Indies are certainly helping scratch that itch with stuff like A Hat in Time and New Super Lucky's Tale, but yeah you don't see them as often from big name companies. Even first parties to some extent, Nintendo at least still puts out new 3D Marios every couple of years that are very well made and maybe we'll get a new DKC from Retro once they finish Metroid Prime 4. Sony really doesn't do patformers much anymore (the PS2 era was when that was a huge focus for them), they're way more about story driven action-adventures nowadays. And as for Microsoft they do have the amazing Ori series but their biggest IPs are generally shooters like Halo and Gears.
@@agentblackbird9435 Yep that one, and he ended up liking it a lot! I think he even said it's one of - if not the best game in the series and that he wished that it would've continued after that game. But of course Konami being...well Konami that sorta didn't happened, instead they decided to *reboot the entire series again* with a baby's first Frogger looking game on the same system as Helmet Chaos, that being the DS
Hey-o! WR holder for all four of these games here. I'm so happy you made this video and showed this series some love! (Well, the games that deserve love, at least.) Temple of the Frog was the first video game I ever played, and it was my first speedrun as well. I also consider it the best-controlling GBA Frogger from a speedrunning standpoint, although The Forgotten Relic is pretty close. I've played (and beaten) Zapper GBA before, too; let's just say the experience was more painful than memorable. PS. I'm very knowledgeable about every one of the handheld Frogger games (GBA, DS, 3DS, etc), so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!
@@acepimpin11 I'm actually a pretty big fan of the color of cheddar cheese. Bold, delicious, and perfect. As far as my favorite Frogger game, however... Temple of the Frog definitely takes it for me. It's simple, every world is unique, and it just feels so good and natural to play. The Forgotten Relic is a close 2nd, as it controls almost exactly like TotF (even smoother, in fact), ties various ARPG elements in cleanly, and has some nice lengthy gameplay. The Lost Wand takes 3rd place; it doesn't have the input buffers that these other two games have, so the controls feel a bit stiff to me, but it's also a solid title in its own right.
The scuba gear issue actually was in a Zelda game, specifically the Mermaid Suit in Oracle of Ages. While you were underwater in a top-down area, your B button item was effectively disabled, since that became the surface button.
Something I think is worth mentioning for Temple Of The Frog: the soundtrack is really good for what it's working with! Ancient Ruins 1 & Sea Town 1 & 2 are super memorable for me.
Everytime I see GB(A) reviews, I start to feel like these games are the perfect ground to learn basic game design. Replicating any of these seems like a perfect starting point! Also, the water & lava animations (15:34) are an absolute compression nightmare for RU-vid. :D
3:09 I remember that part REALLY creeped me out as a kid. Plus it was so abrupt and unexplained. God, even 19 years later Great Quest unnerves me. But yeah, Forgotten Relic and Lost Wand are really good. Definitely an improvement. The penguin character in FR appears in several of Konami's games, such as the Parodius series.
Bro, Lost Wand looks like a ton of fun. I'd love to see a new Frogger game in that style, evolved a bit and even bigger than before. I'd totally play that.
Okay, so I’ve been on a binging spree watching your content Nitro. Dude, you do a great job and I’m surprised that I only heard of you only recently. You put in a lot of work and it’s so fascinating to see your growth from videos 5 years ago to today’s videos. Consider myself to be a sub, keep up the good work!
This lit up my lunch break! Nice to relax and watch some chill gaming reviews. Also footnote, I looooove GBA sprite aeshetic, even if it's too bright sometimes. It's really the last bastion of true 2d-sprite based art directions since it was still limited by hardware and not purely an aesthetic choice. A lot of GBA spriting looks gorgeous!
I think indie games did a good job at both. There are games that have stayed insanely faithful for for the sake of thematics, and ones that managed to take a style that would have died off otherwise and rolled with it to bring it to heights it never would've reached. Hyper light drifter is still one of the best looking pixel art games to date, even though it's using purely as a stylistic choice. Axiom Verge on the other hand stayed extremely faithful to old NES/SNES era art, and used that faithfulness to make the game feel even weirder and more alien that it would've been. There was a joke about PS1 style indie games _years_ back in the Banned Memories video, and now that's actually the new video game trend. Doing the exact same thing for that lost art style as pixel art games did. You have the same sort of dichotomy too, those games that want to stay insanely faithful to the point where someone is actually writing their own engine to make sure you can't exceed the PS1's limitations. And games that just want to capture the spirit of it, what them look so striking in the first place.
@@Dogman_35 I totally get you! I love modern Pixel titles, but for me, the GBA and DS are so interesting because they're the last true generation of hardware-limitation driven pixel graphics. They aren't beholden to the era of Snes so they can do a lot more visually but they aren't artificially limiting themselves to pixels either, it's literally their only option. It's very interesting and serves as sort of a swan song to that type of game aesthetic development!
Thanks for letting me know Temple Of The Frog had a sequel, especially since I've been replaying my GBA again. SMA2 was also my jam as a kid, but now it's DKC3. Yes I love it more than 2.
I really really enjoy your more laid back and honest/off the cuff-feeling videos. Even if they're more heavily scripted than you let on, the fact that there's doubt about that at all is a sign ya did a good job.
GLOVER. I love when you put glover music in the background....also the video was alright. Nah jk it was another great video as always! Have more considerations for my gameboy micro, thanks!
"It'd be like if the Goron Tunic and the Shield occupied two of your C-buttons." After speaking of the Game Boy Zelda series which literally has this exact problem with the shield and a whole host of supposed-to-be-permanent upgrades. ;P Good thing Link's Awakening got a remake to fix that nonsense.
I think Frogger Beyond was actually the Frogger game I had as a kid and I remember really enjoying it, though I always got stuck on one part that I can't quite remember. Excited for the video!
Seeing your videos legit always makes me happy. You honestly create brilliant content. Being supporting you for years and i’m still gonna be supporting you till the end bro. Keep it up.
Frogger: Temple of the Frog was my very first GBA game, which I got since I grew up with the first Frogger game for PSX and PC. Its surprising to hear that it was a huge hit, yet no one has talked about it before.
I honest to heck love that all of these start with frogger wishing for adventure then suddenly UTTER CHAOS giving him exactly what he wished for like it’s some kind of ironic curse
As a kid, I had Frogger 2: The Lost Wand, and I have been wanting to go back to it. Not only is the gameplay pretty good, but two words sum up a solid selling point: THE MUSIC. If you haven't heard this game's soundtrack, I highly recommend you do so. It's bouncy and fun, while also being a tad toned at times to fit with the setting. All in all, surprising for a GBA game. I personally would recommend the Stage Select theme to draw an example......
This is why I really love your channel. You go in depth on every aspect and angle of a series. I love hearing about these GBA games in depth and not just as a little comment tacked onto the end of a bigger video. Thank you so much. I'm always looking forward to you talking about a game series that has oddball entries that barely anyone talks about. Like if you did Jak and Daxter, you'd talk about Jak X, Daxter, and that weird Lost Frontier game that I've never heard anyone talk about.
I’m really glad you liked the lost wand, cause I played it a ton growing up. And I’m also glad that it was actually good and my nostalgia wasn’t just tricking me
I sincerely hope nitro covers the gba kirby games because those were great. Specifically nightmare in dreamland. I had a lot of great memories with that one.
the good ending on Great Quest is pretty funny too as the princess mentions that her and Frogger are going off to slay giant beasts and defend her from the people that try to kidnap her every month and Frogger remarks that being a frog wasn't so bad after all.
I have loads of memories with Temple of the Frog on GBA. It was pretty much my main experience with the frogger series in general. I remember clearly being stuck on world 2 for so long because that part in the 2nd stage where you had to run from the rushing water always scared me as a kid
It'll always be nice to see RU-vidrs review Frogger games that aren't The Great Quest on PS2, so thanks for this video. I'm also really happy to see how much you enjoyed The Lost Wand, it is easily one of the better Frogger games. It's my second favorite for sure.
@@anonymouskaiju9101 for some reason I never got a notification for your reply, but ive been binging these old nitrorad frogger reviews so i see your reply now. if you still care, my personal favorite is Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue.
Temple of the frog is also the only frogger game I ever played growing up! I grew up with it. I have no memory of ever getting it, but I still occasionally boot it up when I’m in the mood for a throwback game. Lots of good memories with that one, so I’m glad it mostly holds up for you too
First non-PC system I ever owned was a GBA. The first game I got for that? Frogger’s Adventures 2: The Lost Wand. So glad you appreciated it, as it holds a special spot within my heart.
I'm glad you covered forgotten relic. It was one of my favorite games growing up. I was disappointed that there was next to nothing on RU-vid about forgotten relic. It is one of my favorite GBA games!
@@CasaiAgicap Btw, Reignited Trilogy was made by Toys for Bob and not by Vicarious Visions. And well, they were the main developers of Skylanders, so that's their apology to Spyro.
@@aleblasco39 Yeah, you're totally right there, I don't know where I got it in my head that they did Reignited. I could have sworn I read something that they did when I looked it up before I wrote the comment, but Lord if I can find anything now.
I played Temple of the Frog so many times as a kid. That game made me love Frogger and I eventually got Frogger Beyond, all because the store clerk personally recommended it to me at KB Games. Despite the frustration at one particular boss, I do like it. Soundtrack is what I remember the most in the game. We never found out that there were other titles in the series. *cough*
I never owned a GBA back in the day, but I have played loads of GBA via emulation since then, and there is just something I adore about the graphics and art style of this console.
I love this retrospective series so much for giving me an overview of all Frogger’a development that I missed. I’ve played a lot of games that started in the 80s arcades but was really intimidated by Frogger. There’s so many of them. I dipped my toes into “Helmet Chaos” but never got much farther than that. I knew the Great Quest character looked ugly as sin and his “Beyond”-era redesign looked much better but didn’t know what sucked or didn’t. I long assumed that the first “Frogger’s Adventures” was just like the Great Quest on GBA and learned something today.
Temple of the Frog is pure nostalgia for me. I still remember the first (and I think only) time I ever beat the game. My family and I were waiting to eat in a mexican restaurant, it was taking forever. I pulled out the game, got to the last level, and finally beat the final boss. Phase 3 was the worst, man.
Heck yeah, i was waiting to see temple of the frog reviewed. I loved that game as a kid. Also, i wonder I'll see a frogger game covered here that i barely remember. All I know was that it felt like the official frogger style in 3d for the computer. The only bit of it I can remember was a desert stage.
Frogger's design in The Lost Wand and future titles has always been a fave of mine. It's simple, cute, light-hearted, and cartoony. I'm surprised that some people actually dislike it. His personality is also pretty charming and likeable these games compared to his more perverted, selfish Shrek wannabe persona in The Great Quest. I'm also curious about how you'll tackle Frogger's Adventure The Rescue and Ancient Shadows. I remember liking The Rescue quite a bit, and the music that game is by far my personal favorite of the series.
James, I'm really digging this Frogger marathon. Even towards the beginning of it, you got me replaying the GBA games plus the later two I missed. Can't wait for the next episode!
I've been looking forward to the Temple of the Frog review. This along with Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge were childhood favorites of mine. I'm glad to hear they both hold up. I'll definitely have to check out those other GBA games as well as Zapper, since I didn't know about those til this series.
i know you probably mentioned it as a passing reference more than anything, but man, i'd love to see you talk about the layton games someday. such a great series!
Thanks for introducing me to some overlooked Frogger games on the GBA! I really appreciate seeing these kinds of reviews that let me know if a game I'm not familiar with is worth my time or not.
Temple of the Frog and Journey were my CHILDHOOD.... I remember struggling on the sky temple boss since it didn't tell you the orange gems subtracted your score (I was in kindergarten shush 😂) Can still recall every music track off by heart, honestly one of the best on the GBA! And Journey... Man that shit taught me even the simplest of videogames can have a killer storyline to back it up, I still occasionally go back to that to this day lol.
FYI The Lost Wand (due to its Japanese development origin) and The Forgotten Relic also got released in Japan, since the first PS1 Frogger game (and because the original 1981 Frogger was made in Japan despite the Western popularity), in fact I played the Japanese version of The Lost Wand (as Mahō Kuni no Daibōken) before the Western versions years ago, and I also played the GBA The Great Quest as well.
Hey dude, just discovered your channel, I just wanted to say I dig your format a lot. Rather than lazily dunking on old games, you give everything a fair shot and most importantly, you play every game to the end and judge the game as a whole, rather than letting some bad elements turn you off immediately. I also like your format of looking at an entire series of games and teasing the next installment at the end. Great stuff!
Huh I didn’t really know that there were frogger games on the GBA And the only frogger game that I’ve played in my GBA was unfortunately the original one
Looking back, yeah there was a really, really small gap between the GBA and the DS. GBA came out in '01, DS came out in 04. 3 years. That's just so wack to me.
Ah, Temple of the Frog was one of the first GBA games I ever owned next to Shrek Swampkart Speedway and Monster Force... kind of an odd ball selection of titles there but I eventually got the heavy hitters as time went on. Vicarious Visions did a ton of stuff on the GBA, probably almost as much as Nintendo did themselves. Now I want to play Lost Wand, the style is cute and I always enjoy a good challenge
I cannot begin to describe the mix of surprise, relief, and delight at the new art style. The old one just had this... creepiness to it, like the creepiness of the PS2 game's writing just bled into everything about it.
Temple of the Frog was one of the first games I ever played and I remember being so frustrated at it due to how bad I was at games. I wasn't used to losing all your lives putting you back at the beginning of the world. I don't think I ever finished it, I kept getting stuck being unable to beat the final sky world, maybe I should give it another go one of these days.
You know what franchise had a similar struggle? Bomberman. I know you reviewed Bomberman Hero already, but other games like 64, Generation (my first ever Bomberman game), and Jetters come to mind.
lost wand has the absolute cutest art style from all of the game, frogger looks so cute and tiny!! i want to adopt him!!!! finally we can forget that hideous design
that first gba frogger game is straight up like Zapper similar death animations and gameplay where you cant beat the level until you collect a certain number of items
