Off the Shelf Media

When I first built my gaming PC, I wasn’t really sure which titles were worth must-plays and which were total wastes of money. At the time, I mostly relied on suggestions from friends and took whatever was gifted to me. For one Christmas, I was gifted Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island as part of a trilogy bundle. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect, and to be entirely honest, I’m not a fan of mystery-types or detective titles, so I wasn’t immediately sold on it. After a while, though, I was scrolling through my Steam library and figured it was worth giving it a try after nothing else seemed to pique my interest. 

I bother mentioning all of this because at the time, I wasn’t sure how a title like Frog Detective would have ever landed on my radar otherwise. To be honest, I’m not even sure how it was found to begin with. But, I’m glad it was. 

Gameplay: 1

Frog Detective is a very simple series, and the game mechanics are not very in-depth. In essence, as the Frog Detective, it is your job to explore the area, find clues, question the locals, and get to the bottom of this mystery. Really, all you do is click and point. This should not be understood as a criticism of the game; rather, its simplicity helps to set the tone of the title as a whole.  

Across each of the game categories being rated, it’s almost hard to judge because the simplicity is part of the game’s charm. In a title like this, you don’t really need to be doing more than clicking and pointing. It reminded me a lot of games from my childhood, like the Freddie Fish series. It’s easy to follow, simple to understand, and relatively low stimulation. It’s the perfect game to play at the end of a hard day. 

There is very little variation in what the controls are, though you occasionally may choose to wield a magnifying glass, but you probably won’t need it unless, like me, you want a better view of some of the wacky background character designs. Otherwise, you won’t find yourself doing too much other than exploring the area and talking to possible suspects or persons of interest. 

Again, its simplicity works to this game’s benefit, not to its detriment. 

Story: 1

So, as the Frog Detective, what are you actually looking to solve?

Given the title, you’d be right to guess that the crime or mystery is spooky in nature. Of course, this game is full of humor, so don’t take that to mean the game is scary by any means. Goofy? Yes. Scary? Certainly not. 

Your agency is called on to solve the mystery of the ghost haunting a private island owned by a sloth named Martin. When Martin first heard the ghost, he immediately hired a team of ghost scientists. Suffice it to say, they couldn’t get to the bottom of it. The team is now looking for the best investigator for the job, but the faceless character Lobster Cop was unavailable, so Frog Detective will be on the case.

The supervisor sends Frog Detective off to the island to figure out the origin of the ghosts. With plenty of humor, you explore all the knooks and crannies the island has to offer while engaging with as many of the “ghost scientists” as you can to gather intel. 

It won’t win a Pulitzer, but it’s sure to give you a giggle or two as you seek out the mysteries of the island. 

Atmosphere: 2

Where a game like Frog Detective really shines is the atmosphere. Surprisingly, the music perfectly sets the tone and can certainly stand alone or compete with more serious detective games like Shadows of Doubt. It truly caught me off guard how excellent the music is in this series. 

As for the animation, it’s a simple, 3D appearance that further emphasizes how silly and goofy this game is intended to be. It’s not much, but it accomplishes what it needs to do with ease. 

Value: 2

Priced at only $4.99, this game is an easy purchase. 

Though the argument can be made that value should be justified by hours of enjoyment or quality of artwork, I think almost $5 for a simple yet fun game is easy to agree to. I’ve had poorly made cups of coffee that cost more. 

If that isn’t a good enough reason for you, consider that most games available at this price range are only that cost-effective because they’re on sale. I saw a similar-looking title, Flock Around, currently priced the same, and the concept is you birdwatch with friends to see who can take the best photos. You can also rent some movies for this price off of platforms like Prime Video, but you walk away owning nothing for a movie you might not have even enjoyed, and even that is on the cheaper side these days, with some rentals costing $19.99 now. 

Duration: 1

Generally, to complete this game, you only need about 45 minutes to one hour’s worth of free time, which isn’t a lot. The developers even alert players on the Steam page that it is a short game. For me, the timing actually was perfect. Any longer and a game this simple could easily become boring. Any shorter, and it really isn’t worth much at all. 

Where I deduct a point is the shortness coupled with replayability. Simply put, this game doesn’t really offer any variations, aside from one meaningless one, and it isn’t difficult to achieve 100% perfection on the first try. I only had to play this twice because I didn’t realize I had one achievement left after my first playthrough and decided to go through it again to perfect the game. If there was just a tad bit more variation or a reason to play it more than once, I could see a reason to up the score here, but with those stipulations in mind, I can’t justify giving it a perfect score in this category. 

Total Score: 7/10

This title is short, sweet, and built on humor and good vibes. It’s the simplest way to put it. In fact, I think the current score doesn’t even fully do it justice, but it felt like a stretch to argue that the story or gameplay deserved a two on our rating scale. 

Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a title to offer a brief break from games that require hundreds of hours of fetch quests and puzzles to beat, consider Frog Detective 1 your next pick.