"Cute, clever, but frustrating as hell."

Tecmo are most famous for their Dead or Alive series. Those games have lots of boobs and butts. Tokobot, a platformer, is just a wee bit different. It's about adorable little robots that follow your every command. And there are no boobies or butts.

Story:
You play as Bolt, a young little kid. He's cute too, like the Tokobots. He discovers the mysterious Tokobots while looking around ancient ruins. Though they seem pretty useless, he discovers that they are capable of using teamwork to accomplish amazing feats. Bolt will lead these Tokobots through many a mission to figure out the secrets of crumbled civilizations and also perhaps the secrets of the Tokobots themselves. Okay, so this story won't receive any awards, but hey, there's only so far you can go with a story revolving around a cute game.
STORY: 5/10

Graphics:
Although the graphics are nothing absolutely stunning, you will always enjoy looking at this game. They are smooth, colorful, plain, and, well, cute. The monsters are cute, Tokobots are cute, Bolt and Ruby are cute, hell even a couple of the villains are cute. Nothing special, but it works well with this game.
GRAPHICS: 8/10

SOUNDS:
Well the sounds effects are cute too! The little “umph” that Bolt shouts out at times, among other grunts, make you say “awww” every time. Even the gang's little footsteps are just so adorable.

The music is very upbeat and techno-ish. The only song you will really remember is probably the Start Menu music, which is SO upbeat and catchy. The in-game music is catchy as well, but it's nothing you haven't heard before.
SOUNDS: 7/10

Gameplay:
This is where the game is hit-or-miss. What would you like first, the good or the bad?

Oh I don't care what you want, I'll just give you the good first. First off, the gameplay with the Tokobots is a completely new idea. Your Tokobots will follow you wherever you go, and there are three formations that they can be with a press of a button: circle formation, V-formation (like a helicopter), and U-formation (when they trail you). Each of these formations has multiple uses. The circle formation allows you and the Tokobots to jump and slam back onto the ground, used for pressing buttons or smashing enemies. The V-formation allows the Tokobots to float you slowly to the ground from high places or lets them spin around and hit everything that surrounds you. Lastly, the U-formation allows you to use the Tokobots as a whip or a grappling hook. Oftentimes the Tokobots will fall off a ledge or get left behind, so you must hold a button to allow them to return (if you don't you won't have enough Tokobots to perform your tasks). This is very clever, and is actually tons of fun for the most part.

In addition to those abilities, Bolt will also uncover various transformations (for puzzle-solving or battle), such as a samurai-bot, a crane, or my personal favorite, the train. Most of these are very fun to play with, but remember that they are limited. Unfortunately, most of your time will just be spent running around un-transformed.

Another thing I liked was the bosses. The ways you must defeat them were also very original. I won't give away how to fight them, that would make it too easy for you, but I'll just tell you that most of them are not easy (and some of them are actually way too hard).

Now for the bad. First, two formations have little problems. The V-formation is used as a propeller to slowly lower yourself to the ground if, say, a platform is too far away to jump to regularly. The problem is that you will float forwards and downwards so slowly that you will often miss a moving platform, and will fall to your DOOM. Me no likey the DOOM. Also, the U-formation is very difficult to pull off as a grapple. If there are many consecutive grapple-bars and you're facing off-center, you're screwed. This is ridiculously trial-and-error, and will frustrate you to no end.

Another bad part of this game is the difficulty. The save spots spread throughout the levels are too far from each other, and oftentimes you will go through many difficult obstacles, and finally lose all your health, resulting in your having to start all over from the last save point. It's a pain going through trial after trial, losing before you reach the next save point, and having to go through it alllll over again.

My last complaint is perhaps the biggest. The camera! You have no control over the camera, so… man, it's just terrible. It follows you, and you have a centering button, but that's it. You cannot rotate the camera, and therefore it will angle to a position that makes the game even more difficult. Terrible, terrible camera

So the best thing Tokobot's gameplay has going for it is its originality, which is great. I would just love to see some of the things in this game better utilized, and for goodness sake, think of a way for camera control!
GAMEPLAY: 5/10

Lasting Appeal:
The actual game itself is fairly short, probably less than 10 hours for most. And once you beat it, there's nothing else to do, except for a dull time-trial mode. No multiplayer, no cool bonus features, just the single-player game. This should probably be rented.
LASTING APPEAL: 4/10

Overall:
Tokobot is a very original and cute game, as I've mentioned so many times. But it still has much room for improvement in the gameplay and replayability departments. I look forward to a sequel to Tokobot, hopefully with many more additions that will make it far surpass this one.
OVERALL: 5/10

Thanks for reading =)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/06