It seems I start most of my reviews talking about how I gravitate towards cozy and wholesome games, and I do. There is an abundance of cozy games out there, and only so much time to play them, but if the game is cozy, wholesome, has an adorable main character, and puzzles…HEAVEN!!
Walk the Frog is a new point-and-click puzzle game brought to us by a studio with the same name and published alongside Bright Gambit. The gameplay really caught my attention when I saw the reveal for it. It has a fantastic hand-drawn animation style, and you move the cute froggy named Froggo through the game by reorganizing sticky notes to create a pathway.
When you first awake, you’re hungry for flies, leading you to your first puzzle. What seems at first will be a shallow character in Froggo, you will realize over the duration spent with him that he is so much more than a simple hungry frog. You will uncover that he is a caring friend, as well as a leader in the ‘community’.
Waking up after a long, cold winter, you will move through a forest, an underground city, etc., you are trying to make your way home to the pond. Throughout your journey, you will encounter adorable critters, some with side quests for you. Each character has their own backstory, and the characters are well-rounded. I found myself invested in knowing more about each of them.
When you first meet these characters, a lot will seem aloof, and almost rude but with the help of well-written, and sometimes sassy dialogue, you will break down the initial walls of the animals you meet.
There’s a rat in a hat who is also lost, and a father stork that can’t find his storklings. You will help them, guiding the little rat out of his cave and finding the children. Puzzles within puzzles, I loved it. None of the puzzles frustrated me too much, but some did make me scratch my head a little, and I loved having the little “A-ha” moment when things clicked for me.
There are also a few romance stories that were adorable. Oh, and I can’t forget the very important dung beetle, El Duke, who asks me to lure a salamander out of the way, so he’ll let me use a shortcut.
The main story is broken into 3 chapters and involves 18 levels. The puzzles become increasingly complex and even involve moments where you might be in darkness and must move a sticky note near a light source to see what it is before placing it in its location. If the puzzle isn’t complete, the frog won’t move, or he’ll only move as far as he can. You can move pieces as often as you like, though, so there really isn’t a fail state. Speaking of the darkness, there are never any scary moments, so this is a game suitable for a lot of gamers. I can see couples/family members playing this together, deciphering the puzzles and watching the story play out.
One lovely and interesting mechanic is the use of water. When you move certain sticky notes into their place, the water flows into the space. Small detail, unexpected and extremely well done.
After each main story component, Froggo gets a new journal entry. I loved reading and seeing how Froggo felt and experienced the world around him.
The game is very relaxing. The soft piano accompanies the sounds of rain, crickets, etc. I loved that balance of the soundtrack/sounds with the cozy and wholesome gameplay and dialogue.
This is a point-and-click game at its core, and I was able to play the entire game using just a mouse (and space bar if I wanted to speed up the dialogue). I think this makes the game pretty accessible, too. There aren’t any quick time events, and you can take as much time as you need. I didn’t see the ability to use a controller, not that I think it would be more helpful in a game like this. Point and click games, in my experience, always feel better using a mouse.
This short game (less than 5 hours) is delightful. Although I would have loved more, it didn’t overstay its welcome and did what it set out to do. It made me fall in love with Froggo and his adventures. Walk the Frog is wholesome, charming, cozy and full of feeling. I really hope to see Walk the Frog (the studio) make more games in the future.
Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.
**Special Thanks to Walk the Frog for the review code**
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