Toki

For a brief moment in early 1990s, Toki was just about everywhere. The minor arcade hit had somehow managed to swing over to everything from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the Genesis to the Lynx. And with all these console ports, it was starting to feel like Toki was destined to become the star of a long-running franchise. But that's not what happened. First developer TAD Corporation closed their doors, which was then followed by the planned Jaguar version being scrapped at the last second. With interest fading and no games in development, this looked like the final nail in Toki's coffin.

Normally, that's where the story would end. The poor little guy would typically be filed away as just another 16-bit action game that could have gone on to bigger and better things. But this is no ordinary ape, and after a decade of development, Toki is back with a high-definition remake that both looks great and honors the spirit of the 1989 original. It's just a shame that this is yet another remake and not the continuation to the story I've been hoping to see for almost thirty years.

A lot of this is going to sound awfully familiar if you've played the 16-bit original. This is the story of a young warrior who is forced to travel across the prehistoric landscape in order to rescue his sweetheart, Miho, from the heinous demon Bashtar. As if that wasn't bad enough, Toki has been magically turned into an ape by a voodoo sorcerer. Now our hero not only has to fight against the odds to rescue the love of his life, but he'll also need to find a way to break the curse.

As an ape, Toki is able to jump around and spit out deadly attacks. He'll occasionally need to swim through the water and swing from vines, but most of the time he's either jumping, spitting or both. Along the way he'll pick up a number of special attacks, such as blowing flames and spitting a spread shot. There are also new shoes that will let us jump higher and a football helmet that keeps us safe. Toki isn't the most agile monkey, but he has just enough moves to fight his way to defeat Bashtar.

Much like the arcade original, the game is split up into six different stages. Toki does a good job of keeping things fresh with different backgrounds and obstacles, so expect to platform your way through an ice stage, a fiery cave level and a whole bunch of jungle settings. We're given a bunch of lives and continues, as well as friendly checkpoints, so most players will have no trouble completing the incredibly short journey in a single sitting.

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As a remake, Toki looks outstanding. The character is big and detailed, and the world he explores is equally impressive. It's easy to get jaded by HD graphics, but the hand-drawn look is easily the best part of this game. I was less interested in saving Miho than I was simply marveling at the busy backgrounds and cool looking bosses. It's obvious that a lot of time and effort went into remaking this arcade classic, and I would say that even if I didn't know they spent nearly a decade developing this version. At its best, this is a faithful and loving tribute to the 1989 original.

Unfortunately, this Toki remake suffers from a lot of the same problems that plagued the earlier versions. As an ape, our hero is stiff and doesn't have a lot of moves. With the possible exception of spitting fireballs, there's really nothing Toki can do as an ape that he wouldn't have been able to do as a human. In fact, he may actually be at a huge disadvantage, since he has a giant ape head that makes it even easier to get hit. And you're going to get hit a lot, because this game is filled with annoying cheap deaths. The hope is that you'll want to replay these levels to the point of memorizing all of the obstacles, but I'm not sure how many people will want to keep playing after the initial run. It's also a little disappointing that Toki dies from a single hit. While this is certainly true to the spirit of the arcade game, there were home console versions that gave the player hit points to make things more balanced. A lot of the frustrating deaths feel like a relic of an era where the whole goal was to suck quarters out of your pocket.

Speaking of which, Toki is far too expensive at $30. Yes, it looks great and is a loving tribute to the original, but the price is absurd. The initial play took me around an hour to complete, which I have to assume will be even quicker once you've been through the game more than once. And will you even want to play through the game more than once? With nothing here to keep you coming back, my guess is that Toki is going to be a one-and-done for most players, assuming they even get that far.