[b]october 2023 edit:[/b] faster animations are an option now (as different 'game modes' for some reason) and the price got lowered.
[b]hoping forest[/b] is a typical tile-rearranging puzzler, what [b]frogger[/b] would be like if you had to create the path instead of jumping around in traffic like a lunatic with a death wish.
[b]60 levels[/b] in 4 zones, somewhat branching progression and an [b]optional 7-level tutorial[/b]. not a fan of the way level select is presented, 15 levels (one zone) could easily fit on a single screen without all the scrolling, 7 tutorial levels even more so. and [b]the first screen with zone selection should be merged with the stats screen[/b] to show what's been done without clicking each. no on-screen level numbers, but they appear briefly when the level starts and in the pause menu, good enough. level select should be accessible from said menu and the level result screen too. as is, [b]menu navigation is a chore[/b].
the goal is to make a path for the frog to reach the exit, ideally grabbing all 3 flies on the way. a [b]mandatory move limit[/b] is in place, the frog can only take so many steps (hops or jumps, surely) on a level, so instead of using every tile, you gotta optimize. not necessarily a bad thing, but [b]current path length should be shown to avoid all the counting[/b].
[b]the store page says there are 2 solutions for every level[/b], but all it means is there's a 'quick path' that most likely skips flies by utilizing as few tiles as possible. so basically [b]there's a proper solution and a beyond trivial one wasting time[/b] if you're going for perfection, as they're obviously exclusive. hardly something worth mentioning in the marketing material.
there are [b]4 medals to get on each level[/b], on top of the quick path award. excessive. one for passing the level, 3 more for each fly. it would make a lot more sense if the blue one was for completion and bronze, silver and gold for the flies, or 3 awards total (completion, quick, all flies), but it doesn't work like that. and I also run into some [b]buggy behavior or inconsistency[/b] here. sometimes not passing on the first try and pressing 'try again' on the result screen didn't give all medals if my second attempt was perfect, so a full level reset was necessary. I took the restart option in the pause menu as soft-reset (it's not), so I had to go back to the menu, click play, select zone, then select the level again. did I mention menu navigation is a chore?
[b]controls are mouse-based without hotkeys and horrible.[/b] no unnecessary camera controls, but have to drag tiles to switch them, so - listen! - hold the left mouse button to pick a tile up, don't let go, move the cursor around until you're over the tile you want to switch it with, and now you can release. left-clicking a tile simply rotates it, right click does nothing. normally, right click and/or the wheel would rotate and 2 clicks switch. what the ♥♥♥♥ happened there? I also had the occasional issue with tiles, sometimes they wouldn't get picked up or rotated.
green tiles are versatile, can be moved and rotated, brown ones are fixed, only rotatable. [b]cars are a thing[/b], they move turn by turn (there's a counter for that at least), just like the frog, gotta make sure kermit doesn't end up under them. [b]no other mechanics, only levels getting bigger[/b], which rarely means an increase in quality, only busywork.
once the path is made, click start to see how the frog does. can't pause after (not great), but movement speed is decent and [b]failing (or passing) doesn't reset the level[/b], you can make necessary tweaks and try again. however, this [b]soft-reset takes way too long[/b] with extra cutesy animations, a fail screen with all the unearned medals appearing one by one and unnecessary screen transitions.
okay presentation, except [b]every level looks the same[/b], no difference between zones. music doesn't play in the menu (it's intentional, see the dev comment below) and [b]settings are lacking[/b], good soundtrack otherwise. there are separate volume settings and a couple of languages, that was it initially. [b]windowed mode got patched in[/b] and settings are now accessible while playing. also, [b]unskippable credits[/b]. once the button is clicked, you can either wait until it's over or press alt+f4. again, what the ♥♥♥♥? and there's missing punctuation everywhere.
it's a [b]very basic, unintuitive, tedious and buggy[/b] game (though a bit less buggy after a patch), didn't even finish it. [b]anne boonchuy wouldn't approve, and oh my frog, the price on release was crazy too[/b], 9 eur is way too much for something like this. a few months later it got changed to 5 eur but it's still not something to recommend overall. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/2301210]busway islands[/url], for instance, came out at the same time, doesn't have frogs and it's also on the simpler side, but it's the same thing done better for a third of the price (at the time of their release). there are other alternatives as well.
