Metroidvanias are a genre that always scratched a certain part of my brain. The gameplay concept of gradually opening up a world to explore with skills you gain over time is incredibly entertaining to me. Imagine my surprise when I heard that there is now a metroidvania where you’re a frog riding a wrench like a skateboard around various ships… Yep, I had no clue what I was getting into this time around, but I’m glad to have been given the chance to check this game out in time for its Switch launch!
Seafrog is a fun, pixelated action-platformer where you skate around themed ships and find a way to escape the sinking seahole you’ve found yourself in. It’s a relatively short and sweet title, with an average playtime of around 10-15 hours.
The game gets you into the swing of things fairly quickly. You hold the right bumper to skate, and you let go of the bumper in the air to do some tricks that fills up your boost meter. It’s a simple but intuitive control scheme that has high potential for combining all sorts of tricks and maneuvers.
As you move forward in the game, you’re introduced to more features and mechanics that vary your methods of traversing the ship interiors. One of these is mod chips, which allow you to boost features like boost capacity and health. Don’t get too trigger happy with mod chips though, as they have glitches that take effect when put next to other chips which affects things like your health bar.
The objective, just like the gameplay, is fairly straightforward. You have to explore the inside of other nearby ships to collect power for your own ship’s cannon, which allows you to explore more far off areas. Inside these ships, you’ll encounter dozens of challenges and opportunities to collect treasure and other trinkets spread all over the place.
The levels have interesting designs and have some humorous themes to them. The second ship you explore in the game is a giant chicken, and is full of little man-eating chickens that want to put you on the menu. On each ship, you’ll find a master gear which is needed to unlock the full capacity of your cannon to reach the final boss, so you’ll need to be ready to grind your way to the deepest hull of each ship. And I mean the skateboard kind of grinding, not the “get a bunch of x item” grind, to be clear!
Seafrog is a delightful indie gem that has fun exploration, engaging movement controls, and a decent bit of challenge when it comes to nailing the perfect balance of movement style and speed. This game puts an interesting spin on the metroidvania genre with its skating controls, prioritizing movement tech over raw exploration.
Seafrog is already available on Steam, but this Switch version will be available soon, so it’s a nice game to have on the go.
Metroidvanias are a genre that always scratched a certain part of my brain. The gameplay concept of gradually opening up a world to explore with skills you gain over time is incredibly entertaining to me. Imagine my surprise when I…
Metroidvanias are a genre that always scratched a certain part of my brain. The gameplay concept of gradually opening up a world to explore with skills you gain over time is incredibly entertaining to me. Imagine my surprise when I heard that there is now a metroidvania where you’re a frog riding a wrench like a skateboard around various ships… Yep, I had no clue what I was getting into this time around, but I’m glad to have been given the chance to check this game out in time for its Switch launch!
Seafrog is a fun, pixelated action-platformer where you skate around themed ships and find a way to escape the sinking seahole you’ve found yourself in. It’s a relatively short and sweet title, with an average playtime of around 10-15 hours.
The game gets you into the swing of things fairly quickly. You hold the right bumper to skate, and you let go of the bumper in the air to do some tricks that fills up your boost meter. It’s a simple but intuitive control scheme that has high potential for combining all sorts of tricks and maneuvers.
As you move forward in the game, you’re introduced to more features and mechanics that vary your methods of traversing the ship interiors. One of these is mod chips, which allow you to boost features like boost capacity and health. Don’t get too trigger happy with mod chips though, as they have glitches that take effect when put next to other chips which affects things like your health bar.
The objective, just like the gameplay, is fairly straightforward. You have to explore the inside of other nearby ships to collect power for your own ship’s cannon, which allows you to explore more far off areas. Inside these ships, you’ll encounter dozens of challenges and opportunities to collect treasure and other trinkets spread all over the place.
The levels have interesting designs and have some humorous themes to them. The second ship you explore in the game is a giant chicken, and is full of little man-eating chickens that want to put you on the menu. On each ship, you’ll find a master gear which is needed to unlock the full capacity of your cannon to reach the final boss, so you’ll need to be ready to grind your way to the deepest hull of each ship. And I mean the skateboard kind of grinding, not the “get a bunch of x item” grind, to be clear!
Seafrog is a delightful indie gem that has fun exploration, engaging movement controls, and a decent bit of challenge when it comes to nailing the perfect balance of movement style and speed. This game puts an interesting spin on the metroidvania genre with its skating controls, prioritizing movement tech over raw exploration.
Seafrog is already available on Steam, but this Switch version will be available soon, so it’s a nice game to have on the go.
by Michael Fertitta
