One baby chicken, hundreds of eggs, hours of puzzle-solving fun

This is another game that I was idly browsing the video game store to find among the few Game Boy Color games that remained. My machine was crying out to have more stuff to play on it, and this was a nice cheap title that looked interesting so I picked it up.

A mysterious force has scattered hundreds of eggs throughout the land. Toki Tori is a little yellow chick who has hatched just in time, and the quest is on to rescue all his unhatched siblings in this puzzle adventure.


The game

The basic form of the game is that of a two-dimensional platformer, albeit with simplified laws of motion. Toki must negotiate the ladders, platforms and obstacles in order to pick up the eggs in each level. Once all the eggs in a level are rounded up, the level is completed and the next one is ready for the little bird to tackle.

In most levels, Toki has a few tools available at his disposal, which are gradually introduced as the game progresses. Usually he has a limited number of uses of each tool, rather like the old classic Lemmings, so the challenge is in efficient use of the tools to solve the level.

Just to name a few of these tools:
- Bridge Builder, obviously to bridge gaps;
- Telewarp, a short-range teleport through a wall or across a chasm;
- Freeze-O-Matic, a gun that turns the enemy creatures you'll meet from time to time into ice cubes;
- You may have wondered, "If ghosts go through walls, why don't they fall through the floor?" Well, this isn't the case with the ghosts Toki finds himself face to face with! They don't go through walls, but the Ghost Trap'll make one fall through the floor, causing the bit of floor to disintegrate at the same time.
- There is one tool that is always available (except in tutorial levels that fit on one screen), and that is the Eyes. When these are activated, the action is paused giving you the chance to look around the level. Rather like the pause function in Boulder Dash, except that the timer still runs down.

You are also shown around the level when you enter it, before starting the timer and action. This is presumably supposed to help you plan your route; however, at this stage you can see neither where you're going to start nor the monsters, so it helps if you've seen the level before!


The levels

The four worlds are Forest Falls, Creepy Castle, Slime Cave and Bubble Barrage. There are ten regular levels in each world. Once you've done these, you can move onto the next world where more challenges await, or you can pit your wits against five 'hard' levels. There are also some tutorial levels dotted around, which appear when a new tool is introduced so that you can familiarise yourself with it before using it in the next regular level.

Your progress through the game is saved in battery-backed memory. For each level, it keeps track of how many times you've attempted it and the fastest time in which you've rounded up all the eggs, for you to try and beat if you wish. (Obviously Toki moves at a finite speed, so there's a limit there!)

I've just started on Slime Cave at this time of writing. The puzzles are quite challenging, and I generally manage to solve them after a bit of trial and error.


Aesthetics

The appearance and music are nicely varied between worlds. In Slime Cave there is the added touch of there being less light at the bottom, though it could've been done more realistically. The in-game sound effects are also well suited to the game.

Also nicely varied between worlds is the background colour on the level select screen. And just for a bit of eye candy, the background is of squares moving across the screen.


Conclusion

Puzzle games are one genre in which there is still some originality to explore, and Toki Tori is no exception. The gameplay makes for an interesting challenge, and one that keeps me thinking about how to solve each level.

The 60 levels that make up the game may be enough to keep you going, or you may find yourself getting through them quite quickly. It just depends on how good a puzzle solver you are and how much time you spend on the game. But for the comparatively low cost (£9.99 or so over here) I think the game's worth it for what it is.

If you're into puzzle games, this is by all means a good one for you to have in your collection.