Review: Pocket Frogs - Gotta Catch 'Em All

Overview

There’s a whole new world to explore on your idevice in Pocket Frogs from Nimblebit, the creators of DizzyPad and Sky Burger. You get to collect all kinds of different frogs with 10,000 unique ones in all.The goal of the game is up to you as you can breed, catalog, tame, and discover frogs at any time online or off.

Features

The main part of the game is getting as many rare frogs as you can which can only be done by heading to the pond. At the pond you get a Dizzypad type game mechanic where you jump around lily pads trying to eat dragonflies. The game features the freemium model with consumable items to purchase in the form of stamps and potions to speed up the delivery of items, and growth of frogs.

The Good

There is an overload of what you get to do in this app so that there is nearly an endless amount of time you can spend exploring the froggy world. The best aspect is that there are so many different ways to play the game that it’s truly for any and every idevice owner. Some can try to collect the rarest breeds, while others just want to collect the frogs they like.

You can turn your frog habitats into frog farms constantly selling out frogs to buy stuff. You can also go the discovering route always exploring the bond for random frogs to breed with and presents. Every frog of the 10,000 will mean something different to each person who plays the game, and there is nothing else like it in the App Store. The game has a great quality to keep you coming back over and over with so many different objectives to achieve. The game would be great as a solo experience, but you can connect with others with Plus+ connectivity. You can view friends’ frog collections and gift and trade frogs as well. There are over 60 different awards that most are extremely tough to achieve, but with big payoff for experience points to unlock new levels, and of course new frogs.

The game feels like a cross between Pokemon and Tamagatchi combined with the style of Nimblebit. The game looks gorgeous no matter what device you play it on, and each and every frog is packed with polish and detail. The game has natural sounds as the backgrounds, and you can even use this app like you would Koi Pond, and simply watch your frogs jumping around in a habitat.

The Bad

One of the only complaints I could fine is that the app doesn’t sync your frogs between two devices. The gameplay mechanic in the pond does get repetitive pretty quickly as even though you’re taming a new frog it’s the same tap to jump and swallow the flies. It’s the only interactive part of the game, so you just wish there was a little more to it.

The Verdict

Pocket Frogs is one of the best experiences on the idevice, and it’s universal for everyone. This is the closest thing to actually owning real pets, and then it’s combined with the collecting feel of Pokemon, and the taking care aspects of Tamagatchi. The game is exceptionally designed in every single aspect, and even the pricing model not making the in app purchases feel anything like a requirement, but rather completely optional, and even bordering on the unnecessary. If you ever download any app on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad make it Pocket Frogs for free.