With the veritable glut of casual low-cost (or free) app-based gaming, it’s becoming increasingly more common for gamers (and critics) to rapidly purchase, install, attempt, analyze, dismiss, and delete games with little or no financial or mental investment. The result is that quality, cerebrally intensive games often wind up withering in a state of under-appreciation, while simpler, less challenging games (Flappy Bird) become blockbusters.
Such is the case with the flappy baby-bird hero(ine) of Toki Tori 2+ on the PS4. A 2D puzzle-based platformer, Toki Tori 2+ looks and plays like a tablet-based app in nearly every way. From its simplistic controls (movement is limited to walking left or right and climbing certain obstacles) to its seemingly simplistic gameplay (the hero’s only actions are stomping and whistling), most hardened gamers would immediately dismiss the $14.99 Toki Tori 2+ on the PS4 as a glorified $.99 tablet port with a whopping 1500% markup. And frankly, I could deliver a fairly convincing argument for why those gamers are entirely correct in their assumptions but doing so would completely discount the creativity and craftsmanship that Toki Tori 2+ delivers.
The story of Toki Tori 2+ is quite vague, and by vague I mean pretty much nonexistent – at least not from the outset. There is something about ancient frogs and telepathic messages and floating crystals, but the story too convoluted to follow, and merely a vehicle to get the player into the puzzle-based gameplay.
The gamer is thrust into the role of a young chick that can neither fly nor jump, sitting alone in a rather innocuous 2D platforming screen with no instruction on where to go or what to do. Experimentation reveals that by clicking one button, it causes our hero to whistle and attract the attention of the creatures around it, the other button initiates a stomp move causing the surrounding creatures to react in one form or another that helps or hinders the chick’s movement. For instance, one breed of frog will burp bubbles that encapsulate our character and allow him limited vertical motion, another will act as a battering ram of sorts to help open certain pathways. The trick is to get the chick progressing from screen to screen over increasingly difficult obstacles involving foliage, water, fire, electricity, and all the other standard platformer fare.
The game touts itself as an “open world puzzler” – and I will say that the “puzzler” fits because it’s often difficult to figure out where to go next in the quest to collect the various eggs, jigsaw puzzle pieces, and creature photos to fill up your chick’s aptly named “Tokidex” log. There is no indication of which levels have been scrubbed completely and which still have outstanding items, leading to a lot of unnecessary wandering.
As the levels increase in difficulty, so does the gamer’s skill at figuring out the more challenging puzzles, so while the game is challenging it is always rewarding. It is interesting to see just how much entertainment the developers have been able to squeeze out of simplistic whistle-and-stomp gameplay mechanic.
Visually, Toki Tori 2+ is absolutely stunning for a 2D platformer. Dutch Developer Two Tribes BV has delivered a visual package that is very much on the same plane as Michel Ancel’s classic Rayman series. The whimsically moving backgrounds are filtered to give an illusion of depth-of-focus and the brightly colored 2D characters give a sense of toon-like life that befits a game of this ilk.
Much like the visuals, Toki Tori 2+’s audio experience is excellent – not so much in the game’s sound effects (of which there are few) but more so the bouncy orchestral soundtrack scored by gaming industry veterans SonicPicnic. The score lists 33 unique tracks that add a distinct atmosphere to each of the game’s levels.
While Toki Tori 2 was originally introduced in 2011, the “2+” version offers up better graphics and additional puzzles not featured in the original. The PS4 version lacks the level editor of the PC release, which will be a bit of a bummer for the LittleBigPlanet DIY crowd. All said, Toki Tori 2+ is an excellent game, but not quite worth the $14.99 MSRP – considering that the similarly priced PC version includes a level editor, and the slightly smaller tablet versions are in the sub-$1 price range.
Indeed, Toki Tori 2+’s gameplay is surprisingly enjoyable, but compared to the other fare currently available on the PlayStation Network at a third of the price, it’s a bit difficult to give the nod to this one. If it goes up on Flash Sale, by all means give it a look – but if not, just download it to your phone and get your enjoyment on the smaller screen.
