Did you ever play Pong and think about how cool a modern re-imagining would be? No? Oh well, that's what this game seeks out to be. I recently learned of it and it piqued my interest due to my knack for enjoying updates to old arcade cabinets, so I went ahead and tracked it down. There was no decent footage of the PC version on YouTube either, and I figured maybe I could fit that bill. So here we are! This was played on my Pentium setup with a 3DFX Voodoo. I could have gone with something more modern, but it's clear this game wasn't written with high frame rates in mind. The only real trouble I had was that the main map chugs pretty badly on here as you will notice. However, it's not a big deal since you're only on the main map for like 2% of the whole game anyway, and since there's no gameplay there, it wasn't much to lose. Submaps ran properly, thankfully. This is a pretty basic, straightforward game. It's a fully featured modernized Pong remake, 3D visuals and all. Surprisingly, it's pretty fun, if frustrating at parts. There are 19 levels in the game to complete, and each of these have three variants that award gold bars. Each variant is more difficult than the previous. This walkthrough earns every gold bar in the game. Little fun fact, this game also supports up to 4 players; especially with the extras you can unlock, it seems like the kind of game that would be a lot of fun to challenge a group of friends to. Nearly all failed attempts were cut from this walkthrough, so to a regular viewer it looks like a perfect run through; I left in two failed attempts, I believe, but otherwise it looks like a flawless run (unless you take note of the fact the music is already running when a level starts a good chunk of the time). Zone 1: Everything was smooth sailing until I hit the clown level. Good heavens was it a test in patience. The first level is easy, but the second level is a pain, and all bets are off on the third. The third I was stuck on for almost 15 minutes (particularly frustrating after losing on the last ball on my first try; I literally had one job and couldn't do it). Zone 2: The only level that really gave me trouble was Rock and Roll, Part 2. The problem with this level is that the ball travels so fast that it becomes impossible to react. Moreover, the AI is incredibly good at aiming the trajectory of the ball so that it gets a power-up, which this game doesn't allow anywhere near enough precision for a human to do consistently. Zone 3: Puck Pong is a huge pain, as the grabbing ability is wildly inconsistent on how well it works. The best advice I can probably give is to try and keep the balls on your side and don't accidentally shoot past the puck. I want to know who came along and said "you know, I love Pong, but you know what it needs? Fishing." Talk about a completely out of place stage. The first time I played this game I got really frustrated at this stage, but this time through it went without a hitch. That may have been because I knew using the keyboard was better for this stage than the mouse. Zone 4: Not much to say. Zone 5: A regular Pong level, pinball, and...evil frogs? Boy, if the fishing level wasn't out of place enough... The pinball level (third variant) can seriously go die in a hole. I spent nearly TWO HOURS trying to beat this one. It wasn't until I discovered a bug that prevents the gutters from being hit (with properly timed table bumps) did I suddenly start finding the level a lot easier. Now, in the words of Brutalmoose, "you may see this as cheating, and I see it as...well, cheating, but also, I don't [care]." Even after I did find this though, it still took me about another hour or so to beat. It also bears mentioning, I switched to keyboard control for the third pinball level as well; bumping the table with the mouse is near impossible to do, as it requires you to double-tap left or right. This variant practically requires you to abuse bumping to win. I love the fact that all of the sound effects in Frog Follies are ripped straight from Frogger '97. Zone 6: The chicken level can be a pain; surprisingly, it was the second variant that gave me the most trouble. The third variant only required two tries before I beat it. The third variant of the penguin level can be problematic, but I only failed it once so mercifully it wasn't too horrible. Zone 7: Absolutely no parts of this zone were cut. I left in the failed attempts and missteps. There was only one failure across the whole bunch, but I did miss a few balls which required me to retread a bit of ground. Zone 8: Classic Pong games! It's about as basic as it gets, really. Once I did this, I went ahead and showed off some of the secrets you can use when you progress enough, particularly the power-ups that are otherwise inaccessible without them.
