Konami, a company that used to make video games, has once again found a way to make money off of a video game without, you know, making a damn video game: As announced today in a press release, Konami has signed the rights to classic arcade game Frogger over to Peacock, which is now turning it into a “supersized physical competition”—think Wipeout, but jumping on logs and dodging traffic. The press release says the Frogger show will feature competitors from around the world going through “12 outrageous obstacle courses” that test their “skill, strength, strategy, and problem-solving smarts.” The winner will get a “massive cash prize,” hopefully without having to get a lucky spin on a Konami-branded slot machine or by pulling it directly from the miserly claws of Mr. Konami himself.
Peacock has ordered 13 episodes of the Frogger TV show, with the episodes reportedly being a full hour long—the same as Wipeout, even though that seems like a long time to watch people run into stuff and fall into water. Anyone interested in being a contestant on Frogger can hop on over to this link to apply (sorry about the frog pun, but we made it this far and we have to use at least one). If this show takes off, hopefully Konami will then see the value in resurrecting some of its other old gaming brands for supersized physical competition shows. Bomberman would be easy and Konami is always happy to slap the Castlevania name on stuff, but Konami would have to remember that Metal Gear and Silent Hill exist for it to do anything with those. (Though, to be fair, Konami not remembering that they exist is probably the best-case scenario for Metal Gear and Silent Hill.)
Also, if anyone reading this gets on the show: Please try to put in the Konami Code as soon as possible. We have to know what it does in real life.