The sounds of so many creatures can be heard resonating through the damp and heavy fog of the swamp. To the untrained ear, the symphony of sound would seem to blend together into a tedium tone, but something is out of place. Focusing in, the croak of the frogs seems… angry. If one were to see their locale they would find these cankerous croakers in a bitter battle as they leap from lilypad to lilypad seeking to sink their adversaries.

This area control game was originally published in 2015 after a Kickstarter campaign by designer Keith Matejka, who is also the founder of Thunderworks Games. Bullfrogs pits clans of frogs against one another in a struggle for pond preeminence. Artists JJ Ariosa, Jacqui Davis, and Luis Francisco bring their talents into the project and help bring the bullfrog battle to life. The game is designed to bring 2 to 4 players to the pond as they fight over the lilypads therein and most games take about 20 to 40 minutes.

Now brought to new life with an electronic iteration for both computers and mobile devices through Steam, Google Play, and the Apple Store, Bullfrogs is ready to entertain enthusiastic officers all over again! This version hit retail in August of 2021 and brings with it some very appreciated features. There is a tutorial to get new players familiar with the game as well as the addition of achievements, high scores, and sound. The automation of things like setup and scoring is always nice, but even more so is that the game can now be played conveniently on the go – either against fellow players or even the AI of the game itself – as well as over the internet or as a hot-seat scenario. The game has multiple difficulty settings and can be as tough of an opponent as you deem yourself worthy of.

The game, other than its digitization and additions, holds true to the original publication in most aspects. Each contender will have a deck of cards that contains several lilypad cards that each indicate a number of spaces for frogs, a number of actions to take when the card is played, and a point value to the card’s conqueror. Cards must be played orthogonally to those already in play and actions include either placing a frog on a card in line with the newly played card or causing an opposing frog to leap from its current location to an adjacent one. If a lilypad is ever filled then it will sink to the depths below and frogs will attempt to leap to safety beforehand. Opposing frogs must be moved before the winner’s and any bullfrogs lost are gone for the rest of the current game. Play will progress until players have exhausted their decks at which time scores are tallied and the highest point total will win. There are a few nuances to this process, but we found the game to be very good at explaining the entire process.

Everything considered Bullfrogs Digital is something we were very excited about from the moment we heard about it. We are fans of Thunderworks Games in general and were wanting to get our hands on a copy of the physical game for a while. Having it in a digital form makes it so much more accessible and easier to fit in quick games with friends regardless of scheduling issues that may arise and it was great to get in a few games with friends that we don’t get to game with much due to distance. Everything here is wrapped up into a terrific presentation of the product and it was our pleasure to be asked if we would review it for the publisher. It’s always great to see games brought back in a new light, either through new editions or updates, and Bullfrogs is no exception.

The screenshots of Thunderworks Games product were taken and edited by Ryan.