Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County (2022)

Frog Detective is the kind of low-energy, pick-me-up game that carried me through my Seasonal Affective Disorder (undiagnosed) much like the Christ carrying me on that one beach, I guess. Frog Detective 2 is more of the same. It was enjoyable, but like a second scoop of Chunky Monkey ice cream, unnecessary. I bought all three Frog Detective games in a bundle and played them in front of my children while doing the voices (Pistol for example sounded like Macho Man Randy Savage while Frog Detective sounded like Kermit, of course) so I was pretty committed to doing the third game. And after a largely redundant, albeit still fun, second outing, I did not have high expectations for Corruption at Cowboy County.

Boy, do I have egg on my face!

Frog Detective 3 is the best of the trilogy offering new mystery solving mechanics, a more involved plot (this time around, crime is real), and laugh out loud dialogue.

I loved my time with Frog Detective. Despite the finality of this entry, I would love more games set in this world. I'll wishlist a Mystery Monkey or Lobster Postie game the moment they're announced.

What a charming little trilogy.

All three games together have a runtime of about 3 hours, and the gameplay is very simple -- you collect items from the environment and trade them with other characters to get what you need to solve the mysteries. I'd say it lands a bit closer to walking simulator than what you'd expect from point and click games.

The fun comes from the goofy, sometimes absurd, and frequently awkward writing. I was grinning throughout the series, and even laughed out loud on multiple occasions. Top that off with enjoyable music and cute artistic direction, and you've got a great package. There's nothing mind blowing here, but the ending managed to be surprisingly impactful for such a short, silly series. Definitely worth the time!