Previewed: June 15, 2004
Previewed by: Matt Gonzales

Publisher
Bandai

Developer
Media Factory

Release Date: June, 2004
Genre: Sports
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

View Screenshots (8 Images)

This is crux of the matter when it comes to Japanese games versus American games. The cultural divide is much wider than you might think. Japanese games tend to be more colorful, almost childlike in their aesthetics, with deceptively simple - if very unusual - game mechanics. Case in point, Bandai's RibbitKing (see, even the names are weird) takes the seemingly mundane sport of golf and injects it with a very Japanese sense of style.

"Frolf", as the game calls it, involves the same basic goal of golf with the notable difference being that the ball is replaced with a scared frog. At least you don't actually hit him. Instead, in the guise of some anthropomorphic creature, you whack the business end of a small catapult which launches our addled amphibian towards the target hole - or pond, in this case, which inexplicably has a giant diamond floating above it. Of course, along the way your frog will have to get past various traps such as snakes in the grass and giant spider webs. While also making use of strange power ups such as tasty insects and mystery balloons replete with prizes.

The addictive element in this game - as there is with many Japanese games - is the unpredictability of the frog's path on the course. Say you send him flying through the air, land in the rough and get grabbed by a nearby snake. By using the analog stick, you are given the chance to wriggle free of the reptile's bloodlust and possibly bounce a few extra yards towards your destination - or into further peril. So far this simple, if surreal, game proved to be oddly compelling as I found myself searching for ways to get my frolf ball from point A to point B in the fewest strokes while maximizing my points via the stringing of events.

On one hole, my frolf ball soared through the air, trampolined off of a spider web into the rough, where escaping from a snake's jaws caused him to be tossed towards the nearby hole, where he bounced into the clear blue waters for a sweet eagle. I literally found myself starting out of my chair, whooping and hollering appreciatively over my serendipity. At that point, I was reminded of the moped analogy. Import games are like mopeds: they're fun to ride, but you wouldn't want your friends to catch you with one.

While the laws of economics normally prevent most Japanese games of this sort from ever making it over to our shores, those that do often provide the adventurous import gamers with gems of quirky gameplay. Will frolf start a revolution? Probably not, but it still beats playing the latest Spongebob Squarepants game...(shudder)