Toki Tori

Is there anything better than a deceptively simple puzzle game? A game that is outwardly cute and innocent, and even easy to play at first, but as you get further in, the cuteness remains, but the solutions to the increasingly difficult puzzles become ever more elusive. A game that will take your brain to task, and leave you spinning your gears looking for a solution that is staring you right in the face. That game, my friends, is Toki Tori.

What at first appears as a cute baby chicken on a quest to save his unhatched brothers and sisters soon turns into a case study of what it means to strategize and plan ahead in a puzzle game. Don’t let its cuteness fool you, this game will stretch your brain to its limit, and have you coming back for more. If you’re ready to test your puzzle-solving grit and want to save hundreds of egg children along the way, here is everything you need to know about Toki Tori.

The Whole Toki Tori Story

Our adventure begins in an unassuming chicken coop, filled with unhatched eggs. Without warning, these eggs are stolen, swiped away by an unseen force. In transit, a single egg falls to the ground and hatches open. What comes out of that hatched egg is our hero, Toki Tori. As he watches his brethren being whisked away to a distant castle, he resolves to go on an adventure to rescue his unborn siblings. This is the basic setup for Toki Tori, and it's a fine one with plenty of explanation as to why your character is bothering to go around collecting eggs.

During this far-fetched adventure, our hero discovers he is imbued with several powers that will aid him in the recovery of the hundreds of eggs he is responsible for. One of these powers is the telewarp, which allows Toki Tori to open a portal and climb through to reach a ledge that would be otherwise inaccessible. Another of these powers is a bridge-building skill that he learns from a book he recovers along the way in his journey. This allows him to cross gaps that cant be jumped across or telewarped to. Our little chicken hero will do anything and use every skill available to him to save his brothers and sisters.

Toki Tori’s Gameplay

As far as gameplay goes for Toki Tori, you will have to navigate a 2D platformed environment with limited mobility skills and a limited number of tools, and collect every egg on the stage under a tight time limit. Each puzzle is designed with the specific number of tools you are allowed in mind, forcing you to plan each move as carefully as you can. If you use one of your tools at the wrong time, the level will become unbeatable, causing you to restart the stage front the beginning. Enemies will appear on these stages, but they are usually present as an obstacle and merely walks along a set path.

Pros

• Fun puzzle-solving
• Cute characters

Cons

• Some puzzles can be difficult
• Repeated restarts can get grating