Controls
- Joystick: Use to direct the frog throughout the screen. Unlike many games, the joystick must be returned to the neutral position before being moved again to make the frog continue in the direction you wish for him to go.
- 1 or 2 Players: Push these buttons to begin a one or two player game.
Characters
Frogs
You control the green frog throughout the game. Your primary goal is to guide the frog to safety from the bottom of the screen to one of his five lily pad homes at the top before time runs out. In order to do that, the frog must cross five lanes of traffic to reach the bank of the river. Then he must navigate over turtles and logs until he reaches an unoccupied home on the opposite bank, without ever once falling in the water. Your ultimate goal is to fill all five slots on the opposite bank in order to advance to the next stage. Occasionally, a purple female frog will be perched on a log in the middle of the river. If you touch the female with your frog, the female will hitch a ride with you back to your home for 200 bonus points.
Vehicles
There may be five different vehicles but they all behave identically. They travel across the road in a set number of groups with a set spacing at a constant speed. If the player takes too long occupying all five homes, some of the cars, particularly the white cars in the fourth lane, will speed up. Contact with any vehicle results in the loss of one frog life.
Logs and Crocodiles
In order to cross the river, the frog must hitch a ride on the tops of the logs the float by. The frog may ride on a log for as long as he likes, but he may not be pulled off the side of the screen or the player loses one frog life. Starting on the second round, some small logs may be replaced with crocodiles. It is safe for the frog to ride on a crocodile's back, but do not allow the frog to go anywhere near the croc's mouth, or another frog life is lost.
Turtles
When logs are not available, the frog must cross the water on the backs of turtles. Turtles swim in groups, and it is safe to jump from one turtle in a group to another, but not between different turtle groups. To make matters worse, some turtle groups are composed of diving turtles. It is not safe to remain on the backs of diving turtles for long. If the frog remains on their backs by the time they are completely submerged, you lose another frog life.
Beavers and Snakes
After the first round, new species of life begin to make their appearance around the river. One is the snake. Snakes can appear on the large log that floats down the middle of the river, and they can also appear on the river bank on the side of the road. Avoid snakes completely. Another animal that appears is the beaver. Beavers chase after logs and submerge when they reach them. You are safe from the threat of a beaver as long as you are not close to the edge of a log that the beaver is swimming towards. If you are too close to the left side, the beaver will catch you.
Flies and Croc Mouths
Before jumping in to an empty lily pad home, be on the lookout for two things that might appear in the opening. One is a fly. If you land in a home when a fly appears, you earn an additional 200 bonus points. However, if you happen to see a croc's mouth passing through the home, stay away. Landing in the home while the croc's jaws are about to snap results in the loss of a frog life.
Gameplay
- You begin each stage and life at the bottom of the screen. After you successfully return a frog to its home, you will begin again on the bottom.
- You must return one frog to one home before the time meter at the bottom of the screen runs out. Failure to do so will result in the loss of one life.
- Your first goal is to cross all of the lanes of traffic without getting hit by any cars. Get a feel for the speed and the rhythm of the cars, and time your leaps accordingly. Remember that you need to bring the joystick back to neutral in order to jump forward more than once.
- Once you reach the bank in the middle of the screen, you can take a small breather. Be on the lookout for snakes crossing the bank on higher stages.
- Jump on the backs of the turtles passing by in the lowest row of the river. Beware of the diving turtles. Avoid them unless they are surfacing and about to pass underneath a log that is safe to jump on.
- Jump on to the next two rows of logs. At higher levels, the second long will be a little slower than the first row of logs, so make sure that you will not run out of time to jump on the big log and get pulled off the side of the screen.
- It is on the lowest row of logs that you might encounter a female frog. Pick it up if it's safe to do so, but do not risk your life for 200 bonus points. You must safely return to an empty home with the female frog to earn the reward.
- Jump on to the backs of the second row of turtles with the same strategy that you employed for the first row, and jump on to the final row of logs before the lily pads.
- In order to make it safely home, you must jump in an empty location. Jumping in a home that is already occupied will cost you one life. Be sure not to jump in a home if a croc mouth is beginning to appear.
- Because of the flow of the logs, the left most home can be the most difficult to reach, while the right most is the easiest. Try to enter the homes from left to right so that the harder homes are filled before the stage becomes to difficult.