Frogger: Ancient Shadow
Frogger investigates strange happenings in Firefly Swamp.
Frogger: Ancient Shadow is a 2005 platform game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Konami. It was released for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. The game is a sequel to Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue and belongs to the Frogger series.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Hudson Soft
- Publisher
- Konami Digital Entertainment America
- Director
- Koji Matsuura
- Designer
- Hidenori Oikawa
- Composer
- Hironobu Yahata
- Series
- Frogger
- Engine
- RenderWare
- Released
- September 27, 2005 (NA)
Facts from the source article.
Plot
One sunny morning, Frogger was woken from a nap by his friend Lily. She reported that something was happening in Firefly Swamp: the insects were frightened, and she had seen a suspicious shadow lurking in the forest. Lily said she would be fine as long as there were no last minute script changes. After the first boss, Lumpy found Frogger at his fishing spot. Lumpy was determined to catch the 'Big One' and have a big filet that night, but Frogger confessed that he had already caught it. Frogger told Lumpy that weird things had been happening around Firefly Swamp, including the insects acting strange. In White Savanna Level 2, Frogger met the Little Lion. A scary monster appeared, stole the Amulet of Mastery, and Mr. Lion began acting strangely, climbing a cliff and leaving. The monster used the Amulet to make Mr. Lion and the other fairies behave oddly, so Frogger decided to save Mr. Lion. At White Savanna Level 3, a monster in a suit and hood threatened to shoot an arrow at Frogger but instead hit a fairy; Frogger was unhurt, and the monster jumped away. After defeating Mr. Lion, Frogger spotted Finnius. The Little Lion reunited with Mr. Lion, whose family had guarded the Amulet of Mastery since ancient times, but it had been taken by an unknown person. Finnius admitted he was responsible for the ancient documents meant to help save the Amulet, and Frogger had gotten mixed up in trouble once more. In Hidden Caves, Frogger confronted the monster again. The monster shot an arrow that Frogger avoided, then said the place was not for kids and that Frogger should leave for safety; the monster departed. Frogger infiltrated the mini-game 'Firefly Surfing' unharmed. At the boss, Frogger met the stranger along with Dr. Wani and his minions in TRIP. The stranger noted he had the Amulet of Mastery. Dr. Wani had no choice but to leave while the stranger shot the Wani minions, then took off. Frogger was forced to defeat the minions in combat. Afterward, they swam away and Frogger caught up with Dr. Wani, stating that his strategy was as laughable as a one-legged squirrel.
Windows version
Unlike earlier releases in the series, the Windows version of Frogger: Ancient Shadow was distributed as a plug-and-play USB game controller. This controller used Net Jet technology; when plugged in, it downloaded the installer from remote servers managed by Oberon Media. The installer then installed the game executable without any game assets, which were downloaded during loading screens. This approach aimed to make setup nearly instant. However, after the servers went offline sometime after July 2012, the game became unplayable and the assets were lost. An effort led by Highway Frogs is underway to restore the game to a playable state.
More in Hudson Soft Games of the 2000s
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