I’m not a frog, but over the past few hours I have become pleasingly frog-like. I can croak like a frog, I can perform a froggish sproing-jump, and I can even thwip my tongue out of my mouth and grab items with it, or use it as a grappling hook to pull myself up cliffs and swing myself from ledge to ledge. As a tiny human sea captain in adventure game Time on Frog Island, I’ve spent so much time here (on Frog Island) I’ve become an honorary amphibian.
The original name of Time on Frog Island was “Trading Time” and that still fits the game like a glove. Shipwrecked on a colorful island that’s home to a society of bipedal frogs, I’ve been frantically running around trying to trade things with them. To fix my busted ship I need stuff, and they won’t give me that stuff until I bring them the stuff they want first. And while it initially feels like just a collection of simple fetch quests—bring a frog a feather and it’ll give me some rope—the charming inhabitants and the slowly revealed secrets of the island made me think maybe I should forget about my broken boat and just live here forever.
(Image credit: Half Past Yellow)
Time on Frog Island isn’t a game to rush through, especially since waiting a day (or fast-forwarding time by resting near a campfire) is sometimes required for certain tasks. There’s also a bit of sea captain backstory to be uncovered, which is only revealed if you choose to sleep at the handful of campsites. The captain’s story is told in static images, one each night, but explains how you got to the island and why the potted plant you brought with you is so gosh darn important you automatically hug it when you pick it up. And don’t worry—once you fix your ship and sail away, you can still keep playing after a short cutscene and the credits roll.
The art, the charm, the little secrets, the creative activities, and the peaceful nature of the game makes me wish there were five times as many frogs to trade with on Time on Frog Island. It probably only took about four hours to complete the main quest, and I spent another four checking off achievements and trying to find anything I might have missed. I’d happily have played another dozen hours. Time on Frog Island is time well spent.
