Perhaps one of the greatest indie games of all time, Frog Fractions is a weird edutainment-ish Indie game that everyone loved back in 2012 and everyone still loves now. You can now get the game in remastered form, for free, as promised, on Steam. Frog Fractions is a surprising, joyous game that celebrates everything good about gaming—no joke. This re-release ahead of Flash's demise this year is upscaled to 4k and still completely free. You can buy a cosmetic hat DLC for $8, though, if you like.
Here's the description, per the game page: "In Frog Fractions, the player controls a frog sitting on a lily pad. The frog must use its tongue to attack oncoming insects and protect its fruit, in the vein of Missile Command. Between waves of bug attacks, the player can purchase upgrades such as lock-on targeting, a cybernetic brain, and a flying dragon."
If you've never played it or never heard of it, I profoundly encourage you to go ahead and check out the game on Steam before I spoil it in the next paragraph. If you're the kind of person who needs additional convincing and/or context, read on.
Frog Fractions is in truth an absurd trip through multivaried game mechanics and the very idea of what a game is and how it can change as you play. It's delightful to experience. Designer James Crawford made the game as a joke to play on his friends, but it's really much more than that. It released in 2012 to little acclaim, but when people started to figure out the deep and fascinating strangeness to the journey of playing, it caught on big. The enjoyment of it is somewhat lessened if you know what's coming, but not by much I'd say.
The Kickstarted sequel, Frog Fractions 2, became a meme unto itself because of an elaborate ARG. "Is this Frog Fractions 2?" was the reaction to any strange, new, or unknown game release. Once you've had some time with it, go and read up on Frog Fractions 2—which we called "gaming's greatest mystery"—then... go and play Frog Fractions 2.
Someone do let me know if the $8 Hat DLC is Frog Fractions 3.
