Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic is a video game in the Frogger series developed and released for the Game Boy Advance by Konami in 2003, the same year as the console installment Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue. It is the final Frogger game released on the system, and continues with similar gameplay to the first two Frogger's Adventures games, but expands upon them in a number of ways.
One day, Frogger receives a letter from his archaeologist grandfather Dr. Finnius, inviting him to his latest dig site to help him find the last piece of some ancient ruins he's unearthed near the town of Kabohti. When Frogger arrives, however, he learns Dr. Finnius has gone missing. While investigating the ruins at the dig site, Frogger discovers a relic known as the OPART, an orb with magical powers. He also meets Eric von Viesel, an aristocrat who has taken control of the dig site Finnius was researching. With OPART at his side, Frogger sets out to find his grandfather and also possibly figure out if Eric has some nefarious plot in the works.
While Forgotten Relic features the same tile-hopping gameplay as the first two Frogger's Adventures games on the GBA, it adds to said gameplay with the addition of various action-adventure and Role-Playing Game elements. Throughout the game, Frogger can unlock various upgrades for the OPART that grant it new abilities, then he can equip whichever ones he wants to both the A and B buttons. Many of these abilities can then be taken to earlier levels to access paths Frogger couldn't reach before. Additionally, Frogger now has a health bar and can take multiple hits before needing to restart a level, which he can restore by eating fruit found throughout the levels.
This game includes examples of:
- Atlantis: One of the memos Finnius left behind indicates that he went searching for the undersea city of Atlantis. Leona believes the city is just a myth, but Frogger goes searching for it anyway. Sure enough, it turns out to be real, and serves as the location for one of the levels.
- Attack Reflector: The shield upgrade for OPART can reflect attacks fired by certain bosses back at them to damage them.
- Auto-Scrolling Level:
- The boss fight with the Leviathan has the screen slowly moving forward automatically at all times. Frogger must keep up with the screen and wait until the spiky fruits appear over Leviathan in order to get his chance to drop them on it using the Mega Claw.
- The final boss fight with Eric has him moving around a vast arena while Frogger is surrounded on all sides by an energy barrier. The screen follows Eric, so Frogger has to hop around in the same direction to keep up so the barrier doesn't run into him, all the while avoiding lava tiles scattered across the floor. Eric's movement becomes faster after each time he is hit.
- Bag of Spilling: Frogger starts the game lacking abilities he had naturally in the previous Frogger's Adventures games, such as his long jump and tongue whip. He doesn't get the equivalent abilities until unlocking certain upgrades for OPART.
- Bears Are Bad News: The first boss is a bear that lives in the Cave and causes earthquakes by smashing the ground with a giant club.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist is Eric von Viesel, an aristocrat who wishes to take OPART's power for himself and use it to create an ultimate weapon. He's also responsible for the disappearances of Dr. Finnius, and later, Leona.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the game's ending, both OPARTs are destroyed after Frogger's sacrifices itself to save everyone from the explosion of Eric's, but Eric is defeated for good, and Frogger and friends all escape with their lives.
- Blackout Basement: Dark areas such as the depths of the Cave will be completely pitch black unless Frogger equips the flashlight upgrade to OPART.
- Block Puzzle: The second visit to the Black Lotus Hideout has Frogger scale their tower, with over a dozen rooms, each requiring him to use OPART'S Push Blocks ability to move blocks around to open the way to the door to the next room.
- Book Ends:
- The final boss fight takes place in the same ruins at the dig site where Frogger found OPART at the beginning of the game.
- The game starts with Frogger arriving in Kabohti via Griffith's plane, and ends with Griffith returning him back to Firefly Swamp.
- Boss Arena Urgency: As the bear causes more earthquakes during his boss battle, more of the ground will crumble away and cover the arena in bottomless pits. If Frogger falls down any, he will have to start the battle over from the beginning.
- Build Like an Egyptian: One location Frogger goes to in search of his grandfather is a pyramid out in the desert.
- Bullfight Boss: The Sphinxes in the pyramid charge at Frogger when he's in their line of sight. By combining the Time Stop and Push Blocks abilities from OPART, Frogger can push a block in the arena into their path to trick them into running headfirst into it, damaging them.
- Call to Adventure: Frogger starts the game chilling out at home until a plane suddenly crashes into his front yard to deliver him a letter inviting him on another adventure.
- Captain Crash: Griffith the pilot is introduced by crashing his plane into Frogger's yard, then subsequently compaining that the runway was too short.
- Company Cross References: In reference to another classic Konami arcade classic, a toy model of Vic Viper from the Gradius series appears in Dusty's workshop.
- Death from Above: The bear in the cave causes stalactites to rain down on Frogger with earthquakes.
- Dual Boss: A pair of Sphinxes appear as bosses in the Pyramid. Frogger has to defeat both of them in order to win, but once one of them is down, the other will gain new attacks.
- Electric Jellyfish: The guardian of Atlantis is a giant jellyfish that can damage Frogger with electric shocks.
- Evil All Along: After spending most of the game helping Frogger by attaching upgrades to OPART, Dusty is ultimately revealed to have been secretly collecting data from Frogger's OPART to sell it to Eric.
- Fiendish Fish: The Leviathan is a giant fish living in the River that sends a huge rainstorm to Kabohti after Frogger unwittingly steals the Crest of Poseidon for Mohan. Frogger has to go defeat it in a boss fight in order to stop the storm.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Dusty is Kabohti's local mechanic, and helps Frogger by repairing OPART and upgrading it by attaching the other Relics he finds. Impressive, given that it's a long-lost ancient technology.
- Good All Along: The Black Lotus Society are introduced by stealing Frogger's OPART and are initially accused of kidnapping Leona, but they turn out to be innocent and were simply trying to stop OPART from falling into evil hands. They even help Frogger by fixing OPART after Dusty sabotages it with a Dark Relic.
- Heart Container: The rare Frogger head items will permanently add one extra heart to Frogger's health bar.
- Hearts Are Health: Unlike previous tile-hopping games, Frogger now has a health bar and can be damaged multiple times before being defeated. His health bar is represented by a series of hearts that appear in the top-left corner.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Eric's OPART explodes after he is defeated in the final battle, but Frogger's OPART allows itself to be destroyed in the ensuing blast to give Frogger and friends enough time to escape the cave.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The bear causing the earthquakes gradually destroys the floor in the arena where he is fought, but this ultimate proves to be his undoing, as eventually the floor he's standing on gives way and collapses, finishing him off.
- Hub Level: Between levels, Frogger can visit Kabohti Village, a safe place with no enemies to get in his way, and various NPCs to talk to. On each visit, he will typically need to see Leona in order to learn what his next objective is, and any Relics he finds should be taken to Dusty so he can add them to OPART.
- Interface Screw: Taking damage from most enemies in the Black Lotus Hideout will cause Frogger to temporarily start uncontrollably hopping in whatever direction he is facing. He can cure this status early if he eats a pear lying around.
- It's All My Fault: Leona blames herself for OPART getting stolen by the Black Lotus Society, and temporarily leaves her house, forcing Frogger to go search for her.
- No-Gear Level: Both of Frogger's visits to the Black Lotus Hideout limit limit the number of abilities OPART has. The first visit occurs after they steal OPART, causing him to lose all of the abilities it gave him. The goal of the level is to retrieve it, but Frogger has none of his special abilities, so all he can do is hop around normally. The second time, OPART is only able to use the Long Jump and Push Blocks abilities due to Dusty sabotaging it by installing a Dark Relic into it.
- Poison Mushroom: The blue eggs appear to be items that Frogger can collect, but they cause him to lose health instead of gaining it if he eats them.
- Rampage from a Nail: The Blob in Atlantis is revealed to have been rampaging because of an anchor stuck inside it that came from one of Eric's ships.
- Scary Scorpions: Scorpions appear as enemies patrolling the Pyramid. They move in particularly difficult patterns in the rooms Frogger can fall into.
- Shell Game: The boss fight with the Master of the Black Lotus Society sees him and four of his students hide under large cups which are then shuffled around. Once they stop, Frogger has to press the switch adjacent to the cup the Master is hiding under. If he guesses right, the Master is hit with an electric shock, but if he guesses wrong, Frogger is hit instead. Frogger has to win five rounds, with the shuffling getting progressively faster each time.
- Suddenly Voiced: After not speaking at all for the entire rest of the game, OPART thanks Frogger before it sacrifices itself to contain the explosion from Eric's OPART.
- Super Drowning Skills: In typical fashion, Frogger cannot swim and falling into any water will cost him some health and send him back to the last checkpoint. However, if Frogger has the Scuba gear equipped, jumping into water will instead allow him to safely access underwater areas, potentially leading to hidden paths or treasures.
- Tempting Fate:
- The opening of the game has Frogger wishing something exciting would happen while relaxing at home. Cue a plane nearly crashing into where he's sitting.
- After Frogger returns from Atlantis for the first time, certain NPCs will warn him to take good care of OPART. After he takes it to Dusty once again, the Black Lotus Society ambushes him as he's leaving and steals it.
- Time Stands Still: One of the relics used to upgrade OPART grants Frogger the power to temporarily stop time, allowing him to bypass obstacles that he otherwise can't move fast enough to bypass, such as certain sand flows in the pyramid.
- Under the Sea: One level in Atlantis is underwater. Since Frogger can't swim, he can't go down into it until he obtains a scuba gear upgrade for OPART. Once he's down there, he has to have the scuba gear equipped to one of his action slots at all times, and the water slows him down quite a bit.
- Wicked Weasel: The game's main antagonist is a weasel named Eric von Viesel, who wants to take control of OPART and use it to create powerful weapons.
- Wolfpack Boss: The penultimate boss fight with Dusty has him summon a group of holographic robots that roam the arena individually by moving across colored rails displayed on the ground. Frogger has to take them all out by standing on switches that turn on electric panels as they run over them.
- You Have Failed Me: After Frogger destroys Dusty's holographic robots, he retreats to Eric for backup, only for Eric to snap and attack him for failing to finish Frogger. Dusty is never seen again after this, so it's safe to assume Eric killed him.
