Croakoloco Review

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Fast Facts

Embrace Your Inner Frog

Croakoloco is a cute, frog-themed idle game created by solo developer Ryan Forrester. In it, you can buy, nurture and sell frogs, as well as breed them together. Your main goal is to discover all of the different frog types and complete your Croakopedia. There are many different frog packs to discover, purchase and complete, with each being progressively more expensive to unlock.

You can choose to focus on other, more specific in-game tasks if desired, such as breeding frogs together for better stats, unlocking additional tanks or increasing the number of frogs allowed in each tank. You can also take on the role of a frog directly, and choose to hop around the tank, eat flies, burp or scream if you wish.

I have played several other idle games – including Cookie Clicker, Clicker Heroes and AdVenture Capitalist – in the past. I enjoy the mix of active participation with passive gameplay, and these types of games are great to play while multi-tasking. As such, I was immediately interested in Croakoloco when it released, and was eager to review it for Rapid Reviews UK.

Did I find it ribbit-ing, or was it toad-ally underwhelming? Read on and find out!

Chase Those Bonuses

When first starting Croakoloco, I was surprised by how hands-off its initial phase is. I had to figure out a lot of the mechanics myself, as well as where to find and view my purchased frogs. I also didn’t realise before starting the game that certain mechanics – including breeding – are locked behind progression. This was disappointing. However, once I got the hang of where everything was, the navigation was pretty simple.

The opening gameplay of Croakoloco requires a fair amount of player input. This is because you have to actively invest time into buying frogs and feeding them. Frogs first need to grow from child to adult through gaining experience points (XP). Frogs gain XP over time or by eating flies, including golden flies. Golden flies only appear when the player is actively controlling a frog. The amount of XP a frog gains per fly eaten depends on the type of fly consumed and the current available XP factor.

Acquiring frogs with specific bonuses is what allows you to take an idle approach to Croakoloco. By having more frogs with additional XP or increased fly burp chance bonuses, for example, you can vastly improve the rate of growth without needing to manually control frogs. Being strategic about which frogs to keep, sell or breed is fun, and allows you to optimise the effects of a particular bonus.

For me, the many layers of the bonus and breeding systems were intimidating, especially without any explanation. I understood that a frog’s rarity, as well as its bonus quality, affected its effectiveness. However, I struggled to understand all of the different elements, and kept things simple by breeding frogs with high identical bonuses. An in-game guide feels needed, yet is absent.

Expand and Croak-er

As mentioned, your main objective in Croakoloco is to collect all of the different frog species. To purchase a new frog pack, you first need to discover a certain number of frogs from the previous packs. When buying a frog, you are given a random one from the pack you choose. Each frog has its own rarity, meaning there is an element of luck to whether you’ll get one you’ve not already discovered. You can increase your chances of discovering a new frog through frog bonuses, or, like me, you can buy frogs in bulk and suffer with RNG.

In the early game, progression feels slow and somewhat tedious. Making money takes a long time, and with tanks and frog expansions costing high amounts, I constantly felt like I was suffering setbacks. Not having access to breeding early-on also made taking advantage of bonuses harder.

Later on, though, I was left with copious amounts of money and nothing to spend it on. Once all upgrades and tanks had been bought, and I’d discovered all of the frogs, I felt lost on what to do next. I did unlock the in-game “Prestige” feature, however I felt no reason to use this. All of the in-game achievements had already been unlocked, and I had no personal goals left.

While idle games do typically have a progression curve, the one in Croakoloco feels unbalanced. The game feels slightly too quick to “beat”, and does not boast great longevity due to this. In my opinion, the milestones for progression, as well as the number of upgrades, could be improved and expanded for a better player experience.

Not Completely Hop-less

While I’ve mentioned a few criticisms of Croakoloco, I do have a lot of praise for the game. The ability to take on the role of a frog is one of the game’s cutest aspects, and was immensely enjoyable for me. I loved jumping around, chasing golden flies, screaming incessantly and admiring my frogs’ unique expressions. I admit to actively clicking on golden flies for long periods at a time – their profits were delicious.

The overall aesthetic of the game is also superb. It’s a simple 2D pixel art style that looks great and feels thoroughly cosy. While there’s no significant backing music to speak of, the in-game sound effects are funny and full of character. The screams of the frogs in particular are hilarious – a little reminiscent of the Wilhelm scream, even. Croakoloco is also the first game I’ve played that runs on the Godot engine, and it performs well. I did not encounter any crashes, freezes or noticeable bugs during my playthrough.

I’m grateful that the in-game achievements are replicated as Steam achievements. This made them easy to navigate and work towards. Their icons are immensely cute and look great on my profile. Finally, I admire Forrester’s dedication to implementing player feedback. He has already actioned several suggestions, such as allowing players to name their frogs, which is amazing.

In summary, I am glad that I tried out Croakoloco. I enjoyed the journey of unlocking all of the different frogs, and had fun earning all of the available achievements. I would recommend the game to anyone looking for a cute, chill idle game, or who has a particular love of frogs. Just beware that, if you Kermit to playing actively, you’ll “finish” the game quickly.

3 out of 5

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