Froggy Hates Snow Review
Dig through snow, hunt for gems, and get back to safety before freezing to death in Crying Brick’s survival roguelite Froggy Hates Snow.
Froggy Hates Snow. Credit: Crying Brick / Digital Bandidos
Solo developer Crying Brick’s Froggy Hates Snow takes the act of clearing a path in snow, makes it tactile and satisfying, then builds an excellent survival roguelite around it. I loved carving tunnels through its frozen wastelands, watching brightly colored gems pop out of the snow, and seeing how far I could push my luck to do just a little bit more before freezing to death.
As Froggy, you start in the center of a snowfield in a heated bubble. At first, you scrape through snow with your bare hands, then gain access to increasingly powerful tools while gems feed into upgrades. Venturing out slowly saps your warmth, so you have to calculate how far you can dig before risking not being able to get back to your shelter alive. Cutting back home in a direct line through untouched snow is much slower than running along paths you’ve already cleared, which makes the routes you create matter. There’s a thrill to cutting it close, a high to making it back at the last second. I lived for those nail-biters.
Timed combat rounds interrupt you ten times over the course of a run, with a boss fight at the end. Battles force you to stop whatever greedy resource run you’re making to deal with waves of enemies, though you can delay the fights by sticking near debris where enemy spawning isn’t allowed. The fighting itself is a little weak, but I enjoy the added pressure over Peaceful Mode’s exploration-only approach. You can always use keys you find to open an exit door early instead of unlocking chests, avoiding the rest of the combat rounds.
Froggy Hates Snow. Credit: Crying Brick / Digital Bandidos
Froggy Hates Snow. Credit: Crying Brick / Digital Bandidos
The game has a ton of characters, gear, skills, and companions. The variety feeds back into the pleasure of digging. You get faster, powerful enough to dig through solid ice, and find new ways to push farther from safety before turning back.
The game’s deformable snow is more than an aesthetic touch. It makes the act of clearing it tactile and satisfying. When a game’s core action feels that good, it’s hard to stop playing. I’d compare it to how good the simple act of running and jumping feels in a Mario game. The black, blobby enemies are bland and uninteresting compared to the various frogs and even the snowy landscape, though their silhouettes stand out clearly. The one flaw in the game’s visual design is how overwhelmingly white it is. Playing in a dark room can be taxing on the eyes, so the included Night Mode was a welcome relief. I even used it during the daytime.
Froggy Hates Snow finds a remarkable amount of depth in its simplicity, and longevity in how good its core looks and feels. I was compelled to play over and over again, despite my mixed feelings about the combat. I wanted to keep digging, keep finding gems, keep getting stronger. To see how far I could push before succumbing to the ice. Though it’s been highlighted in a few publications, this game is criminally overlooked and doesn’t deserve to be buried in Steam’s catalog.
Froggy Hates Snow
Froggy Hates Snow makes the simple act of digging through snow deeply satisfying, then layers in survival pressure that kept me pushing my luck run after run.
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