Frogun Encore

This is an adorable and slightly busted collectathon platformer that mimics PS1 games but at times feels more like Sonic the Hedgehog or another Sega game. It's the sequel to the first "Frogun" and since they're both indie titles, expect a little roughness around the edges. Despite the cutesy graphics this game can be quite challenging. It's very different from the first Frogun game in that it is smaller (half the stages) and somewhat more polished (though still comedically breakable at times). The main difference between this game and the original is that this one uses a fixed camera angle that always faces forward. This means you never need to adjust the camera. At first glance, this is good, since you can just focus on platforming. But you have to aim the frog tongue in all directions and it's easy to miss and mess everything up. You also can't rotate the camera to explore every nook and cranny. Each level has objectives that contribute to completion of an emblem. These include a deathless run, speedrun, collecting all the coins, collecting all the eyemaralds (Two emeralds) and a skull token that's hidden in a challenge area through a portal. I love this game's structure and it's fun procedurally working through each stage and completing everything. The speedruns are fun because you can easily bust the boundaries by launching across chasms and grabbing the opposite side with your Frogun's tongue, bypassing most of the obstacles. The only really brutal one is the last stage because you have to basically be better than perfect (It took me a good 30 minutes to figure out). There are advanced techniques, and the controls are much better and smoother than the first game. You can launch into a wall and jump to fling yourself forward, or you can jump while holding a pot or enemy for a little bit extra distance. You can't use the exploit from the first game that lets you constantly shoot your tongue out until you climb over a wall, but since you have a double jump you can still bypass many walls with careful planning. You can also chain your tongue movements so that you bounce from wall to wall before landing. All in all it's a great moveset. Add in some new obstacles like fire pots that break blocks and you have a pretty well rounded and unique platformer that goes a bit deeper than your average one. I still can't say it's better than the first game because for all its flaws the first game felt bigger and more ambitious. But this one does have more streamlined controls, more carefully designed boss fights, better production values and is generally just a joy to play. The music in both these games is great except this game's world 2 song which is absolutely atrocious due to it speeding up like it's having a heart attack for no reason before resetting.