Toki: Going Ape Spit (1991)

Ah, Toki.  You know just by looking at that cover that this is gonna be one goofy ass game.  To nobody's surprise, you'd be absolutely right.  Toki was originally released as an arcade platformer in Japan under the name Juju Densetsu.  The arcade game was goofy and slow paced, but it had its place in the arcades.

In fact, it was so popular, this game was ported to nearly every major console.  Amiga, Nintendo, Commodore 64 and even the Atari Lynx had their own ports of the game.  From what I've heard, the Amiga port is generally the favored port .  Naturally, Sega threw their hat in the ring and created their own unique 'remix' of the game.  The Sega Genesis port is a strange beast.  The original arcade game had unique stages with a boss at the end, not unlike a game such as Ghosts n' Goblins.  The Sega version separates the stages into segments where the goal is to reach a goal marker like Sonic the Hedgehog.  More on that later.

"Unlimited Power!"

Story- Our hero Toki (or Juju) is enjoying a lovely day with Princess Wanda, until a mystical palace rises in the background.  Wanda is captured by the disembodied Bashtar, while Toki is transformed into an ape by the mysterious Dr. Stark.  The transformation also gave him the ability to shoot magical energy balls from his mouth.  It's Mario with a ball spitting primate.

Graphics- The graphics aren't bad, but they can be a bit bland sometimes.  There are some decent background effects, but this is not a game that showcases the full power of the Sega by any means.  Sonic the Hedgehog came out in the same year, and that had so much more going on in the backgrounds.

That being said, there are some decent effects in the game, particularly in the ice and lava stages.  The color palette for the game is not terrible.  There are bright hues of purple, blue, and red in many stages.  The animation on Toki is crisp and even humorous sometimes.  The other enemies are a mixed bag.  Many of the bosses have very little animation at all.  Two of the bosses, Eyesore and Crystal Mammoth, have virtually no animation.

This bastard can be a real pain in the ass.

Controls- The controls leave something to be desired.  First off, your character moves with no urgency whatsoever.  When something is dropping on your head, your character can only trundle out of the way and hope to not get hit.  In addition, jumping can be a bit tricky, especially on the ice stage.  It sucks.  You slide all over that damn stage and can't do a thing to protect yourself.  There's no room to fuck up.  One hit, and you start the level all over again.  Not necessarily bad controls, but very slow and takes time to get used to.  

Sound-  Listen to the song below:

Do you like it?  It is pretty awesome?  I hope so, because you'll hear this damn song throughout most of this tedious game.  There are other level songs in the game.  The first one that comes to mind is the underwater stages, which isn't a bad little music track.  The bosses also have their own little unique track.  However, this game could use so many more tracks.  Because the music is nearly identical for all of the stages, many of them feel like you're playing the same stage over.

Gameplay- This game suffers from very slow gameplay, especially for a platformer.  Compare this to something like Sonic or Rocket Knight Adventures, and this just falls flat.  I have two main criticisms of this game, but they pretty much butcher the gameplay.  First, the level design is horrible and sometimes cruel.  There are several instances where you take a leap of faith only to have a row of spikes planted firmly in your hairy ass.  Levels are riddled with dead ends and ledges that lead to nowhere.  This segways into my second criticism: You can never tell what's going on around you.  I can't tell you how many times I've died because I jumped in the air and some flying fuckbat decides to dive bomb at that very moment.  In addition, there are many times where you just don't know what the hell is below you.  Is it a piece of fruit?  An extra life?  Some enemy waiting to get a cheap hit?  Jump down and find out.
Now that we've got that can of worms out of the way, let's talk about the actual gameplay.  You walk around the levels at a snail's pace, shooting energy balls from your mouth.  You can pick up powerups to change your shot, such as a flamethrower, bouncing balls, and a spread shot.  There's also a pair of tennis shoes that allow you to jump very high.  Don't get it.  You'll end up jumping into an enemy and killing yourself.
There are several bosses in this game, and many of them are unique and fun to play.  My favorite is the blatantly stereotyped black woman called Primeval.

Oh, Japan.  You and your racist video games.

       In addition to Aunt Jemima, you also fight a submarine loaded with apes, a fat monster that belches at you, and the disembodied giant that captured your lovely Wanda.  Once you get the pattern of many of them, they can be pretty easy.  It only takes one shot to kill you, so don't screw up.
Final Thoughts- This is a poor port of an already slow paced arcade game.  While the graphics and sound aren't terrible, the gameplay is slow, boring, and irritating.  There's many cheap kills and annoying level designs that will leave you throwing your controller on the ground.  This game's not cheap, either.  It will cost at least $10 to get your hands on a copy of this game.  Do yourself a favor: play a better port, or even better, play a better platformer.  I'll review one of the best platformers Sega has to offer next.
Rating (out of 5): **