Frogger

Frogger is one of the best-known arcade concepts of all, and on the Atari 5200 it was released by Parker Brothers, which at the time held the license for home versions of this game from Japan's Konami, or rather Sega, which distributed it in the West. The goal is to safely guide a frog across a busy road full of cars, trucks, and other vehicles, and then across a river full of logs, turtle backs, and dangerous whirlpools, all the way to one of the free dens on the opposite bank. The game is based on the simple principle of waiting for the right moment and planning a route, yet it can be immensely demanding once the pace of traffic and water currents speeds up and additional hazards such as crocodiles disguised as logs are added.

On the Atari 5200, the game uses the analog joystick for moving the frog in four directions, which works surprisingly well, because unlike platformers, the game doesn't require fine gradations of movement or precise jump timing. The sound effects of the frog's hops, collisions, and drownings are simple but functional, and the color scheme of the road, river, and shoreline dens matches the standard of Atari 8-bit graphics at the time. At the time of release, it was one of the most sought-after titles for home consoles at all, since the arcade Frogger was a phenomenon in arcades worldwide, and its simple rules appealed even to casual players.

Frogger is still valued today for its clean, instantly understandable game loop, which anyone can grasp within a few seconds, yet it offers plenty of room for improving reactions, planning a route, and strategically waiting for the right gap in traffic. The Atari 5200 version doesn't quite achieve the full elegance of the original arcade cabinet in terms of animation smoothness, but preserves the core gameplay intact and remains a pleasant short game suited to quick play sessions even more than forty years after its release.

Why play it: For quick play sessions even after forty years, Frogger is still a great choice thanks to its clean, instantly understandable game loop, even though the Atari 5200 version doesn't match the smoothness of the original.