A fun flash game about math.
“Frog Fractions is either the best or worst piece of math edu-tainment in history.”
- Drew Toal, Gameological Society
Frog Fractions is a cute educational flash game where the player plays as a frog defending fruit from pesky bugs trying to eat them. As players progress they can purchase upgrades such as “lock-on targeting”, “static cling tongue”, “cybernetic brain”, “dragon”, “warp drive”, “work visa”, and “Presidential swimming pool”.
Spoiler alert! Please go experience this game yourself before reading further.
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Under this thin veneer of mathematical education is a puzzle for players to interact with in an attempt to bypass the current mini-game. The first chapter involves clicking around the screen to defend fruit and eating insects. As players purchase upgrades, the game-play evolves into a typing game, then bullet hell, and finally, into space. Here, players traverse an asteroid field while battling bugs on a warp drive installed dragon. There’s even a boss fight at the end where you have to destroy the legs of a robot bug space ship.
Next up is a short visual novel portion where players have a host of dialogue choices to choose from. Your choices have no effect on the result of this chapter, but the different dialogue responses are fun to read.
Next is a return to the bug eating fruit defense bullet hell from chapter one, but really. The player should have learned their lesson by now. This entire game can be immediately skipped by following the same actions as in chapter one. As the player dives down to explore the underwater maze, relaxing elevator music beings to play. During the exploration, a narrator begins reading paragraphs of the history of boxing and Andre Felipe. Players explore this dungeon section by section, without a map or any instruction. Eventually, players will reach the end goal: the rocket ship.
I think I’ve explained enough for you to understand: Frog Fractions is a spoof of educational games from our childhood that both challenges players to think outside the box, but also explores different genres of games such as bullet hell, text-based adventure games, and rhythm games. There are little to no instructions on how to complete the game, and various aspects of each chapter are largely intuitive. Obviously the intended audience are expected to be at least familiar with the mechanics of each genre of games. However, the level design and interesting mesh of vastly different mechanics create a very unique game-play experience.
