Frog Sqwad Preview

Picking a game to play with your friends can be a surprisingly arduous task. Going for something competitive may help raise the adrenaline and make for a grand time, but the intense gameplay and stressful nature may also lead to negative feelings, in addition to not leaving much room to actually chat. As such, I often tend to gravitate more toward somewhat brainless co-op titles, which brings us to Panic Stations’ upcoming extraction puzzle platformer, Frog Sqwad.

In the game, up to eight players live out their amphibian dreams by becoming cute little frogs with flappy arms and a very R.E.P.O.–esque jaw. These anurans are armed with a little hop, a sticky tongue they can shoot out some distance in front of them, and the ability to consume (and regurgitate) large quantities of food! It is this gastronomic ability that is the core of Frog Sqwad’s gameplay loop.

You see, the King of the Swamp, a massive, multi-eyed toad, is hungry, and it is the players’ duty to go out on a hovercraft with the sole mission of gathering a heaping helping of munchies for their famished monarch. Once they set out on a mission, our loyal frogs are set loose on a randomly generated level filled with hidden goodies, puzzles, platforming challenges, and dangers.

As the players explore and find foodstuffs, they can gobble them up to store them for later use. When needed, the morsels can be, well, “returned” with the push of a button, with the goal of getting the grub back to the beginning of the level and filling a quota before extracting. However, the nommies are more than just points on a graph! In addition to filling the amphibian’s little tummy, eating food will also make said animal grow in size by a small amount.

 

While a fun cosmetic addition in itself, it also works as a mechanical feature, as being larger can make certain puzzles and platforming sections more or less difficult. If a frog eats past a certain point, they will become severely bloated and have to rely on rolling (or being rolled) around, adding a layer of strategy and greed management to the mix. Finally, the grub one has eaten also acts like the rings in the Sonic franchise: as long as the player has something in their belly, they can survive a hit by an enemy.

The main tool the frogs have for reaching their caloric quotas is their sticky tongue. In addition to being a great way to pick stuff up, the appendage also works as a biological grappling hook, allowing the creatures to swing off of surfaces or stick to walls. Players can even use the organ cooperatively by connecting two to create a slingshot, for example.

The dungeons (for lack of a better term) are pretty imaginative, with a mix of puzzle rooms, platforming challenges, and enemies to navigate around; players can even find hidden rooms and breakable walls if they keep their eyes peeled. However, one somewhat annoying facet was how some rooms simply were not doable with two players.

A few rooms I ran into in the game simply need at least three players, as they require the use of the aforementioned slingshot technique or just more sets of hands (or tongues). I can understand not accommodating a small player group in a game meant for a much larger crowd, but since the stages seem to be randomly generated, one would think it wouldn’t be too hard to filter out these rooms. Regardless, this is an early build and may very well be fixed in the final product!

Once the players decide to leave, everyone has been defeated, or the timer ticks down to zero, the run ends and the frogs are returned back to their famished leader. If the quota is not met, the Swamp King is mad, and the players lose a life. If, however, they manage to satiate the reagent's mighty appetite, the frogs are rewarded with gold… and a larger quota to fill next time.

Regretfully, the early build I had access to didn’t have anything to spend the earned treasure on; it would seem to be either cosmetics or support items, based on the nifty vending machine found in the amphibians' base of operations.

Frog Sqwad is a fun and simple extraction looter that still manages to offer some fun puzzles without being too demanding. The frogs themselves are adorable, and the physics-based platforming can be a treat. If you’re looking for a new game to add to your game night rotation or are looking for a game to play as you chat with friends, this may be one to wishlist.

Frog Sqwad is being developed and published by Panic Stations. Though there is no set release date at the time of writing, the game is set to release in 2026.