"Comprehensive Tokobot Review"

Man has always shared one dream, well, two to be exact. One: us men would love a pet monkey, and two: to control a minion of robots. No, it's not Robonintenmonkey, the new installment to the already bad pet simulator series from Nintendo, but rather a new platforming game altogether for the PSP called Tokobot. Surprisingly, Tokobot this is the first original platforming title for the PSP, and it deserves that spot. Taking advantage of Tokobot's unique premise, basic platforming elements are made new again due to the cute and cheerful robots you command and control. Tokobot is not without it's quirks though, pulling a platforming no-no, and it's all too short; it only takes a mere 6 to 8 hours to beat the campaign mode.

Taking the role of a mute (well, he doesn't talk) 16 year-old agent, who works for an archeology headquarters. On a particular field mission, he discovered some odd, yet adorable robots called Tokobots. These bots are used constantly for platforming, and can even transform to solve other ancient puzzles, or for unleashing your rage on enemies. As you progress through the game, you'll find out a plot being devised by former employees at the previously mentioned headquarters to destroy the planet. Taking advantage of these newly found tokobots, Bolt tries to stop the planet from imminent destruction. Trust me on this one though: nothing is traumatic about this game, but it shouldn't, considering the cute tokobot actions and animations.

At the start of the game, you'll have six ‘lil bots, but you'll also learn how to use all three ‘joint actions' they can perform. In order to utilize which action you want, you first much choose it from a rotating cycle on the bottom left hand corner on the HUD. The different joint actions are the following: U Formation, V Formation, and the Circle Formation. The U Formation aligns your tokobots around you to make a horizontal line, with Bolt as the center. In this formation, you will be able to spin around to attack your foes, along with gliding in the air like a helicopter. When using the V Formation, your bots form a straight line behind you, so they can be thrown ahead of you like whip to attack enemies, or for clinging on to magnetic edges. Once the tokobots make contact with the magnets, they freeze, allowing you to climb up them like a ladder. Or in sections later in the game, magnetic poles are scattered throughout, making you have to swing across them. The swinging mechanic is a nifty platforming element used in many games, but in Tokobot, they're bothersome and frustrating due to the poor camera placement. Lastly, the Circle Formation aligns your tokobots around you, and they can also throw you pretty high in this form. Platforming is mostly done right in Tokobot, even if nothing no real new elements were added, and that Bolt walks too slowly.

Like all robots, the tokobots can also transform into different forms to solve puzzles, pack some more punch for bothersome enemies (mostly bosses though), or just plainly progressing further into the game. The transformations are called ‘Karakuri Combinations,' and they're used wonderfully to break up the platforming. You'll solve some crane puzzles where you'll have to insert the correct blocks into the remaining slots to finish the displayed picture. All right, so maybe that's the only transformation that involves puzzle solving, but the others are just good. The tank and samurai transformations help pack some extra punch during boss battles, and the futuristic train cart segments are quite enjoyable. Whenever a transformation is blocking you from progressing, you'll be instantly excited.

If you haven't realized yet, Tokobot doesn't introduce anything new to the platforming genre; it rather stole other great ideas, and combined them with a quirky robot squad formula. From the reader's standpoint, it might seem as if in the first ten minutes you can perform all of the tokobots actions, which just simply isn't true. The more you progress, the more tokobots you get, along with actions and Karakuri Combinations. Unfortunately, you are stuck with the three starting formations the entire game, but Tokobot does a great job of adding more actions to each formation. There are also only a couple levels, so you'll see only a slight change in environments, but towards the end of the game, Tokobot pathetically tries to increase the length of the game by making you go back to every level and finding hidden objects. More levels would have been much more appreciated.

What are admirable about Tokobot are the graphics, and the design of each level. Most cartoon-y platformers, like Tokobot, have strange environments, wacky designs, and use every eye-burning color known to man; Tokobot strays away from this overdone paradigm. The environments are cheerful (along with the hyperactive, uber-cutesy music) and highly original; it's a shame that a huge portion of the game has you insider the ancient temples, which are admittedly boring and mundane. When outside, you'll see windy canyons, small bodies of water, and stylish buildings. When inside the ancient ruins, it's dark, and all too repetitive. Tokobot does stand out as an original title, but it's all too disguised due to laziness.

Spanning a fun, yet disappointingly short story mode with scattered moments of disappointment, it's nice to see an original game that's fun for the PSP. No, there's not much of an incentive to play it again (besides Time Trial which is a good add-in), but while it lasts, it's surprisingly addictive and original. The tokobots rejuvenate the basic platforming formulas and makes them it's own in this one of-a-kind, standout, handheld platformer.

Fun-Factor- 8.9:
Great variety of platforming abilities and the tokobots make it that much more fun; Karakuri Combinations are always fun to execute. Bolt runs too slowly, and the camera for swinging portions of the game are bad. Original!

Presentation- 8.4:
Unique enemy and character designs, along with original outdoor landscapes; indoors become quickly repetitious. Hyperactive soundtrack fits the cutesy, cartoon-y setting and characters.

Addictiveness- 6.7:
Short Story Mode, but fun and addicting while it lasts. No real reason to play it once you beat Story Mode; only one difficulty. Time Trial is a nice add-in, but useless nonetheless. More levels would've been much appreciated.

Overall- 8.0:
The PSP hasn't had any original platformers, so Tokobot fills the gap nicely, although it's not perfect. If a sequel were to be made, this could become a standout series in many respects; Tokobot deserves at least a play-test.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/06