Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri – PS2 – Review

To aid him in his search,
Bolt has received the help and lifetime loyalty of little robotic creatures
called Tokobots. Similar to the robots people dreamt of having in the 21st
century, Tokobots look like little aliens, having a head, body, arms and legs.
They are missing the 10 fingers and 10 toes humans are born with, but they
don’t really need them for the job they’ll be doing. 

Their mission is your
mission. Your whim is their command, just as long as they’re capable of
performing the desired action. Tokobots follow Bolt at all times, moving in
different formations to meet the needs of each stage. The side-by-side
formation splits the group in two, placing three Tokobots on Bolt’s sides.
This creates a straight line that Bolt can use to his advantage.

Tap the triangle button
repeatedly (while holding R1) and the Tokobots will start spinning around him
like helicopter propellers. A couple of the ways he’ll use this move include
defense from ground enemies, and to make broken cogs spin again.

The back formation
commands each Tokobot to line up behind Bolt. Its functionalities are some of
the most varied in the game. Whack enemies over the head, sledgehammer-style,
from a moving, jumping, or stationary position. You won’t know this at first,
but the Tokobots turn out to be magnetic. Whenever you see a magnetic strip,
that means the Tokobot can be attached and used as a gap-crossing device. Form
bridges and ladders, whichever the situation requires.

Circle formation
surrounds Bolt with every Tokobot he’s got. If one is missing, a light will
appear at the top of the screen and drop in a replacement. (Same if one gets
destroyed, regardless of the formation you’re currently using.) In this
formation, the Tokobots can act a floor switch pusher and an enemy basher.
Hold the R1 button to lock the formation, jump with the X button – the
standard jumper in most video games – and press the circle button to cause the
Tokobots to slam down on whatever’s underneath. 

This is effective against
enemies who have a light marking on top of their heads, which indicates the
location of their weak spot. If the enemy is too high to reach for a slam,
chances are you’re meant to figure out another way to defeat him. Trying to
use the circle formation will lead to health damage – Bolt’s, not the Tokobots.

Tokobots are replaceable.
Bolt’s chunk-based health meter depletes pretty quickly though. Death sends
you back to the last save point. There is an automatic revive potion that will
replenish your health upon death, but it’s expensive and not easy to acquire.
Life potions increase the amount of Bolt’s health chunks, but those aren’t
available in large quantities either.

Tokobot Plus’s
prehistoric ruins are set up like an action/adventure. Lots of platforms to
climb, several gaps to cross, random enemies to bash, etc. There are crates to
destroy, with valuable coins tucked inside about 30% of the time. (The other
30% are wasted on the destruction of empty crates.)

Despite the familiar
setup, Tokobot Plus is not an action/adventure. It doesn’t really belong to
any one particular genre, but it can be best described as a 3D
exploration-based puzzler. In other words, it falls into that weird, rarely
seen sub-genre that houses Pikmin, Herdy Gerdy, and only a handful of others.

Your quest consists of
the same actions you’d find in a kiddie game: push switches, move blocks,
battle easy enemies, collect useless items, unleash more powerful special
attacks, etc. This same-old formula is hardly worth noting.

The idea of the Tokobots
themselves, however, is what first sucked me into the game. You don’t have
complete freedom, but their actions are pretty varied, and very interesting. 

Had the worlds and game
objectives not been so uninteresting, I suspect that Tokobot would have been
an exquisite, indelible experience. The concept is great – one of the more
original ideas to come out of 06. But the finished product is boring,
cumbersome, and filled with annoying, uninformed backtrackings that will cause
anyone to lose interest.

Gameplay: 6.9
Too
slow/frustrating to enjoy. Tokobot Plus’s excellent concept couldn’t save it
from video game mediocrity. Its characters – Bolt and the Tokobots – are
partially successful at providing an original gameplay experience. At the very
least they were successful in getting my attention months before the game was
released. There’s something to be said for that.

But the game isn’t just
about its characters, it’s about the worlds around you, and the missions
you’ll need to complete within those worlds. I wasn’t expecting speed-breaking
excitement, just an engaging strategic experience. Sadly, even if the missions
were a little more eventful, and even if the strategic element had been
implemented more cleverly, gamers would still have to contend with the
lackluster level design and a jerky, can’t-make-up-its-mind camera system.

Graphics: 4
We’ve gone back
to the stone ages, circa 1998.

Sound: 4

Difficulty: Easy
With loads of
frustration that can’t be escaped.

Concept: 8.9
Pikmin meets an
action/adventure? Not quite. Tokobot Plus lets you command a small army of
non-violent (but defensive) robots who will perform the actions you cannot.
Great idea, but it’s bogged down by dull missions, hours of backtracking, and
a disorganized camera system.

Overall: 6.9
The kiddie box
art doesn’t give a clear picture of what this game is about. Kid gamers in
Japan might find this kind of experience to be entertaining, but there is no
way American kids will ever go for it. For one thing, there isn’t an "action"
element. Second, the camera is a mess. Third, no one likes to backtrack,
especially when the game forgets to inform you to do so.