Toki Tori Hands On Preview- Egg-Tastic!
Once in awhile a game comes along that is unexpectedly impressive in gameplay, graphics, controls and most importantly, fun factor. Chillingo’s egg-cellent upcoming platform Toki Tori is such a game. Toki Tori’s journey began as a Game Boy Color game back in 2001 that eventually made its way onto the Nintendo Wii via Wii-ware. Now the egg-citingly adorable Toki is set to debut on the iDevice!
Toki Tori is a delightful platform/puzzle game that features the eggy hero Toki, who is trying to rescue his friends from egg entrapment. The game features an egg-normous 70+ levels and is no ordinary platform game. The last time I had so much fun playing a platformer was when I played Super Mario many years ago. Toki Tori is jam packed with well designed levels and challenging puzzles that even experienced players can appreciate.
In order to prevent Toki’s pals from becoming scrambled eggs, you have plenty of helpful and cool items to use throughout the levels! They include:
- Telewarp - Beam me up Scotty…Tap to warp Toki to the destination of your choice
- Bridge Builder - Tap to build a bridge for little Toki to cross
- Freez-O-Matic – Cold as ice baby! Put the deep freeze on enemies
- Brick Switch – Won’t get bricked again… Toki can place brick obstacles behind him
- Ghost Trap - Ghost busting! Toki can trap Ghosts
- Slug Sucker - Slugs suck… Toki can Vacuum them away
- Instant Rock - Toki throws a little pebble & a Rock is born… Reach those higher places he couldn’t before
- Bubble Suit – Bubble Toki… Now he can float in the deep waters
Toki Tori’s clever controls make each level a pleasure to play. When you tap on Toki, you have a cursor which allows you to move him in a variety of different directions. You can also give him a head start on his rescue mission by moving the cursor with your finger to his egg buddies. Toki, will actually follow your directions and accomplish more than one task at a time.
Toki’s graphics and sounds are shaping up to be amongst the best I have seen on the iDevice. When I left Toki standing idle, he started to do a few hilarious animations that included:
- A cute little dance
- Waves his hand at you to get your attention
- Looks around with his binoculars
- Whips out a map
The graphics of the enemies are also incredibly well done and as a result, they really come to life. This game sets an egg-ceptional standard with the amount of sheer effort that has gone into the design so far.
I found the music in my preview copy to be outstanding. It was catchy and did not seem to be repetitive. Toki Tori has a full fledged soundtrack which I enjoyed listening to even when I wasn’t playing the game. I sure hope all 80 levels in the full version will include this.
The puzzles, gameplay, graphics, soundtrack and Toki himself are sure to wow a ton of gamers from young to old. He could be egg-actly what platform fans have been waiting for. I predict big things for Chillingo’s Toki Tori on the iPhone, so keep a very close eye out for the little egg-straodinary Toki! He’s coming soon to an egg-store, (Ok, I’m getting a bit carried away here) umm I mean, an APP-store near you!
