Tadpole Treble Encore
By Paul Semel,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Relaxing, slightly repetitive game still makes a fun splash.
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Tadpole Treble Encore
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Based on 1 parent review
Game Expands Genre in a Refreshing way
What’s It About?
In TADPOLE TREBLE ENCORE -- a remake of 2016's Tadpole Treble -- players have to steer a young tadpole through a side-scrolling obstacle course full of hazardous notes, obstructionist fish, and helpful bubbles. Their quest, like that of all tadpoles, is to survive long enough to become a frog. Can you help the little tadpole in its quest to avoid these hazards and grow up in peace?
Is It Any Good?
Though it may be too simple for some, this side-scrolling arcade game will delight both kids and their old school gamer parents. In Tadpole Treble Encore -- which is a remake of 2016's Tadpole Treble -- players have to help a tadpole survive the hazardous waters ahead. A side-scrolling arcade game, players steer the tadpole past such hazards as sharp black notes (which look like landmines), hungry fish, and bamboo poles, while also trying to pop some air bubbles along the way. The tadpole can also use his tail to smack larger bubbles and those aforementioned poles. Accompanying him on his journey is a pleasant musical soundtrack that, oddly, is triggered by the bad black notes? That's weird.
Where things get clever is when the tadpole has to share space with large wildlife that may not have a hankering for frogs' legs, but aren't particularly interested in keeping him alive either. In one early instance, a large fish swims ahead of the tadpole, blocking his view, making it harder for him to see where there's bad notes and good bubbles. And it just gets tougher from there. As clever as the stages may get, though, the basic gameplay doesn't change that radically, so some players may find it gets redundant after a while. That's even if they get really good as using the game's editor to make their own courses. But for people who aren't looking for a challenge that rivals what real tadpoles have to deal with in the wild, Tadpole Treble Encore can be as fun and relaxing as a nice swim upstream.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about helping others. In Tadpole Treble Encore, you have to help a tadpole navigate hazardous waters to safety, so how does it make you feel when you help this little amphibian? Do you feel bad when he gets hurt?
Tadpoles come from eggs and grow into frogs, who lay more eggs, but what else can we learn about frogs?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: BitFinity
- Release date: January 21, 2021
- Genre: Arcade
- Topics: Adventures
- ESRB rating: E
- Last updated: April 5, 2021
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