Frogun dev reveals the numerous games that inspired him
You can probably guess a few!
Frogun is a throwback to the 32 and 64-bit eras in numerous ways. Obviously there’s the visual influence, but that inspiration bleeds into gameplay and sound as well.
In an interview with Nintendo Life, developer Raúl Martínez Garrido revealed the many titles that helped inspire and pave the way for Frogun’s creation.
Of course I have to start with Crash Bandicoot, specially the second one, Cortex Strikes Back. But the list is long, from modern games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker or Super Mario 3D World, to classics like Mega Man X. All of them have mechanics or elements I wanted to add to Frogun. Although there’s also how Mega Man Legends was an inspiration for the graphics, or the very first, pixelated, free, Spelunky made me love the adventuring explorer theme.
A lot of people have noticed the inspiration from Mega Man Legends in particular – probably because it’s literally the first thing you see, ha – but in terms of gameplay, I think most people probably won’t realize that in terms of the genesis of Frogun’s gameplay style… Mega Man X is more directly responsible! That Strike Chain you get, which can hook in and pull stuff around, or pull you towards stuff? That’s where it all began. Even though it wasn’t very fun to use in that game, it was an interesting idea.
There’s also some more low key inspirations for the general aesthetics, like Croc Legends of the Gobbos, or Gex, specially the third one, Deep Cover Gecko, or even Bomberman Hero. If you have a look round at the environments for those games, you’ll see influences pop up in Frogun, especially in the larger and more complex geometric levels.
…like with the graphics, the sound is also more inspired by 16 bit audio than authentic to its limitations. You’d be surprised the amount of music from games like Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X4, Super Mario RPG, and even more varied ones came up when searching for references! The final soundtrack is an amalgam of different generations of video games.
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