Mudborne: Frog Management Sim Review – A Frog Lovers Dream Game

OVERVIEW

Mudborne is a cozy nature management simulator where players will discover and breed new types of frogs while also trying to restore lost populations.

Developer: ellraiser, TNgineers
Release Date: March 20th, 2025
Price:$7.99
Platforms: Steam

Gameplay in Mudborne

After waking from hibernation, Mudborne players will need to explore their now-empty pond and figure out how to restore it to its former glory. The game begins with a quick tutorial to familiarize players with the controls and how various item menus work.

Mudborne players will begin the game by researching and eventually breeding the common green frogs found in the pond. Experimenting with the various mushrooms, plants, and bugs found in the pond will unlock a variety of new frogs to fill the pond with.

Once players begin to explore the world further, they will find hidden secrets, such as portals to other worlds and plenty of treasures to collect. These treasures can be anything from new machine blueprints, tradable goods, or decorations to store your favorite frogs.

Mudborne does an excellent job of tying together the frog-breeding mechanics with exploration. Many puzzles around the various maps will require specific frog types. For instance, using pressure plates to open lily pad bridges between islands requires placing a very heavy frog on the plate. Traveling to new realms also requires frogs that meet certain genetic code sequences or multiple frogs of certain types.

An Ambient Gaming Experience

This is a screenshot from the Mudborne video game showing the Dream Realm version of the pond. Everything is a purple and pink color.

The various realms players will explore in Mudborne are each vibrant and always full of life, thanks to the various creatures that roam around the pond spaces. The music in each location also works perfectly to set a relaxing but adventurous mood.

Mudborne is a very relaxing game to jump into. Once players reach the Dream Realm and trade in their first blueprints, a lot of machines function almost independently. If a player can collect a lot of the base materials for things such as compost materials, bugs to feed tadpoles, and trading materials, they can leave several machines running while they go off and explore.

While the time of day in Mudborne changes, there is no in-game reason to rush to the finish. This means players have the freedom to approach the game in their own unique ways. These things make Mudborne very accessible to parents and students who game.

Final Thoughts on Mudborne

A screenshot of the Mudborne video game mushroom powder pop up window.

Overall, Mudborne is a fun and cozy take on management sims that adds the right amount of RPG elements to keep things fresh. The music is relaxing and makes longer play sessions feel like an adventure.

The frog breeding mechanics can seem a bit complex to those newer to the genre; however, once players start to organize their machines around the pond, producing new frogs becomes like second nature. The puzzles throughout the world are also a good balance of difficulty levels that helps keep things from becoming repetitive.

If you enjoy games like APICO and Kamaeru: A Frog Refugee, you should give Mudborne a try. Mudborne is currently available on Steam, along with a short gameplay demo.