• Price: $16.99
• Developer: Bonte Avond
• Publisher: offbrand games
• Release Date: March 16, 2026

A review code was kindly provided by offbrand games on behalf of Bonte Avond. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Content warning: rated E for everyone. Depression, bullying, bee + wasp characters

From the developer behind Once Upon a Jester, Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime first caught my eye with its colorful, cartoony graphics. In this “tactical comedy adventure,” players get to collect frogs and use them to resolve disputes through Frogtime battles.

The story begins with Bonnie Bear celebrating her birthday with her friends, who give her her first “toad bag,” a starter pack for Frogtime. They got some for themselves as well so they could all play together; it’s sweet how they gave her both a physical gift and the experience of playing the game with them!

Unfortunately the local bully comes to rain on their parade, challenging Bonnie Bear to a Frogtime battle. Seeing as she’s just started playing, it’s no surprise that she loses. But the bully grabs her other birthday present as his prize, and he says she can only get it back by beating him at Frogtime.

The first part of the game helps you get used to the mechanics of Frogtime. At first I’d assumed that the rules were the same as in checkers, and that a frog would be “captured”/removed once you jumped over it. But here all frogs remain on the board until they get to the other side (with the exception of the fragile toad, which gets destroyed if they run into another frog).

It took my brain a little bit to adjust to the rules. I did lose a lot in the beginning, but I managed to figure it out. Frogtime may look simple on the surface, but it’s more complex than it looks. Each player gets to place 3 frogs on the field at a time; there are different types of frogs with their own unique functions.

By themselves, frogs are capable of moving one square in any direction. But they can use other frogs – whether friend or froggy foe – in front of them as launch pads to hop over each other and move much farther. (Players can also move their frogs back towards their own side – and damage board – to strategically block their opponent’s frogs.) Some frogs can even fly or phase through other frogs.

Toads, on the other hand webbed foot, “are like frogs that cannot jump [over others] but have other interesting abilities.” There were some that got stat bonuses with toads of similar types on the board, and I remember a lot of them had functions that helped move themselves forward, along with the others on their team.

The goal of Frogtime is to get your team over to your opponent’s “end zone,” where their damage board is located. Each frog or toad does a set amount of damage (although a few have conditions that can increase their attack even more).

You have to get your opponent’s damage board down to zero to win, but it is possible to tie if you have a frog get their board down to zero as one of theirs does the same to your board. Winning or ending in a draw increases your “self worth” experience and your “Cocodud” currency to purchase more Booster Eggs. Losing unfortunately decreases your self worth, but you don’t lose any money.

Increasing your self worth is important because you need to be at a certain level to be able to buy better Booster Eggs from the shop. You can challenge some characters to Frogtime as much as you want, but there is a brief cooldown period before you can challenge the same person again. Thankfully they’re ready to go again after you play with someone else.

Once you’ve built up enough self worth and funds you can choose from a variety of blind box Booster Eggs based on your frog preferences. They come in different colors and rarities, with rarer versions of the same frog having better perks. For example, a Legendary Cloner can produce a clone in front of and behind itself at the same time, while a Cloner of a lower rarity can only produce one ahead of itself.

One of my biggest issues with the game is that we can only keep 8 frogs at a time. Once you exceed that number you have to choose one to discard when you get a new one. I was disappointed that a game about frog collecting doesn’t let you keep everything you want.

I was fine only having 8 frogs in my inventory at a time, but even just having unused frogs in something similar to the Pokémon PC storage system would’ve been nice so I could switch up my team formations on occasion without losing any of them. There isn’t any kind of frog encyclopedia or anything that lets you see which ones you’ve obtained before, either.

The frogs and toads are all really cute, so I was sad having to discard so many of them throughout the game. We do get consolation prizes of sorts in the form of frog tickets for each discarded frog. These tickets can then be used in the hat gachapon machine (hat-chapon?) to obtain little hats to put on your frogs to make them even cuter! Some hats even offer stat boosts.

I really enjoyed coming up with my froggy team strategies as they started to change the rules for the Frogtime battles. Eventually you’ll face opponents with up to 15-20 points on their damage board, or as few as 1! (I loved the themed frogs used by certain characters, too.) Some opponents may have smaller fields to play on, and there are also team battles at times.

The world of Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime is so wacky, bizarre, and fun. Bonnie Bear is one of many talking animal characters, but there are sentient pieces of wood, vampires, aliens, and more. Many aspects of the universe are ridiculous and inexplicable (what’s with the shells?) yet make total sense in the grand scheme of things precisely because they don’t make sense.

Some plot points felt unresolved. (What happened to Bonnie last year? What was with the tower?) But the writing overall is silly and clever, and I love the puns. Regardless of each character’s motivations, in the end everything comes down to Frogtime. The game has a wholesome message about the way that games like Frogtime – or even just hobbies in general – connect us and bring us out of our shells.

They also wrote some really catchy songs with lyrics, which does make sense since the people behind the game are 2 musicians. I have not been able to get “Look At My Six Pack” out of my head since it first played at the beginning of the game. 🎶

Additionally, I counted more than 60 characters in the credits, who are all voice acted by the developers, their friends, and special guests such as Ironmouse and Lilypichu. I appreciated how expressive the characters were based on their voices and the animation; Bonnie Bear’s eyes darting back and forth in awkward situations was hilarious.

I spent roughly 10 hours on the game, and I managed to complete most of the optional content to earn all but 3 of the achievements. In the main portion of the game there seem to be some hidden optional collectibles, and you can try out the “frogpicking” puzzle mini game.

After the credits roll, there is additional content that allows you to continue to level up your self worth, buy more booster eggs, and participate in sequential battles that make you start from the beginning if you lose one. If you’re extremely lucky, it’s possible to obtain an incredibly rare frog if you continue to play and pull for frogs.

I really enjoyed my time with Bonnie Bear, and would love a sequel with more Frogtime gameplay. I loved my frogs, the game’s artistic direction, and the humor. This is just so quirky, cute, and unique – I’d say it’s unforgettable “un-FROG-ettable”! 🐸 😉