Review

"One beautiful summer day on the chicken farm... Everything looked peaceful and quiet. Or at least it seemed to be. All the eggs were being kidnapped! But there was one egg left. In it: Toki Tori, our hero-chick! Toki Tori could just see his brothers and sisters fly away to their unknown destination. He followed them as fast as his little feet could take him, but ultimately wasn't fast enough. He climbed to the highest hill to see where the eggs could have gone. But what was going on? The eggs popped out of the distant castle. They were everywhere, spread across the land. So Toki Tori decided to save the eggs and solve the mystery. And here our story begins..."

Background: Toki Tori is actually a port to the Pocket PC by AIM Productions (http://www.aimproductions.be) from the GameBoy system.  Though most of the game is a direct port, AIM has taken their time and flawlessly polished the game to take advantage of all the Pocket PC has to offer.

Options: Toki Tori comes with a limited number of options.  You can turn sound effects and/or music on and off.  Erasing the Savegame and viewing the credits are the only other options available.  One thing that I think Toki Tori oversees is the ability to change the controls.  With an arcade type of game such as this, customization is key in allowing the player to get the most out of the game. As for the in-game menu, the following options are available: Look Around (Toki Tori has the ability to view the entire level at all times), Mute Sound, Continue (resume), Restart (the level), and Quit.  These options prove to be adequate during gameplay.

Sound:  Wonderful.  The sounds of Toki Tori really draw you in to the game.  That 80's arcade music and satisfying sound effects add immensely to the masterpiece that Toki Tori is.

Graphics:  When I first ran this game, I was in shock when I saw the title screen.  Not only are the cartoony-arcade graphics gorgeous, the colors are brilliant and the menus fly in and out smoother than silk.  The multilayer scrolling backgrounds (which are animated) remind me of Super Nintendo side-scrollers and role-playing games.  Usually, the menu graphics for any game are loads better than the actual gameplay graphics.  How wrong this stereotype is!  Toki Tori delivers its brilliance, smoothness, and crispness in-game as well!  Toki Tori moves seamlessly in all directions and there is no choppiness evident while running the game at any time.  As I mentioned before, the colors are beautiful!

Gameplay:  Now to the guts of Toki Tori.  Menu navigation has a small learning curve, as you can use the stylus or the D-pad of your device to control the 'cursor'.  You have Start, Options, and Exit on the initial menu.

Tapping Start will get you to the World Select screen, where you will be able to select between the 4 worlds that are available: Forest Falls, Creepy Castle, Slimy Sewer, and Bubble Barrage. Tapping on a World (assuming you have that world unlocked) will take you to the level select page where you can select the level you would like to play.  The level select page shows you which weapons/items are available, how many eggs need to be captured, and whether or not the level has been solved.  AIM did a great job on the interface for Toki Tori; I couldn't find a single thing wrong with it.

While actually playing Toki Tori, you will be needing your brain more than your fingers.  Toki Tori, although it may 'look' cute and kid-ish, you will quickly be scrolling through levels trying to figure out the best way to solve it.

Toki Tori moves with the D-pad.  Tapping a single direction will cause Toki Tori to run in that direction you can even run up and down ladders!  The goal for each level is to save all of the eggs that are scattered about the level.  Take advantage at the start of a level to find out where all the eggs are.  Pressing the action button will tell Toki Tori to use the selected tool/weapon.  There are 10 different tools/weapons available in Toki Tori, but you need to work to unlock all of them.  Shoot, swap, teleport, and freeze your way to save all of the lost eggs.

Speaking of numbers, Toki Tori comes with 4 worlds, of which there are 10 regular levels and 5 hard levels for each world.  That's 60 levels of brain-shattering puzzleness!  This game will make you think again before making another move and will most likely start eating away your battery life before you know it.

Overall:  If puzzle games are for you, then Toki Tori is, hands down, a game that you will enjoy.  If you like a challenge every now and then, Toki Tori could be an option for you as well.  But be warned, Toki Tori is NOT a button-mashing game and you actually have to work a little bit to earn your reward.  Plus, if you can't figure out how to beat a certain level, you can go to http://www.tokitori.com and ask people on the forums there for help!

Cons

No customizing controls

Pros

Beautiful, crisp colors

Non-annoying, clear music and sounds

Insane levels

Balanced gameplay

Check out the demo or purchase Toki Tori from Handango for $19.99