by Tuesday PopeAll toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. And today, whether toad or a different classification of frog, we are going to go over some of the top, memorable frogs in gaming. We won’t hit every frog, but feel free to hop on over to the comments and tell us your favorite frog.
Animal Crossing has many different frogs of all colors. These characters can be one of the ten villagers on your island or staying in the campsite hoping to join your herd. My personal favorite is Tad since he was in my first town on the GameCube. You can also catch a frog in the pond during summer and that raises a lot of questions.
Politoed is a good boy. In sword and shield, he hops about like a real frog and I can’t handle that level of adorable. This pure water type evolves from Poliwhirl if trades while holding a king stone. You can also evolve Poliwhirl into Poliwrath, but he’s nowhere near as cute as this guy.
The save frogs from Mother 3 are the best frogs by default because they save your game. No losing any of your progress when one of these guys is hopping nearby. One also can drive a car. I don’t know what’s better in life than a frog with a driver’s license.
Toad from Wolf Among Us is a single dad with an attitude. He’s unable to afford his glamor and does a poor job of staying hidden from the normal world who would be quite shocked to sew a four foot talking frog. You can be nice to him or a jerk right back, but there’s no point in bullying this toad as you need information from his family to help solve the case.
Winky is one of the many animal buddies in Donkey Kong Country. His main asset is his high jumping capabilities. He can also defeat enemies when he lands on them. The main thing that holds him back is that his animation can make it hard to know exactly when he’ll stop. Just trust the controls so you don’t miss any secrets or fall off any ledges.
Greninja is so popular he ended up in Smash Brothers. This Pokémon is the fully evolved form of Froakie. Froakie is one of the starter Pokémon in XY and gained a lot of competitive play due to his hidden ability Protean. With this ability, his type would change to whatever attack you were using which means you’d get a type boost to whatever move you used. This made him versatile enough to even change his weaknesses on the fly. He loses cool points because his scarf is his tongue and that’s just creepy.
Chef Kyroo is one of the many dream eaters you can encounter in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. These guys cook up a world of hurt as they battle alongside you or stand in your way as enemies. You can also pet them so they’re by default high up on the awesome frog list.
Frogger can cross the road all on his own which already makes him better than real life frogs. Everyone and their mother has played Frogger on arcade at some point in their life. During the PS1 era, he became a platforming mascot for a weird stint. He still had to cross roads, though. Some things never change.
Wart is the big bad of Mario 2/Super Mario Advance. He’s a big boy that really wants to stomp you. He also is just a dream. He’s not Bowser, but he’s still our favorite Mario frog.
This is not an actual frog. Do not be deceived. It’s just a costume. Mario wouldn’t become a frog until…
In Super Mario Odyssey, you can possess—I mean capture—a frog. It’s your first adorable transformation in the game. His high jumps can help you easily solve puzzles. Even better is when you’re on the moon, low gravity means making jumps high enough to clear a church. I’ve changed my mind, this is best Mario frog.
This frog teaches you math. 0/10 to teaching frog.
In Yoshi’s Island, this frog serves as the mini boss of the jungle world. Kamek usually uses his magic to turn enemies huge, but this time he turns Yoshi small. And then you are promptly eaten. You escape by throwing enough eggs at his uvula. What a weird and painful for the froggy boss.
Slippy from team Starfox is one of the least favorite video game frogs. He’s often portrayed as whiny and frequently becomes the first hot in a dogfight. Still, his mechanical knowledge is an asset to the team. His transition into 3D was a rough one. In Starfox Adventures he’s particularly horrendous looking. Luckily he’s hit his stride now. No matter how much we may say we hate him, there’s no denying the smile we get when he first shouts “Ah! I’ve been hit!”
Yet another Pokémon frog, Toxicroak is the unique poison/fighting type. He’s based on a poison dart frog and has the coolest looking design of all the poke-frogs. He’s even the main Pokémon of Team Galatic member Saturn.
Seismitoad is the worst Pokémon frog. His line is supposed to be based around tempo and the bumps on his body vibrate and make sounds to attack. It’s a cool concept, but his design is executed awfully. 0/10 Frog.
The most infamous of frogs. Froggy from Sonic Adventure is best friends with Big the Cat. Together the two lead a very carefree life in the jungle. One day Froggy becomes possessed by Chaos when he swallows a chaos emerald. He sprouts a tail and runs off. You must then fish for him. It’s an interesting concept, but no one likes fishing in a game not based around fishing. Especially with poor controls and poor catch mechanics. Catching Froggy is a testament to patience. Many memes and legendary Let’s Play moments were born from this frog.
There are so many more frogs out there from Rayman to Ribbit King to Chrono Trigger to final Fantasy. But there’s only room for one more frog on this list and we’ve saved the most legendary of them all for last.
You knew they were coming. It’s the Battletoads. Battletoads is one of Rare’s earliest games with both Nintendo and arcades. These too cool for school frogs would shoot their way through levels, some of which are unfairly hard. This game was also multiplayer. This game also became infamous as it was the number one prank call to GameStop’s. I worked at GameStop for several years and yes, I got the Battletoads calls. People would call and ask “Do you have Battletoads?” The meme became so prevalent that I’m almost certain it’s what brought Battletoads back from the grave. When the toads were finally available once more, we got huge buttons that proudly declared “Yes we do have Battletoads.” What a weird time.
