Frogger is a simple, classic title that has stood the test of time. The player controls the titular frog, just trying to get home. In order to get there, the frog has to jump across logs, dodge alligators, and try not to end up as roadkill while crossing a busy highway. But what if there were no cars? What if our friendly frog could simply amble through a 15-minute city, planned to allow for bike paths, pedestrian walkways, and public transit? Woe Industries, the developer behind experiments like Myth FPS and Dr. Mario Insurance, is brave enough to ask that question.
Frogger: Walkable City is a 45-minute fan game created with RPG Maker. In a world without cars, the frog is able to freely explore. At first, everything seems to be peaceful and tranquil. I stop to chat with someone outside the farmer’s market, and they proudly tell me they can host this farmer’s market 24/7 thanks to a successful civic planning system. Kids scamper around a playground, celebrating their freedom in a city safely designed to meet their needs. Sure, there’s a stranger in a cloak who warns you about a hidden section of the bar, but it’s probably fine.
The more I explore, the stranger things get. I don’t want to spoil the fun, but within a few minutes of my first playthrough, I stumbled across a mini-mart. The nice young man behind the counter told me there was a coffee shop downstairs, so I went to check it out. Dear reader, I regret to inform you that there was no coffee shop — just a cavern full of blood goblins. It seems you can take the cars out of the city, but you can’t take the turn-based combat out of the RPG Maker game. Luckily, Frogger is equipped with a folding chair and tongue slap, which allows me to vanquish these new foes.
You can play Frogger: Walkable City in your browser, and it’s worth a shot — it’s a wildly weird little game, perfectly suited for the transit-oriented gamers among us.
