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Tokyo Jungle had my money as soon as I saw the trailer for it. I didn't even need to see what the pros and cons of the game were, as the concept of the game was more than enough for me. All of the humans have vanished, and animals have taken over Tokyo, where the law of the jungle works in the big city. Pomeranians, deer, sheep, rabbits, porcupines, ostriches, giraffes, elephants, and even dinosaurs prowl the streets. There are many different animals to choose from, with some types having multiple colors you can unlock. Each animal has different stats, and while they always fall into either the carnivore or grazer class, the stats are different enough for you to notice distinct advantages between species. Want a challenge? Play as a chick. Want to go for the 100 year survival trophy? Your best bet's gonna be with a panther or cheetah. Do you just plain want to have fun bullying other animals? I'd recommend the hippo!
Playing the game is easy. You control your animal with the left analog stick, jump with x, eat with circle, do a standard attack with square, do a more damaging attack with R1 and dodge with the right analog stick. Your 3 stats at the top of the screen are Life, Hunger and Stamina. When your life's out, you die. You can take damage from being attacked by other animals, and by your hunger meter reaching zero. The Hunger meter drops at a steady rate, and is only refilled when you eat another animal or plant, or if you manage to find a food item. Most of the time, finding food isn't too hard, but don't be surprised if you go through an entire area without finding anything. Using the dodge move takes up a little bit of stamina, and the meter refills on its own after a couple of seconds. Dodging is a very important ability, since it lets you avoid attacks, and it can be used to cover a little more ground since you move quicker whenever you do it. Grazer types like the deer, pig and others can also double jump. I see this as a way of leveling the playing field. If not for this ability, playing as this type would be a chore. Plus it's funny seeing a pig double jump.
There are two main gameplay modes in Tokyo JungleStory and Survival. Story is short, and you have to unlock each chapter in order to complete it. I was pleasantly surprised at learning about what happened with the humans, and I enjoyed the narration of what you had to do in each chapter. The tone of the game may be a little on the serious side, with the realistic style over cute and cartoony, but Story mode was fun and lighthearted. I'll leave it at that, since I don't want to ruin the surprise. I'll just say that they really didn't have to do what they did in the end, and man, was I glad they did it. It's a very rewarding experience going through this mode. Survival is the main 'meat' of the game, where you pick your animal, and survive for as long as you can. Various missions pop up for you to complete, such as claiming territory, eating a specific type of food, eating a certain amount of food, scoring Clean Kills, mating and more. Time goes by fast in this mode, but staying alive for a long time is the challenge. Between bigger and stronger animals appearing as the years go by, and things like polluted areas harming you, a little bit of strategy is needed. Fortunately, there's a status box at the top of the screen with helpful hints, letting you know if a certain area is polluted or if animals in another section have gone berserk. The first time I read that the chimpanzees of an area had went berserk, I made sure to keep my sheep the heck out of there until things cooled down. Survival can get hectic when you least expect it. A key example being when I was just peacefully marking my territory as a gazelle before finding a mate, when I simply kick a rabbit out of my way...only to have about 15 of them making a beeline right for me.
The key to survival in Survival mode is making use of what you have. When you mark all of the territorial spots in an area, you're allowed to get a mate. There are three typesdesperate, average and prime. Often times, you'll get great stat boosts and more babies out of the prime mates, though I've gotten some good ones from average mates too. Once you mate, it's time to play as one of the babies and continue the journey, still going on with the challenges. Should your new animal die and you have another one from the litter/pack with you, you'll switch over to the next one. Think of your brothers and sisters as extra lives. Having them around has a few other perks, like having more targets for rival animals to go after. And if you really want to, pressing the triangle button as a certain type of animal will cause your family members to fall down, sacrificing themselves so you can make an escape. As you run through Tokyo, you'll run into mysterious presents. These will contain useful things like food, bottled water, medicine and clothing items. Yes, you get to dress up your animal in Tokyo Jungle. Nearly everything I've gotten so far has provided a stat boost in some way. There are some pretty good ones for free on the PSN Store right now too.
Either you'll like Tokyo Jungle, or you won't. I can't think of many other games like this. The closest thing that comes to mind is the SNES game EVO: The Search For Eden. Tokyo Jungle is still very different from it. The only bad thing I can say about the game is that the graphics look like a first generation ps2 game. Below-average graphics aside, I can always count on Tokyo Jungle when I need something for a quick play, or if I want to go for something challenging.
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A survival game with a unique concept, "Tokyo Jungle" is set in a future devoid of humans, where nature has reclaimed the urban center of Tokyo."Tokyo Jungle" is a game where you play as an animal carnivore or herbivore in the overgrown, overrun city of Tokyo. It takes place in a future scenario where humans disappeared from the earth, and in their place the various animals of the city former pets, zoo animals, and even genetic experiments created their own ecosystem. This is certainly the game's most notable aspect. While it's easy to imagine a wildlife game set in the African savanna, where cheetahs chase after gazelles, throwing feral pets and farm animals into the mix cats, dogs, goats, cows gives the game a far more strange and unique feeling. The starting animal for the carnivore class, for example, is a humble Pomeranian.
The game's concept is simple enough: survive. Your animal must find food (whether plant or animal), avoid larger animals, and mark territory. It doesn't have a traditional narrative per se the main mode is simply "survive as long as you can", with the constant ravages of hunger and other animals wearing down your own animal over time. Gameplay-wise, Tokyo Jungle is sort of an action/stealth game. Patches of grass grow all over the ruined city, and these are useful to both predators and prey. Predators can use the grass to launch devastating strikes from concealment, which can often be enough to fell even much larger animals. Prey, on the other hand, will have to use grass to hide from predators, though it's also possible to take down predators with whatever means the creature has available (horns, hooves, etc). There are also some more "RPG-like" aspects mission objectives will pop up as you play through the game, and completing them will improve your animal's strength, speed, health, and so on. Even a beagle can eventually grow strong enough to take down lions with ease.
The game's unlock system is one of its more forced mechanics. Predators and prey each start with one animal type available Pomeranians for the predators, and sika deer for the prey. Each animal has the opportunity to unlock one (rarely two) other animal type(s) by completing a mission during their playthrough. While this certainly extends the game's playtime and ensures that you play as every possible animal, it also sort of makes the game feel repetitive, especially since there just isn't that much difference gameplay-wise between most animal types. "Story missions" can be unlocked by playing survival mode, but these tend to be self-contained vignettes rather than part of a larger narrative (and what sort of narrative you'd get from this set-up, I don't really know).
Overall, Tokyo Jungle is certainly a weird game, but not a bad one. Some people will undoubtedly find the concept interesting enough to be worth it just for that. Some may find it repetitive and dull after the initial concept introduction. Overall, though, it's surprisingly good for what it is, and is definitely a distinct addition to the PS3's library.
Rating: 8/10.
We purchased this game with our own funds in order to do this review.Eh. Its a fun game. It might get repetitive sometimes, but it is fun playing as different animals and doing different objectives. Might be worth it to buy it on psn, but i like a physical copy. Perfect for me.
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I bought this game for my 21 year old nephew for Christmas. It comes from Japan directly, so if you are interested in buying it as a gift, be sure to order it way ahead of time. He loves it and is playing it all the time while he is home from college during his college Christmas Break.I was like "Oh, man ! Sony will release a crap again!?" before I played this title, even though I am a Japanese. But this is... holy crap!I was totally addicted to this game, it is hard to know when I should stop. Please take note this is not a masterpiece but something we can play as long as we awake.
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