Tokobot Review

Tokobot is a platforming puzzler from Tecmo that features a group of little robots who can work together to help you out in a number of tricky situations. These robots were apparently created many, many years ago by a prehistoric civilisation. Many years later they were rediscovered by an agent of the Canewood’s Lab research agency. Quite how these robots were created before technology had moved beyond rocks isn’t obvious, but they’re now being studied in the lab, and being used to help you navigate around a number of tricky environments.

As a young, rather weedy, chap called Bolt, the Tokobots are at your command, joining together (or jointing as the game calls it) to attack enemies, build bridges, turn cogs, activate switches and more. At the start of the game you have six Tokobots in your group, but more will join as the game progresses, and new joint abilities will be opened up for you, allowing the Tokobots to take up new formations while linked together. The first couple of levels are genuinely interesting, with the linked Tokobot mechanic being rather unique, but once you’ve progressed through the first couple of levels things aren’t quite as exciting.

The game is entirely focussed on the ancient ruins setting, so every level features the same kind of environment, with plenty of stone and gaps just too large to traverse without using a Tokobot bridge. It all becomes rather samey. The basic mechanics work well, but it stays at that level throughout, without ever trying to build into a bigger, more impressive experience. Puzzles are rarely tricky, and often require you to use the new move you’ve gained only moments earlier. If you’re looking for a challenge, Tokobot won’t deliver.

A perfect example of how the game puts up some rather obvious signposts comes pretty early on. Bolt and the Tokobots have just been given a ‘crane’ ability, and then you’re presented with a puzzle. A picture shows an arrangement of large blocks on a grid, which seems to represent the blocks and grid that you’re stood next to. It doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to figure out which formation you need to use in order to solve the puzzle. To be fair, Tokobot isn’t the first game ever made to give you more than a subtle hint about how to solve puzzles, but when the linked Tokobot mechanic is so intrinsic to the experience, the way it’s been simplified is incredibly disappointing.

Tackling enemies is also less fun than in most platformers. You can use the Tokobots in a number of ways to dispatch the rather peculiar foes, but whether you use the helicopter spin, overhead smash or other, combat just doesn’t feel right. The helicopter spin is the easiest to use, but even that takes a while to get going at a pace needed to cause any damage. Another attack sees Bolt form the Tokobots into a line and smash them down onto then enemy, but while the Tokobots are jointed Bolt can only move forwards, backwards and strafe from side to side. This makes accurately targeting enemies a real pain, but is just as much a problem of the PSP’s single analogue stick design as it is a gameplay flaw. It’s as if combat wasn’t a focus for the development team, but that didn’t stop them from placing enemies around most corners.

Bolt and his robot buddies also move at a painfully slow speed. I’m sure this was partly done in order to prevent camera problems, as the slow pace means there aren’t many occasions where the camera can’t keep up with the action, but after a few hours of the plodding pace, you’ll long for a run of some sort. On the other hand, the sedate nature of proceedings lends the game to a more inexperienced player. If you’re new to the platform genre Tokobot could well be a nice introduction, allowing you to get a taste of things, but never really putting up much of a challenge. If you do plod through to the end, a time trial mode is unlocked that’ll give you a little more gameplay for your money, but unless you’ve grown to the love the repetitive gameplay it’s a mode that won’t have much appeal.

Technically Tokobot is an impressive game. Environments are large and feel incredibly solid, while enemies are well modelled, if a little at odds to the general look of the game. There’s a distinct lack of personality though: Bolt is a fairly generic looking young lad, his Tokobots are about as cute as robots can be (not that cute) and there’s a total lack of interest in the story due to dull text sections and no voice work. The theme song that plays over the title screen is a touch of genius, but other than that the audio work isn’t anything special. The game’s premise is quirky and surprisingly original for a PSP title, but when you’re playing it seems anything but. Once the initial helpful robot idea wears off you’re left with another standard, rather simple platformer.

Tokobot isn’t a bad game, but a few niggling design issues get in the way of what could have been a much more entertaining platformer for the PSP. The jointed Tokobot moves work well, and the opening sections are good fun, but the ideas soon run out, leaving a game that isn’t brilliant as an all out action platformer, nor a puzzle-based adventure. It sounds minor, but the slow movement speed doesn’t help things either, resulting in a game that becomes somewhat of a chore to play after a few hours. Some credit has to go to Tecmo for creating a semi-original title for the PSP that doesn’t suffer from the usual problems associated with 3D PSP titles, but they haven’t quite pulled it off.