What may be the least requested remake ever comes to Nintendo Switch and its a surprisingly impressive labour of love.
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Whats your favourite arcade game of all time? OutRun, perhaps? Pac-Man? Smash T.V.? Street Fighter II? Were sure everyone has a different answer, but wed be very surprised if any of them were Toki. Maybe it would be if the question was which arcade game do you think is least likely to get a lovingly-crafted remake in 2018, but thats about it. Or maybe were wrong and its actually viewed as an all-time classic by everyone but us, in which case a lot of people are going to be very happy with this.
Toki was first released as a coin-op in 1989, by the little-known TAD Corporation (we had to look them up and the only other game theyd done that weve heard of was Cabal – apparently they were set up by a bunch of ex-Data East employees and didnt last long). Our abiding memory of Toki at the time was that it was very heavily advertised in a lot of Amiga mags, in what seemed to be a rather optimistic appraisal of the games chances by UK publisher Ocean.
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Were not sure we ever played any of the home conversions, but we do vaguely remember putting 10p into an arcade machine and being satisfied that our initial impressions were correct. But someone obviously loved it, because apparently French developer Golgoth Studio has been trying to get this remake made, on almost every format imaginable, since 2009. And now here it is… and we still dont understand why.
Were being a bit mean here because Toki, both the original and the remake, is not a bad game and if theres one thing we love to see in a developer its enthusiasm. The original was unusually slow-paced for a coin-op action platformer, but while the graphics were quite impressive for the time – with some amusingly bizarre enemy designs – the gameplay doesnt seem anywhere near remarkable enough to justify this level of devotion.
The story is very odd and involves two cavemen style figures (or are they maybe meant to be Tarzan and Jane?) being tormented by some kind of wizard, who kidnaps Miho (the woman, obviously) and turns Toki into a monkey. He mustve messed the spell up though because Toki gains the rather useful ability to shoot energy balls out of his mouth. Unless he could do that already and the wizard didnt think to turn them off (or, you know, just kill him).
Weve no idea when or where the game is meant to be set, as sometimes it seems to be prehistoric Earth and other times maybe some kind of post-apocalyptic landscape. Whatevers going on Toki has to explore the fairly open plan levels to get to the boss at the end. This involves some light platforming and a lot of shooting monsters and, if the opportunity arises, jumping on their head.
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The basics are as simple as that but there are also a number of short-term power-ups to take advantage of, including several upgrades to Tokis attacks that take in such staples as the spread shot and a flamethrower. Theres also a pair of trainers that let you jump higher and an American football helmet that lets you survive an extra hit. Toki will die instantly on contact with any enemy, unless hes got a helmet or his attacks are currently upgraded and he loses that instead.
Theres some relatively imaginative design work going on in terms of the levels, with lots of weight-operated seesaws, vine-swinging, and mid-level bosses. Theres also some side-scrolling shoot em-up sections where Toki is swimming and the platforming is abandoned, and that works pretty well too. Everything about the game is competent, but its never that unique – or at least not enough to cover for the late 80s arcade approach to difficulty and trial and error.
The remake uses exactly the same level design as the arcade game, which is fine – it is a remake after all – but the developers way of addressing the difficultly is very odd. On one hand the game is heavily checkpointed, in a way were sure the original was not, but on the other it still uses lives and if you lose them all you have to start a level from scratch – no matter how many credits you have. And thats the easy mode.
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We guess if youre that obsessed by Toki you probably know the levels inside out by now, but its a shame because the animation had a good chance of attracting new players. Were not usually big fans of reinterpreting pixel art in other forms but these hand-drawn designs are gorgeous and add a lot more character to enemies – such as the beetle that bangs its head on walls or the wild-eyed penguins. The music is also excellent and has clearly had just as much effort lavished on it.
If youve ever wanted to see a remake of Toki using hand-drawn animation then we can only assume this is your dream come true. But if youve never heard of the game, or only dimly remember it as being relatively unremarkable, then we dont know that theres anything here thats going to really interest you. Theres not really any new content, so all you get is a version Toki thats modernised in terms of presentation but still positively prehistoric in terms of gameplay.
Toki
In Short: A labour of love that few are likely to appreciate – but if for some reason you did want a hand-drawn remake of Toki then this is your lucky year.
Pros: The new visuals and animation are great and match the original perfectly, with equally good music. Some amusingly bizarre enemy designs.
Cons: The old-fashioned gameplay, particularly all the trial and error and one hit kills, is hard to forgive in this day and age. Very short, as arcade games used to be, and very shallow.
Score: 6/10
Formats: Nintendo Switch
Publisher: Microïds
Developer: Golgoth Studio
Release Date: 22nd November 2018 (physical)/4th December 2018 (digital)
Age Rating: 7
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