Have A Blast Outleaping Your Opponent In Army Of Frogs
Army of Frogs HD ($4.99) by Big Daddy's Creations is a turn-based strategy game where the player must command their army of (up to) 10 frogs all sitting on joined lily pads.
The aim is to arrange all your frogs, which are denoted by color, to be in contact with each other while having at least seven frogs in play. The rules can seem slightly daunting at first but are easy enough to pick up with a bit of practice and the provided tutorial and manual.
The game accommodates two to four players in local or online play and each player can choose to be yellow, blue, red or green. If there is no one to play with, you can elect to compete against the computer with difficulties ranging from "very, very easy" to "very aggressive."
Each player has access to 10 frogs of their color so a game with three players may ultimately have to play with 30 frogs unless the game ends early.
The game starts off with just one frog on the pond sitting on one lily. Additional lilies are added as players add frogs. On the top right you are told how many frogs are remaining and are shown two frogs randomly chosen from the pool of remaining frogs.
The first player is asked to place a frog on a lily pad from the available two which may or may not include a frog of your own color. Once you are happy with your choice, press the yellow check mark to indicate your turn is over.
By the time everyone has had their turn and you’re on round two, there will be an extra step. First, you must choose to move one of your frogs to a different lily pad (assuming you’re able to move any at all). Your frog can make several leaps. Indicate your choice is final by pressing the yellow check mark. You will then have to add another frog to a lily pad which again requires the yellow check mark to indicate your choice is made and your turn is over.
There are certain restrictions on how a frog may be moved. Moveable frogs are highlighted and when you press on one, its possible leap locations are shown, this is fortunate as it does not seem clear how those locations are decided upon. Furthermore, all frogs must remain connected. It’s not possible to fracture the island of frogs into two or more islands. Very handy for trapping the odd frog your opponent might need to complete his set.
Only problem I could see was the remaining frog indicator on the top right did not always correspond to how many frogs actually remained. It sometimes told me there were zero frogs left when I was clearly being given more to lay down.
Despite the simple gameplay, the game has enough depth to be engaging but would be especially fun with another human being to compete against. Army Of Frogs may very well be your solution to passing the time spent on long journeys to your vacation this summer.
