Game of the Day 2/1/2016: Ribbit King
I always wanted to like Mario Golf. With games like Mario Kart adding weapons, insane courses, and other drastic departures from run of the mill racers, I was hoping for a serious injection of insanity into a sport that I otherwise just don't care about. What came, though, was basically just another golf game. Sure, it played well, but it was just golf with a coat of paint. The folks who made Ribbit King must have felt the same way, because they went and did it, and I like it.
First off, no more clubs and balls, because that's weak stuff any old Tiger Woods would do. Instead, let's launch frogs on catapults by hitting them with a hammer, or just patting them on the ass to putt. Sure, the meter works almost exactly like Mario/Hot Shots, but you're not worried about switching clubs and stopping your meter at partial power. Instead, however you aim your landing point, a maximum meter will land you there on the fly, hop a few times, and stop. Funnier and simplified makes getting started a breeze, but fortunately, it goes way farther.
Next, you only play four holes per course at a time of "Frolf," and those holes have way crazier layouts than anything thoseMario courses ever tried. Conveyor belts, trampolines, flies, elephants and snakes that launch you, teleporters, bullseyes... not only are they nuts, but the goal is a tad different. You want the most total points at the end of the course, which doesn't necessarily mean the least strokes. Each obstacle you hit offers points, which double each time they chain with another on the same stroke. Couple that with the fact that frogs swim when they hit water, and you can make some insane if unpredictable shots that often made me giggle.
Even more, there are different types of frogs with different abilities like swimming in lava or extra hopping, and items you can earn or buy, like food, rockets, fly detectors, and more to take your shots to the next level. Wrap that up with a story mode that lets you unlock new courses and characters that get increasingly weird, and you get a robust single player mode to accompany the obvious multiplayer opportunity. Even my wife adores this one.
Ribbit King came out on Gamecube and PS2. The Gamecube version plays a tad smoother, but for some reason costs way more, which I learned when looking for one for my nieces this last Christmas. The PS2 game is perfectly enjoyable, though, and both come with a bonus disc full of Japanese weirdness.
I like this one a lot. Played it?
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Niku-Sama
