Now Playing: Ribbit King (GameCube)

We had an out-of-town guest this past weekend who brought her two young daughters. We don’t entertain guests very often and expected to play Wii Sports for most of the day. Bowling was fun for a bit but even the kids had played it endlessly at their friends’ homes. That’s when Shang Xiang offered up Ribbit King and it wound up being the undeniable hit with its bizarre designs and golf-on-crack gameplay. It’s also spurred me back into finishing the Story Mode I started four years ago and tugged at my heartstrings with its charming early 2000’s designs.

Outside of an introductory cutscene Story Mode is basically you versus whatever insane big-eyed character the game throws at you next. The gameplay involves hitting a catapult to launch your frog off towards the goal. But unlike real golf, Ribbit King litters the course in all directions with a Rube Goldberg-ish array of items and characters that can lead you on a minutes-long joyride, even leading to the elusive Frog-in-One where your score can top 2000 points on the first shot.

As hilarious as ping-ponging around the course sounds it can get downright strategic at times. You’ve got just as much control as in real golf, able to alter the direction, arc, hook, and slice of your shot as well as equip power-ups that allow you to dive underwater, swim through lava, or take no damage from head-on collisions. Once you get the hang of things it quickly becomes a balancing act between getting to the hole for the frog-in bonus and careening around the course for huge points.

The game’s great equalizer, though, is its randomness. As carefully as you plan there always seems to be a stray horse fly that will draw your frog’s attention or a mysterious creature that will send you off in a completely different direction. No matter the outcome it’s almost always hilarious and its lighthearted nature and huge swings in scores ensures no one feels too bad about losing.

I have always remembered Ribbit King fondly but now that I’ve played it again I can’t recommend it enough. It’s fun enough alone but with 2-4 players it really excels and its vibrant visuals help it look fresh even in this day and age of hyper-graphics. Used copies are readily available for about $12 on both GameCube and PlayStation 2 and it even comes with a bonus disc full of Achievements. Seriously, it asks you to do things like ‘Get 10 Frog-in-Ones’ to unlock a completely insane video clip.

Forget quiz shows, karaoke, and rock bands, startle and entertain your next houseguests with a game of Frolf!