preview

This iconic video game character makes its first leap onto Nintendo's latest handheld.

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Frogger is celebrating its 30th birthday this year, joining the ranks of Pac-Man as a video game icon that continues to live on. Like Pac-Man, it got its start in the early '80s in the arcades and has had its fair share of remakes over the last three decades. Konami is bringing Frogger back, in 3D of course, using the 3D effects of the Nintendo 3DS and its StreetPass options, but it's sticking to the traditional formula of getting to the other side--albeit with more hazards.

Traffic has always been a problem in the world of Frogger.
Traffic has always been a problem in the world of Frogger.

We played with some early code that still wasn't fully translated, and StreetPass wasn't up and running yet. But we did manage to make it through the first world (out of six) to get an idea of how Frogger 3D plays out. Before the game even started, we were whisked back to 1981, where we had to get our pixelated frog to his home, dodging cars and skipping on logs. We only had to do this once (without dying), but right after, the game transformed into an arcade cabinet, which then transformed into a full-fledged menu screen.

The single-player mode has 60 stages broken up into six themed worlds. Like in the original game, you must find a way to get to your goal moving up, down, left, or right while dodging the never-ending stream of cars. This time the world is much bigger, with traffic lights to consider, manholes, pylons, falling plants, cars of all shapes and sizes, and an enormous truck that plows through three lanes of traffic. The truck actually comes in handy, though--as long as you're not in front of it--because it clears traffic for a few seconds. In Frogger 3D, each stage introduces something new, so you'll not only have to maneuver around cars to get to the goal, but you'll have to work with what has been given to you. The stages are a decent size, and the camera is fixed, but a map on the touch screen will mark where the goal is in relation to you. In some levels, there are blocks that you can climb and leap off of and other amphibian friends that are much bigger than you who lend a hand. For example, one frog that you can hop onto is big enough to block traffic. It acts as a power-up, and you have 10 seconds to get through traffic without being harmed. Another frog we ran into wasn't able to protect us from traffic, but it was able to eat the extra-large tomatoes that stood in our way.

At the end of world one, there was a boss battle with a truck. We like to think that it was a boss battle because we were now at eye level with our frog with a much closer view of the street and had to dodge cars and trucks coming straight at us at high speeds. Here we were given spikes on wheels, which we had to push left or right to get them under the tires of the truck. Thankfully the truck was raised so we could avoid getting squished by staying between the tires. This doesn't work with the regular cars, though we tried. After a failed attempt, instead of being squished, our frog was launched toward us with a hilarious splat (now imagine it slowly sliding off your DS screen). Eventually we were able to pop enough tires to stop the truck, hop into the back to snag all the coins, and head toward world two. Coins are strewn about each level and can possibly be used to unlock concept art. We say possibly, because the text was still in Japanese.

In the main menu we saw a couple of other modes worth mentioning, such as a four-player multiplayer mode where you compete against friends to get to your goal. Forever Crossing mode is where the game reverts back to the 1980s style, and the goal is to get as far as you can with no finish line in sight.

It looks like Frogger will go beyond the city streets.
It looks like Frogger will go beyond the city streets.

Frogger 3D's playful new graphics suit the gameplay and tone that the game is going for, and the inclusion of the retro version of Frogger is a nice touch. Because each stage introduces something new to the scene, and the layout is entirely different, it always feels like there's a new challenge lying ahead. The system's 3D effects make more of an impact in the main menu, where your frog leaps toward you before starting a stage, and you get a better sense of the details in the environment when barrels, signs, and other things are lying on different planes. In the levels themselves, it's more of an overhead view, so shuffling the slider on and off doesn't make too much of a difference.

Whether you want to relive the glory days of the playing arcade games in the 1980s or it's your first time guiding Frogger to safety, Frogger 3D looks to have something for everyone and will be available on the 3DS this fall.

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