Okay, so I got this game yesterday, played for three hours (according to the Wii's message board, felt much longer but I guess time perception gets skewed when you play games) and finished three of the four worlds at ten levels each (excluding hard extra levels, only finished 6 out of 7 for the first world and haven't touched the other ones). The game is 900 points, for reference.
Toki Tori is a yellow bird that looks like the kind you'd see in a cheap cellphone downloadables advertisement or maybe those cheap PC games that cost 5 Euro a piece at retail. Dojn't worry, it doesn't reflect the quality of the game.
Toki apparently loves to collect eggs so your job is to collect every egg in a level by touching them, once you collect the last egg the level ends and Toki is teleported out, there's no exit to reach. Toki Tori is a 2d puzzle "platformer" but Toki isn't very athletic, he cannot jump, he can only climb ladders or small steps. He can, however, use items. These items are things like instant bridges, teleporters and freezer guns. You only get a limited number of each and you need every last of them to clear a level. Weapons are rare and usually part of the puzzle too, handling enemies can become a critical affair when you have to e.g. block the way of an enemy to prevent it from moving into an area where you cannot avoid it. Don't be too worried about enemies, there's little reaction speed needed in Toki Tori. Enemies are slow and predictable, it's a puzzle game after all.
Levels don't contain too many different elements, mostly walls, the obligatory eggs, some ladders and occassionally enemies, lava or movable blocks. As I said, Toki can only walk and climb, pushing blocks is not in his repertoire. To do that you need another item that, again, is usually limited. Levels have a tendency to offer false routes (with gaps conveniently spaced to place blocks or bridges in and such) that appear as if they could be taken but turn out to need just one item more than you have. Fortunately the simple nature of the basic elements in a level allows looking at it to determine what path you can take, planning it all out before taking even one step (there are no switches that you'd have to trigger to know what they do, only walls). If you look at the level, see a path but are unsure of some details you can be pretty sure you'll fail.
Trial and error is not an option due to the universal nature of most items, there are no hooks for ropes or special ledges that bridges can be attached to, you can use almost every item everywhere. When you have 3 bridges but 30 positions where you could put them you better think harder instead of brute-forcing it. On the upside it's not too hard to figure the puzzles out (despite the game offering you to skip one level of the campaign using a joker that you get back if you beat the skipped level and frequent reminders about the hint line you can call...), the really hard ones are optional and the main ones can be solved with some thinking.
Speaking of optional, the game has four main worlds at ten levels each. Once you finish a world its optional levels are unlocked. They are harder than regular levels but of course don't have to be beaten. There are seven of them for the first and second world and nine for the third (haven't finished the fourth so I can't count those) so you're getting almost as many extra levels as main levels.
The graphics are colorful and 3d CGI cartoony but you can still see the low budgetness of the game, levels are tile based and the tilesets seem limited so levels kinda seem to lack their own flavour. Each world has its own tileset. The music is matching, happy tunes that emphasize the cartoony nature of the game with one song per world. It's nothing to write home about but it fits well.
Apropos writing home, as you progress Toki will send you postcards talking about his travels that show up on the Wii message board. They aren't particularly interesting and will probably just clutter your message board.
Lastly the controls: You can control Toki directly with the nunchuk or classic controller or you can go with point & click by using the Wiimote (works even when you have the nunchuk attached so you can switch depending on which way you feel). The direct controls are obvious with buttons for the actions, the indirect controls may be worth mentioning: You point at a place and press A, if Toki can get there he'll move on his own. The pathfinding had no issues when I tried it and it'll properly tell you if Toki can't get where you're pointing (by not showing the small arrow where you'll send him). You still have to position him precisely at edges where you want to place bridges or whatnot and then press the item button as usual. If you don't move Toki for a while he goes into an idle animation which can get in the way if you were waiting for the right moment to use an item as the animation makes Toki face towards the screen instead of wherever he was looking and he can't use items like that. Fortunately waiting for the right moment is rare anyway (had to do it in maybe three levels with two being extra levels). You can press minus to zoom out and get an overview of the level, you'll probably spend a lot of time in that view if you are thinking about how to solve something.
There's a bug I noticed, if you have a limited slug sucker item and suck a slug in, if you keep holding the item button while the animation plays but you run out of the item after that slug the vacuum sound keeps playing until you finish or restart the level which is annoying. You have to let go of the button once the slug is being sucked into the device.
Verdict: Possibly short but pretty good, requires a good amount of thinking. There are no major issues and the game is probably well worth the 900 points. As with all games liek this the replay value is probably very low.
Topic: Toki Tori (Read 5428 times)
