game reviews | frog detective #1: the haunted island

the little odds + ends

you're a detective, and a frog, and it's time to solve a mystery.

game title: frog detective #1: the haunted island
developed by: grace bruxner and thomas bowker
published by: worm club
game trailer: watch the trailer
release date: november 2018
genre: short, simple, point-and-click, adventure, mystery
platform(s): steam
player(s): single-player
my total playtime: 70 mins
for fans of: ooblets, lil gator game, phogs

the vibe check

• chill
• silly
• short
• family-friendly

game features

• ​cute characters
• hilarious conversations
• first-person exploration
• achievements
• a dance competition?!

what I enjoyed

• ​dialogue that made me genuinely laugh out loud
• taking so many fantastic reaction image screengrabs because the dialogue was so funny
• the simple, childish art style
• the snazzy, jazzy tunes
• looking at everyone’s faces through the magnifying glass LOL
  
• the characters!! my personal faves were Mystery Monkey and Supervisor

what I didn't enjoy

• I wish there had been more incentive to use the magnifying glass besides just goofing around with it for fun!

#1 | did I genuinely enjoy playing this game?

Even though the “puzzles” were easy fetch quests, I still loved talking to all of the characters and exhausting all of the dialogue options. I can’t even count the number of times I genuinely laughed out loud at the stuff that these animals were saying to me.

#2 | was the story memorable or the game concept unique?

Honestly, the characters were the star of the show here. That being said, I think you could take this cast of goofy characters and throw them into any story regardless of how in-depth it is and it would be a fun time.

#3 | did I feel immersed in the game world?

The game world was restricted to a small island in the middle of the water but despite both the island and the art style being so minimal, there was a good amount of detail sprinkled around!
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I loved the goofy little faces on the starfish and bugs and couldn’t stop laughing at one of the little easter eggs I found while looking around. The jazzy soundtrack also really helped to set the noir mood while I explored.

#4 | did interacting with the characters make me feel something?

There is a surprisingly large cast of characters crammed into this tiny game and I feel like nearly all of them had distinct, memorable personalities that stood out despite only interacting with them for maybe 5-10 minutes each.
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The character dialogue and animation was so silly to me that I found myself laughing out loud over and over throughout the entire game. I also took SO MANY screen grabs of funny reaction images that I may or may not be spamming my friends with ever since I finished playing.

#5 | was there enough content to justify the price?

Frog Detective #1 The Haunted Island took me 70 minutes to complete. ten minutes of my play time was likely from me pausing to take screenshots every so often, so I would guess that this game would take ~1 hour to play through normally.
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Over on Steam this game is priced at $4.99. Personally, I would wait for a sale and buy all three of the Frog Detective games as a bundle but overall I feel that the original price is still worth the silly little experience that this game was.

my game rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If this game sounded interesting to you, please support the developer(s) and add this game to your steam wishlist! If you’ve already played Frog Detective #1 The Haunted Island, I would love to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments below!