Toki Tori by AIM
Productions, Price: $19.99
Reviewed April 2003
If you didn’t get to check out the
original Toki Tori for Game Boy Color sold under the Capcom
brand, here is your chance to play it on your Pocket PC.
Toki Tori by AIM Productions will show you how small the
gap is between PDA handheld and Game Boy handheld gaming
platforms. Almost identical to the original GBC version,
Toki Tori for the Pocket PC hopes to win gamers with its
extensive environment and exciting game play. Our hero chick,
Toki Tori, will use creative tools and weapons to overcome
dangerous obstacles, trap monsters and to save all the other
eggs that were kidnapped.
Toki Tori’s adventure will take you
through 60 levels of puzzle mazes spreading in four different
worlds including Forest Falls, Creepy Castle, Slimy Sewer
and Bubble Barrage. You will need to collect a given number
of eggs in each level, and learn new skills and gain items
to help you build bridges and warp through walls or defend
yourself from the critters with cool weapons. Like all good
GBC and GBA games, the level design in Toki Tori makes the
game very intuitive and easy to play. The earlier levels
are quite easy, giving you time to adjust to the controls
and environment. There are also tutorial levels for you to
try out new skills or items. The later worlds and levels
are quite challenging with limited numbers of times you can
use items and skills. They often require re-tries, making
the game challenging enough for veteran players of this genre.
The game is controlled entirely by the hardware buttons on
your Pocket PC.
AIM did a good job of porting the graphics
and managed to keep the detailed graphics and vibrant colors
from the original game. The four worlds all have their own
distinct look and feel with various color themes and graphical
details. Some signature animations displayed beautifully
and the multi-layer scroll works very well on the Pocket
PC.
The sound effects and background tracks
will also give you the GBC game feeling. The music tracks
with their Mario Brother-ish style, combined with special
sound effects, make a wonderful audio palette. Toki Tori
will run on any ARM, Xscale and MIPS devices and take about
4MB memory.
Puzzle solving combined with fast
reflexes will get you deep into the world of Toki Tori.
Die-hard GBC fans will jump for joy at this revival of
the popular adventure game originally made for a game machine
that now you can only buy on eBay. The gorgeous graphics
and large number of game levels will make this game a favorite
for both casual gamers and veterans of this genre.
Playing Hints and Tips
Don’t underestimate the Look Around
function. In the more complex levels, you will need to plan
your moves often. |
