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As I go through my marathon of playing adorably cute looking platform puzzles, I came across the beautiful Toki Tori 2+, recently released for the Nintendo Switch by the smart developers at Two Tribes. Toki Tori 2+, as a console-independent game, was released back in 2013 for the Wii U, Steam, Windows and Mac OS. Its Switch debut came on February 23, 2018, and only now I got to play it. It is a sequence to Toki Tori, released back in 2001 (which sounds like 100 years in Internet time, doesn't it?), and if platform games are your favorite genre like they are mine, you should definitely check that one out.

Toki Tori 2 relies a lot on your imagination to figure out what's going on. There are barely some words here and there to help you understand what your next step is. That's exactly what I enjoy the most in a game: the way the whole experience is tailored so that making sense of its universe of rules is entirely up to you.

And the baby chick cannot be put to rest. You must guide him around a colorful world full of creatures and stuff to be controlled so that this yellow little thing keeps going. However, it's the kind of game that really gets you slowing things down for the sake of reasoning for a better decision making.

Considering that, like in many other puzzle platform games, you got the idea of what needs to be done. Toki Tori can collect some golden tokens floating around, walk, stomp, whistle, and get his feathers wet in ponds of water. You have to use these basic skills to explore the platform world and get things working in your favor. For instance, if there's a frog that throws up a bubble after eating a round shaped pink insect, you better find a way to bring those two creatures together if that means you can use that resulting bubble to make Toki Tori fly away to reach another platform. That's one of the most memorable puzzles you'll need work with to get things going on this game. There's a frog everywhere waiting for you to find him a snack.

So you can stomp Toki Tori's feet to move a creature away; whistle to bring it closer; shake the water off of its feathers to kill things that can't get wet, etc. And operating those machine-like functioning levels gets quite satisfying, especially when other creatures come into the picture. There might be a mother bird on your way that is craving to put her maternal instincts into action and will eventually grab you (and some frogs too. She's democratic or maybe hungry) and put you in her nest. Sometimes, you can use that to move yourself or other creatures around.

However, these cute puzzles are only cute and easy until they're not. Be ready to get your head spinning as you progress through more difficult levels where other creatures are lurking around for you to connect their actions in increasingly unexpected ways.

With such gorgeous graphics combined in what seems to be a baby bedroom decor backdrop with the funny little songs playing all the time, it almost feels wrong and macabre when Toki Tori dies. It's weird. You play and tell me what you think.

Ah, I decided to take look a the first Toki Tori as well, which has very different game mechanics. I would say the 2001 Toki Tori looks much more, hmm.. "anxious" than Toki Tori 2+. Yeah, the way it runs around looks like he got extra shots of caffeine. It's still good, though. I'd say the second one got me more interested. Maybe because I'm a slow person.

I did enjoy that Toki Tori 2+'s low-key atmosphere. I highly recommend it for the reasons I've stated so far: beautiful graphics, awesome soundtrack, and difficult but doable puzzles, which will provide you with many hours of very entertaining gameplay.

The Bottom Line Gameplay - 10 Graphics - 10 Music - 9.5 Fun - 10 9.9 Toki Tori 2+ has beautiful graphics, an awesome soundtrack, and difficult but doable puzzles, which will provide you with many hours of very entertaining gameplay. User Rating: Be the first one !