I’ll give Froggy Hates Snow this: it’s honest. The frog hates snow, and after a couple of hours playing it, you probably will too. What starts as a mildly charming little roguelike about digging through snowdrifts quickly turns into an endless cycle of shovelling white sludge while your tiny amphibian slowly freezes to death.
You control Froggy, who spends his time wandering out from a warm little safe zone collecting treasure, keys and upgrades before legging it back home before hypothermia sets in. Riveting stuff.
Gaming Heaven
There’s a decent sense of progression early on. At first you can barely waddle five feet into the snow before your backpack fills up or you start turning into a frog-shaped ice lolly. But after enough grinding – and blimey, there’s a lot of grinding – you slowly unlock upgrades that let you stay out longer.
There are also a fair few options for how you play. You can remove enemies entirely if you’d rather just spend your evening digging through snow in peace, which sounds suspiciously like unpaid council work, but fair enough. Different characters and unlockable perks at least try to add variety too.
Visually, it’s cute enough. Froggy himself is oddly lovable, despite spending most of the game looking mildly inconvenienced.
Gaming Hell
Unfortunately, the actual gameplay loop gets repetitive at an alarming speed. Dig snow. Collect gems. Return home. Repeat until your brain starts playing elevator music. It’s one of those games that mistakes constant tiny upgrades for meaningful gameplay.
Combat, when enabled, feels slapped on as well. Enemies just sort of drift about while Froggy auto-attacks like he’s reluctantly defending himself during a queue dispute at Tesco.
The maps don’t help much either. Yes, technically they’re different, but most still feel like slightly rearranged snowy wastelands with random objects buried underneath. “Ooh look, Japanese architecture this time.” Cheers. Massive scenes.
And despite all the upgrade systems and unlocks, the whole thing feels bizarrely shallow. There’s only so much excitement a man can squeeze out of improving his digital snow shovel.
Final Judgement
Froggy Hates Snow has a mildly addictive start, but the novelty melts away quicker than cheap grit on roads.
