"Above Average"

If I had three words to describe Tecmo's Tokobot they would be “Pikmin meets ICO, but really slow” which is actually six words. Thankfully, the people at gamefaqs.com are allowing much more than three words.

The concept for this puzzle based platformer is fairly novel. You run around as a robot excavator (i.e. one who excavates robots, as opposed to a robot who excavates) who has had the good luck to come upon a group of ancient, super cute cyborgs, the Tokobots. Like faithful Pikmin, these guys will follow you around and do your dirty work for you. Unlike Pikmin, you're not going to field a hundred of these mean machines at a time. You start out with six and find a few more along the way. Nor do your Tokobots die. The worst that can happen is that they get separated from you, in which case you hold down R for a few seconds and they warp directly to you.

Your Tokobots assume formations as you command them. You start with a basic three. The first formation is a straight line behind you, the second is a line abreast with you in the center, and the third is a circular formation around you. These formations all allow their own special attacks. When you press R, you link hands with your bots, and when you press square, they usually do their thing. In the first formation, you will swing them over your head like a lever for which you are the fulcrum. This is your meat and potatoes attack. Additionally, if you strike certain “magnets” with your line of bots, they will stick, forming either a ladder or a bridge for you. When you link hands in the second formation and hit square, you spin like a top. A top of death. While spinning, you can move around and hit enemies or break ancient pottery, depending. The circular formation offers the ground pound. We're all familiar with this one.

These three formations are the bare minimum you will ever have. As you go, you will gain more formations and transformations. For instance, the first one you get is a floating samurai, where you turn into a floating samurai. You get a sword. It is awesome. Another one is a train, another one is a crane, most others don't rhyme. The shape shifting ability really helps to break up the action and keep things fresh, as well as allowing for interesting puzzle possibilities.

The puzzles this game has really aren't brain busters, but they're creative enough to stay interesting. I'm for ‘em.

Gameplay 5/10

K, you move so slow. So slow it hurts. I was really taken aback by the main character's sluggish pace. And this is from Tecmo, the makers of Ninja Gaiden. They have an entire development team called “Team Ninja.” Come on. Instead of slinking around their office and assassinating random cubicle jockeys, maybe one of these Tecmo ninjas could have sat in on a Tokobot meeting. I imagine it would have looked something like this.

Tokobot Guy: Okay! I think we have a solid concept going for us. Now if we can just slow the entire thing down by 80% we'll have a franchise.
Ninja: No! Speed is the ninja way!
Tokobot Guy: Ninja, why don't you leave the programming to us? Studies indicate that the average PSP owner is stupid and cannot be asked to perform operations at a rate that--
Ninja: NINJA SLICE!

The whole episode ends in blood and tears. And a little bile. The only difference is that the dialogue would be in Japanese.

Back to reality. The fact that your enemies aren't ninjas either mitigates things, marginally. I've never really had a problem with a bad guy I thought too fast. By no means does this make up for the intense slowness. Having said all this, you get used to it. The game is enjoyable, but I imagine I would have awarded it an 8 or 9 if it could have just been a reasonable speed.

Sound 9/10

Yay. The music is inoffensive and sometimes wonderful. I love the intro theme. Very cutesy anime. I'm for it.

Graphics 8/10

The art is pretty good. It's got kind of an ancient, cybernetic city aesthetic working for it, which works out nicely. The enemies all have a certain look to them, which reminds me of Klonoa. The backgrounds are sort of stark, which has its own appeal. ICO is a great example of a game that went with a minimalist style that worked wonderfully. Feeling bland at times, Tokobot doesn't pull off that level of visual appeal, but remains respectable.

Price $30/$30

Not too shabby, especially for a PSP game. Of course, that's about average for a DS game, but that's an argument for another time.

Gaming Context

Look. The PSP game support has been a huge disappointment. There. I said it. Now we have to deal with it. Now that 2005 has come and gone, I really have to say I'm shocked at how much more time I spent with my DS. So, to have a stylish, original title for the PSP is a big, big deal. Tokobot is not a great game, it's a good game, but the fact that it's a non-franchise, non-port that's pretty enjoyable causes it to stand out more than it would on any other system. That, and I'm a Nintendo fanboy, if it isn't completely obvious by now. You might factor that in to this whole review.

To sum it up, I'm satisfied with Tokobot, but not amazed.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/05