Two Tribes remakes its GBC action-puzzler in style.
Toki Tori is a chicken who must rescue the eggs containing his brothers and sisters that have been stolen from his chicken coop. Sure enough, all the eggs have ended up in increasingly difficult puzzle levels. The premise of the game is extremely simple, and it works!
The game will feel familiar to anyone who played the Crazy Castle games on the NES or Game Boy. Toki Tori is a puzzle action game much like those older games, but less frantic. The game consists out of a large amount of side scrolling levels. Toki Tori usually starts off in a level with a few items. These items include bridges, ice guns, teleporters, crates, blocks and much more. The goal in each level is to collect all of the eggs using the items that you were given at the start of each level. The areas are usually filled with enemies that you either have to avoid or use to your advantage. Sometimes you need to trap the enemies between blocks, buy you may also want to freeze them and use the frozen enemies as platforms.
All of this probably sounds really simple. It isn't. Toki Tori starts out easy enough, but it only takes a few levels before the game starts to become really tough. The game is divided into four worlds, and each world has both normal and hard levels. The normal levels will probably put up a good challenge for most players. Few will be able to beat the hard levels without using a walkthrough. It's really amazing to see the insane challenges the developers have come up with. A lot of time and effort went into creating these great challenges.
Speaking about challenge, that is probably the greatest aspect of the game. You will always feel like you've accomplished something when you complete a level. It can be a very satisfying game. Gamers that are easily frustrated are probably better off looking somewhere else. You will have to restart some levels over and over, make no mistake about it! Thankfully, Two Tribes has implemented a rewind function that allows you to retrace your steps all the way to the moment you started. It will we an invaluable tool throughout your playthrough.
For being a small downloadable indie game, Toki Tori has some very solid production values. The game contains a bunch of really catchy tunes and some really good looking environments. Toki himself is actually a pre-rendered 3D model that looks really good and smooth onscreen. Each environment looks unique, bright and certainly up to date. Sound effects are clear and healthy, making for a game that will make you smile. And you'll need it sometimes, because you WILL get frustrated. But how could you possibly get mad at poor Toki?
The game is available on WiiWare for 1000 WiiPoints (about 10$), on Steam for 4.99$ and on the AppStore for 4.99$ as well. The Steam version version comes as the most recommended, as it has achievements and the best controls. The WiiWare version is the most expensive, but it's absolutely worth it.
But surely every version is worth its price, because Toki Tori is a delightful puzzle game that is impossible to recommend enough. And for 5$-10$ you're getting a game that will probably take you at least 30 hours to get through. So unless you're someone who gets frustrated very easily, you should go out now and buy Toki Tori!