I like cute little games, we need more of those. But, of course, when the game is super small, mostly cute rather than engaging or involved and at the same time costs money, the question of “is it worth it” becomes somewhat complicated. Case (no pun intended) in point – Frog Detective titles. I enjoyed the first two, but will you?
Essentially, the Frog Detective games feel like those early Sam & Max sequels from Telltale Games, except if the whole episode was just one small location. And the script was all 2010 meta and cute rather than being a proper story. Which is both good and not so good. On one hand, unlike those early attempts from Telltale, both Frog Detective games available now are very short, 30-60 minutes to complete the story at most. They do precisely what they want to, don’t overstay the welcome, hug you and leave your life forever. They’re also super clear on what they expect of you to continue the story and don’t pretend to be non-linear. But at the same time, due to this short experience and awkwardly cute script, they don’t really give you much.
The Haunted Island, the first title, is the simpler of two and, arguably, for the better. It has a clear “to do” flow, its absurd and cute story works as it should, it doesn’t have any unnecessary extras and doesn’t pretend to be something it is not. You just talk to the characters, help them in a small way, get a reward which most likely helps someone else and in the end solve the case for a happy ending.
The Case of the Invisible Wizard tries to be more complicated than the original and I can’t say that it helps the title. It adds a concept of a notebook to keep all the detective stuff in (and add stickers so it looks nice), but since the gameplay itself is as simple as it was in the first game, all this achieves is making simple things take longer while the notebook update animations are playing. In addition, for whatever reason, there’s a little choice that slightly alters your ending, which is absolutely meaningless, yet requires you to restart the entire game if you want to see the tiny change it entails.
Both games are enjoyable, yet already it’s quite obvious that having more of the same will become boring, as it will literally be more of the exact same (with other cutesy nonsense humour instead of the one we had already). Yet making the game seem more complicated, like Invisible Wizard tried to, will feel pointless and unnecessarily frustrating. So, I’m curious as to where the series will go from here. As it is right now? I’d suggest checking The Haunted Island if you’re in the mood for something really short, simple and cute and from there deciding if you want more of the same or not.
Update from 2022: The final game of this “trilogy” is exactly the same as the first two. So if you liked them, go for the final one as well.