I’m celebrating Spring by helping a little frog wake up from hibernation in the cosy puzzle game Walk the Frog

Oh to be a little frog waking up from a long sleep over the cold dark winter. Climbing out of your burrow to be met with the fresh sun of Spring and vibrant scent of flowers popping up from the softening earth. It’s what dreams are made of, at least it’s what mine are made of right now, sat here in dreary England.

I’ve had enough of the rain, the cold, and the darkness, daylight savings couldn’t come sooner. And with it being just weeks away until the sun doesn’t set while I’m still sat at my desk I’ve decided to celebrate the occasion with Walk the Frog, a cosy puzzle game all about welcoming the springtime.

Walk The FrogWalk The Frog

In this game you play as Froggo who is just coming out of hibernation: “All throughout the long, dark winter, he slept deep inside a cosy cave.” Me too Froggo, me too. But thanks to still being in a sleepy daze (not helped by his empty stomach) he can’t remember the way out of his cave. This is where you come in.

You piece together Froggo’s world by slotting puzzle pieces together, drawing him out of his slumber. Along the way you also meet a couple of new friends. There’s a rat in a hat who is also lost, and a father stork that can’t find his delinquent storklings. You help them, guiding the little rat out of his cave, and searching high and low for the storklings. It’s like a puzzle within a puzzle.

After piecing together each of the little storkling’s hiding places and returning them to their father, Froggo carried on with his adventure, this time with the goal of getting to his pond just beyond the river in time for the Froggapalooza spring festival.

Walk The FrogWalk The FrogWalk The Frog

On the way I encountered a very official dungbeetle, El Duke, and had to lure a cave salamander from its bedroom so I could take a shortcut (with the help of a poo-hungry fly and some little fireflies). But the demo only shows snippets of the game to come, so I left Insect City before I could get to the salamander, but not before I used a huge mass of banana peels to lure some slugs out of a club so El Duke could impress the Duchess of PermaCultura.

I then met a family of moles, dug my way outside the city, and began the next leg of Froggo’s journey to the pond and there lay the end of the demo.

Walk the Frog’s full release should be coming some time this year, and I personally can’t wait. Its cute critters, calm music, and quaint setting is everything I could want in a puzzle game. And the writing and story is so simple and sweet it feels like the perfect game to play just as the days are getting brighter and the rain is easing up.

About