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Games of 2012: Frog Fractions

I’ve spent a lot of time in 2012 playing games, but not a lot of time writing about them. As I did last year, I’d like to tell some stories or share some thoughts about the ones that meant the most to me this year. I’ll be posting one a day until Christmas. See all Games of 2012 posts.

Twinbeard’s Flash game opus Frog Fractions does indeed live up to the title: there is a frog, and there are fractions. But it’s also about boxing, work visas, pornography, racism, space travel, cybernetic enhancements, and so much more.

Frog Fractions is one of two games on my list this year that start off rationally enough and then quickly go off the rails into full-blown ridiculousness. I don’t want to say too much about it – like The Stanley Parable, describing too much of it removes the joy of having the game pull 180s on you over and over again.

It is part of a growing trend of I can only label as “anti-gaming”. In the same way anti-humor became a trend over the last few years, anti-gaming is about turning the knives on the industry itself. Events like Fuck This Jam show that game designers are feeling more and more comfortable knocking down the gameplay models that have been built up.

If you’re the type of gamer who will play practically anything and everything, from bullet hell shmups to text adventures
and music games (i.e. like me), you will assuredly crack a smile at Frog Fractions.

(Late aside: I kind of love that they stuck a fake ign.com watermark on the titlescreen so it looks like the screenshot I took is stolen.)

Frog Fractions is a free Flash game.