Kermit Quest

Kermit Quest is an adventure video game starring the legendary Kermit the Frog, marking his video game debut. It was released as a launch title for the Snowtendo Swap in 2017, to great critical acclaim.

Gameplay
At the start of the game, Kermit has ten hit points, represented by a picture of Kermit's face in the upper left corner of the screen surrounded by orange slices, which disappear when hit. Most enemies typically take away one orange slice when they attack Kermit, although certain stronger enemies and bosses can do more damage. Throughout the world, there are ten hidden Golden Orange Slices, which replace one of the orange slices when collected, giving him an extra hit point for each one found. Once Kermit is damaged, he can regain health by finding glasses of orange juice, which recovers three orange slices. The in-game explanation for this system is that Kermit needs vitamin C to function at peak capacity.

The game has a top-down structure and features traversing dungeons, but uses a system of levels rather than an open world. The dungeons consist of multiple rooms with locked doors, puzzles, and occasionally dead ends which would be frustrating if Kermit wasn't just that cool. Kermit attacks by punching and kicking his enemies as well as using special powers which he gains more of after collecting the gems at the end of each level. The Essence gem allows him to recover health, the Telekinesis Gem can repel enemies and projectiles as well as solve certain puzzles, the time gem can slow down time for a single room to slow enemies or time-based puzzles, the telepathy gem can distract enemies and shopowners so you can steal their goods (and for once DOESN'T solve any puzzles), the energy gem unleashes a projectile which is the only thing that can damage certain enemies and surprise surprise, solve certain puzzles. The strength gem is unique in that it gives Kermit a passive boost to all his attacks, but is only available in the final level.

In each dungeon are two to three collectibles called "Orange Peels", mysterious orange peels that Kermit notes to have writing on them, seemingly warning of future events. Every dungeon has two or three "Peel Rooms" containing a very difficult challenge. Kermit can exit these rooms at any time, but returning will reset the room. How many Peels Kermit collects by the end of the game will determine the ending the player gets.

Plot
The story begins with Kermit, relaxing and sipping a glass of his favorite beverage, orange juice. Suddenly, a panicking penguin arrives who informs Kermit that a group of walri have begun attacking the Club Penguin Weekee. Kermit rushes to save the Weekee, which serves as the tutorial level for the game.

After liberating the Weekee, Kermit finds out that the Walrus Bossman he just beat the tar out of held one of the seven Destruction Gems, which he then claims as his own. He decides to collect the other six gems so he can use the power to ensure that the Weekee can be protected forever. His next stop is the Dojo for the Telekinesis Gem. After explaining his plight to Sensei, he tells Kermit to leave and the re-enter through the front door once prompted so that Sensei can set up a test to determine if he is ready to wield the gem. Once Sensei is defeated, he hands the gem over and tells Kermit to contact the Time Agency next.

Kermit then storms the Time Agency which is mysteriously in shambles, encountering the first dungeon with multiple maps due to traveling back and forth through time. After dueling with two crabs in Penguin Super Suits, he almost snags the time gem before Herbert swipes in instead and teleports deep inside the Elite Penguin Force's Headquarters. Kermit, not having any of that, goes to the EPF, finds Herbert himself, defeats him, and takes back the time gem.

A few days after what came to be known as the "Polar Clock Incident", Kermit receives a call from The Ed to take a look at the Meme Machine since it's been acting up and he thinks Kermit is the only one capable of getting up close and personal with it. Kermit ends up entering the Meme Machine itself, discovering a wasteland of dead memes and mass produced memes with life spans being predicted increasingly shorter as the Meme Machine absorbs current events and politics to create its memes. He eventually discovers the root of the Meme Machine, that being its core, which has the energy gem lodged in it, making it go haywire. Kermit manages to cut off the power temporarily and dislodge the energy gem and leave the Machine. When The Ed turns the Machine back on and sees it working properly, he asks Kermit what was the problem, to which he states that all that needed to be done was turn it on and off again.

Even fewer days after that, Kermit receives a call from Mario Arkay telling him that a Destruction Gem mysteriously appeared in his newly-built prison, but it's full of very angry criminals and he's a little scared to get it himself so he asks for Kermit's help. Of course, he agrees and travels through the Arkay Asylum, a mysterious maze full of twists, turns, and dead ends. Arkay guides him down the right path while Kermit protects him from any thugs that take advantage of shoddy security. When they finally reach the gem, they find the Walrus Bossman from earlier infiltrated the asylum in secret and planned to release the criminals, but really really slowly so people wouldn't suspect anything. Even with a gem, he gets beaten by Kermit and has his gem yoinked from him. This gem, the Telepathy Gem, transmits a voice inside Kermit's head, knowing he knows where the remaining two gems are and promises to guide him to them. Kermit then blacks out.

The next time he wakes up, he already has the strength gem, but he's in the middle of the most secure and highly-guarded vault of Antarctica's Protectors, and the alarms are all blaring. he then has to fight his way through the vault to get back out the way he came, but when he comes close to the entrance/exit, the only way to it has been sealed and locked with six locks. He has to go back to unexplored parts of the vault and fight Star Kirby12, Willy the Penguin, Explorer 767, Zone, and Kwiksilver and take their keys before confronting his ultimate opponent, Tails6000 at the sealed door. Kermit has to use every ability he has to finally take him down and escape the vault. Once Kermit leaves, the voice returns telling him not to worry and that people will forgive him once he has all the gems and carries out his plan. Then he blacks out again.

Kermit wakes up in a Siberian Gulag, where he can feel the final gem calling to him. The final dungeon is a straightforward walk to the gem and waiting for him at the end is... Constantine?! He tells Kermit that he stole the gem from its original keeper many months ago but has since given up his life of crime and turned himself in before giving Kermit the last gem. He also warns that without a proper conduit, his super form could be too much for even him to handle and gives him a strange gauntlet.

Endings
If Kermit has collected less than half of all the Orange peels, he assembles all seven gems on the gauntlet and puts it on, and his super form activates. In spite of the conduit, the gems take control of his body and send him skyrocketing through the roof while Constantine laughs. Kermit soars into space and breaks reality by clapping with only one hand, instantly killing half of all life. This is continued in Kermitity Gauntlet.

If Kermit has collected at least half of all the Orange Peels, but not all of them, Kermit will refuse to put on the gauntlet and walk away with the gems, leaving a furious Constantine yelling at him for his cowardice. Kermit will then erect a protective barrier around the Weekee to keep it safe from hostile invaders and then returns the gem to their original keepers, keeping the Essence Gem. The story ends with a shot of him sipping orange juice in his house and looking content.

If Kermit has collected all the Orange Peels, Kermit refuses to put on the gauntlet and decides to use the gems' united power without it. He activates his super form successfully and banishes Constantine to the Borderworld for trying to trick him. With the gems now a part of him, Super Kermit becomes not only the world's best protection for the gems, but also its greatest defender. The story ends with Super Kermit giving the player a thumbs up and thanking them for playing.

Getting this ending unlocks hard mode and time attack. Hard mode makes each dungeon random, save for how big it is and the rooms holding items to proceed. In addition, the enemies have all been given boosts depending on their type. For example, fast enemy would move faster, a strong enemy for be stronger, and a beefy enemy would be beefier. Also the number of Golden Orange Slices and frequency of beneficial items like Time Watches and Orange Juice decrease by about 20%. In this way, every playthrough in hard mode is a unique and challenging experience. In time attack, players are encouraged to beat the developers' and their own times going through new, bonus miniature dungeons and the story-mode dungeons, with some features such as Orange Peels omitted. It's possible to combine these two into hard time attack mode, which times how fast the player can beat hard mode and also calculates the completion percentage.

Levels

 * 1) Club Penguin Weekee
 * 2) The Dojo
 * 3) Time Agency
 * 4) EPF HQ
 * 5) Inside the Meme Machine
 * 6) Arkay Asylum
 * 7) Escape from Protectors' Vault
 * 8) Siberia Gulag

Development
Development started early 2017, with Snowtendo wanting to get started as soon as possible in order to have the game be ready as a launch title. Getting the licenses needed to feature the big-name people in the game proved to be a daunting task, especially for a non-Smash Mates game. Production hit a snag during a dispute with Antarctica's Protectors and how they would be portrayed. Development halted for a month until a compromise was finally made. The Protectors later released a statement of apology for holding back the game's production for so long. The development team kept in contact with them as consultants up until the game's release.

Two more weeks passed before the first trailer dropped, teasing the game's dungeon-crawling nature and ability to use the Destruction Gems. The Time Agency's dungeon in particular was the cause of much speculation, as the time traveling gimmick of the dungeon was not revealed until launch, leaving the past and future versions of the level up to debate among the community that closely followed it. There was a small controversy about Kermit beating up walri which some considered to be very racist (it wasn't), but the nobodies that caused it were sent pizzas through the mail and promptly shut up about it.

About a month later, the game released alongside the Snowtendo Swap as a launch title.

Reception
It was for the most part received very warmly on launch. It garnered many positive reviews and high review scores. However, shortly after the game's release some theorized Snowtendo discovered a new substance called "hype" that alters people's minds to get them excited for upcoming releases. Such rumors appear to have gone unfounded. Another rumor was that the game contained the real positions of the Destruction Gems, and as such a group of fans organized a raid on the Meme Machine in order to get the Destruction Gem inside of it. They forgot about it after a week and the marketing department passed it off as a publicity stunt.

The game received criticism for a lack of originality and simplistic gameplay. One critic went as far as to describe it as "A game whose only success comes from a tired, drawn-out, unfunny joke." He later discovered several pizzas mailed to his door and charged to his credit card. In a later interview he joked about being controversial more often to get more pizza.

Basically people liked it that's good the end.

Trivia

 * If the system's internal clock is set to May 9th, Kermit's birthday, Kermit will wear a party hat. Additionally, he will begin eating a slice of cake if left to idle for more than 30 seconds.
 * Mario Arkay was included in memorium to his real life counterpart, since he "died" approximately 4 years prior to the game's release. This was a result of Chill57181 pushing for his inclusion in the game on the internet as a joke.