The WiiWare version doesn’t have any particular plot, players simply assume the role of a newly hatched chick named Toki Tori and set out to find his unhatched siblings. The game is a mix between a platformer and a puzzler; your main goal is to collect all the eggs in each stage by creating pathways to avoid hazards such as pits and enemies. To accomplish this, you’re given different items to utilise including the Bridge Builder which creates platforms, a freeze gun that turns enemies into ice cubes, and the Telewarp that lets you teleport through walls. The real challenge however, comes from carefully choosing when and where to use them, as you’re only given a set amount in each level. For instance, if you only had one Telewarp and used it to access an area that was cut off from the rest of the stage, you would be unable to collect any eggs you left behind, so you’d have to restart. At first, the levels are easy to complete as it’s fairly obvious where and which items to use, but as you progress the difficulty will increase and you’ll almost always have to attempt them multiple times.
This is more difficult than it looks.
The game is broken into four themed worlds including a forest, castle, sewer system and underwater, with each one consisting of ten stages. Once a world has been completed, you’ll also unlock optional ‘hard’ levels to play through, which brings the total amount to around 70. For those who have played the original, you’ll be pleased to know that this includes a handful of new levels as well. Additionally, if you get stuck you can use a wild card that lets you automatically progress to the next stage, but if you get stuck again you’ll have to go back and reclaim it by beating the level. Unfortunately, while it will takes a considerable amount of time to finish the game, because you’ll learn the correct pathways to choose, replay value does feel a bit limited unless you plan on coming back after a year or so.
Apart from the new levels, the WiiWare version has two other additions. The first one is the option of getting a friend or family member to use a second Wii remote and point out things by drawing on the screen. After a few seconds their marks are automatically cleaned off, so you won’t have to worry about it becoming too messy to see what you’re doing. While it seems a little basic, the system works surprisingly well and can be quite fun as it lets players work together and discuss different tactics. The second addition is that the game utilises the Wii’s message board and has Toki Tori send you letters describing some of the things he’s had to overcome. Accompanying the messages are even little bits of concept art depicting the chicken doing something, which is both cute and humorous. However, we did find that it got a little annoying during extended play sessions, as we’d quit and go to the Wii menu to discover a whole heap of messages cluttering it up.
One of the easier levels.
To ensure players feel comfortable, the developers have incorporated a number of different control methods including the Wii remote by itself, the Wii remote and Nunchuck together, and the Classic controller. Similar to Zack and Wiki, when players are using the Wii remote they can move by pointing at an area of interest and pressing the A button. The B button is used to activate items, while pressing left/right on the D-pad or flicking the Wii remote lets you switch between them. As you can guess, plugging in the Nunchuck allows you to control movement with the joystick, while the Classic controller simply feels more traditional. In the end, all methods work well, and it will just come down to your personal preference.
As we mentioned before, the visuals have been completely overhauled and they look great. The characters are pre-rendered which makes them look smooth as they move around, while the environments have little animations running in the background. An example is the sewer world, where there is slim everywhere and it’s oozing and bubbling quite disturbingly. The soundtrack is also quirky and upbeat, which suits the style of the game. We did however notice a strange glitch with one of the items where the sound effect would occasionally keep playing after we used it. Fortunately, you can easily solve this problem by either using the item again or pausing the game.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
While there are a few issues such as the amount of letters being posted on the Wii message board and the sound effects glitch, Toki Tori is a great platform/puzzle game. Creating pathways to collect all the eggs is challenging, there are around 70 levels to play through, and as a whole the game is very appealing. Priced at 900 points, Toki Tori is a welcome addition in any puzzle fans’ collection.
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