Mothergamer Plays Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime

 *Note: I received the game for free for my honest review. Thank you so much to Offbrand Games and Bonte-Avond for the Nintendo Switch game key.

Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime is charming right from the start with a Bear named Bonnie in a frog onesie just vibing in their treehouse. Bonnie's friends show up with a cake to celebrate Bonnie's bearday and they brought gifts. The game is fully voice acted which is really lovely because everyone nails the tone of each character. 

Celebrating Bonnie's bearday. 

One of the gifts Bonnie's friends have for them is a toad bag in order to play a tactical game called Frogtime and yes, you play it with cute frogs. There's a tutorial with Bonnie and friends on how to play Frogtime. Different frogs have various abilities that allow them to jump over your opponent's frogs or push a frog back a tile to start. There are also toads who can't jump, but they other skills that help you on your way to victory in a Frogtime match. There's a bit of a learning curve to Frogtime and it did take me a couple of tries during the tutorial before I got the hang of it. 

It's Frogtime! 

It becomes clear pretty quickly as part of the story that the starter frogs are not strong enough to win some Frogtime battles. Luckily, there's a shop nearby that sells booster eggs so you can get better frogs and if you're lucky you can even get some legendary frogs. You can also get booster eggs for toads. The first area is Bonnie walking around and playing Frogtime with others which gets in a good bit of practice and becoming more familiar with the game. When Bonnie wins their self worth goes up which is an interesting way of level grinding. However, if they lose a match, their self worth goes down a little. The good news is you can try again if you lose a Frogtime match. I'm defininetly not the best at Frogtime and a couple of battles took me a few tries, but I was having fun with it and I liked that you could see what skills each frog has not just for your frogs, but for your opponent as well. 

Buying booster eggs. 

The main part of the story is Bonnie and friends saving their friend Ann who got stuck in a trans-dimensional seashell by mistake and discovering there are other trans-dimensional shells. Bonnie leaves home with their friends in search of a way to help Ann and find these other shells while playing Frogtime along the way. This is a smart way to introduce new frogs at the shops in these other areas. I do wish we could hold more than eight frogs in the toad bag because if you have a full roster of frogs and buy a new one, you have to choose which frog to throw away. I would have liked a storage area in the toad bag so we could have a set of frogs kind of like different card decks. It's also completely random which frogs you get to pull out of your toad bag during Frogtime. I understand what they were trying to do with this, but I really feel it would have been stronger to allow a little more control over this for the players. I also got a bit frustrated with how often I would lose a Frogtime match because at times it felt like the RNG was often in favor of the computer. There were also quite a few matches that were story locked so if I lost, I couldn't continue the story and I would find myself slightly irritated by this. It made me wish there was an accessibility setting to make the game a little easier to avoid frustrations like this. I'm very stubborn and refused to give up and eventually did manage to win those matches trying different frogs and various strategies which made me feel quite vindicated. In spite of those few critiques, I really enjoyed Frogtime and all the whimsy that came with it. 

To add to the cuteness and whimsical energy of the story, there is music throughout the entire game and all of it is lovely. There's a sweet gentle song about playing Frogtime with friends and a great upbeat dance song sung between a dapper French skeleton and their romantic ghost partner. The music and singing are wonderful and the voice acting throughout the game is great showing just how much passion and care went into creating this game and when you realize it's two musicians that created this, it makes it even more impressive.  

Making music together. 

I enjoyed the story for Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime and appreciated the many puns, the brilliant humor, the bright colors, and cute art style. The music and songs are wonderfully done adding to the general ambience of the coziness of the game. While the few things I mentioned could be better, it did not detract from the great time I had hanging out with Bonnie and their friends while solving a bit of a mystery. I'm so glad I got a chance to experience it and got to see so many adorable frogs. 

Yes, we had fun playing Frogtime with a kraken!

*Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch and Steam

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mothergamer Plays Star Wars Outlaws

 Star Wars Outlaws starts with a very intense scene which sets a clear tone for the story. Then we are introduced to a young woman Kay Vess and her adorable alien animal companion Nix. Kay is a young thief living on Canto Bight not exactly in the lap of luxury as she talks to Nix about getting that big score so they never have to worry about struggling to survive. Kay is smart and I liked her right away, but I noticed sometimes she doesn't always think things through which is how she gets in trouble when a job goes wrong and she ends up with a Death Mark (a bounty where the person is wanted dead) and stealing a starship to flee and crash landing on another planet. It's a very fast paced and exciting opening setting up this intergalactic adventure. 

Kay and the adorable Nix. 

The planet Kay crash landed on is Toshara and this is a great first area to get a feel for this open world Star Wars story. There's a brief tutorial on how to move and how to get Nix to fetch things, distract people so Kay can sneak by, and Nix can also help Kay fight. Kay is a scoundrel and this is a story about scoundrels which works because Kay is so likeable and Nix adds to that in his charming cuteness a lot. This also introduces us to syndicates and jobs Kay can do for each one. There's a balance to it however and you have to decide which syndicate you want to get in good with first. Some jobs you do for one, may land you in trouble with the other. The game shows this pretty well in the user interface showing how good or bad your relationship is with the four syndicates. 

There's a ton of side quests as well that do benefit Kay with better weapons, crafting items, and armor. We mustn't forget the mini games either. I was delighted to see there was a little arcade in one area and you could play video games. There's also a card game called Sabacc and there's a bit of a learning curve with it. I appreciated the accessibility settings allowing me to make this card game easier to follow. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but I did get it. It wasn't really my favorite and I only really played it when I had to for certain quests. 

Kay and Nix explore a cantina. 

What I really loved was being able to explore everywhere on each planet Kay visits throughout the story and various side hustles. Each planet is interesting and I was always finding new things on each one and loved how they were all so varied. The whole gist of Kay doing this is putting together her own crew complete with a really cool BX-series droid commando known as ND-5 to do a really big job involving a very secure vault. Everything throughout the story is leading up to that vault heist and the game lets you go at your own pace encouraging lots of exploration. Kay has a speed bike that helps with this especially in harder to reach areas.

Off to go exploring!

I loved Kay and Nix together throughout all of this. The timeline for Outlaws is in the present, but there are a few flashbacks here and there showing why Kay is hesitant to trust people and struggles to ask for help. It does this in a way that makes it obvious without being heavy handed. Nix really steals the show so often with his funny antics and his cute charm. He doesn't say a single word and yet he says so much with all his actions throughout the game showing that he and Kay are truly partners and family. One of my favorite things in the game is a fun mini game with Kay and Nix sharing a meal. Hit the buttons correctly and you get to see them enjoying themselves with a good meal together. It's a nice moment of downtime from adventuring and a charming breather from all the combat. 

Kay and Nix enjoy a meal.

There's a lot of stealth in Outlaws which makes sense since Kay is a thief. The combat style is actually fun with Nix being able to help fight, lots of blasters, grenades, and even some high speed chase fights. Nix really shines in the stealth and combat aspect of the game because you can send him to fetch a heal item or a grenade to throw at enemies. He can also be sent to turn off switches or open a gate. There are a myriad of ways to use Nix which really highlights what a great team he and Kay are.  Sometimes the battles could get a little tedious in places, but nothing that detracted from my enjoyment of the game. I also appreciated that there were lots of cute little creatures that I could pet in the game. My personal favorite were these small creatures that looked like a mix of kangaroo and dragon.

I did have a bit of an issue with starship battles. Sometimes the camera would swing wildly making it harder to track enemy ships even when I highlighted them. The other factor is sometimes the camera moving around quickly like that would cause me to be nauseous and I'd have to pause the game and take a minute to work through that. Luckily, there weren't too many space battles so I didn't have to deal with that too much. 

The main story itself was great. I liked seeing where it would take us next and I think a big part of that was how much I liked Kay, Nix, and their merry crew of rogues. There are even quests you can do for a few of them which give you a little insight into who they are and how they got to be there. I do wish there was a little more backstory for some of them, but again it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game. There were little hints and subtext for some reveals through the story and I was always excited when my suspicions about certain story lines and characters were confirmed as I played the story. I really liked the ending because it gave a fairly satisfying conclusion and ended on a high hopeful note for Kay and Nix and their friends. It was very much a Star Wars story with nods to the familiar lore while also being its own thing in a fun space romp and I loved all of it. 

Kay and Nix explore a new planet. 

*Star Wars Outlaws is available to play on the following platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5, and Steam

Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and talk about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer