Some games have a concept so good that the execution doesn’t really matter. Tokyo Jungle It is about animals – exotic zoo animals, domestic pets, farm stock, and forest wildlife – fighting for survival and dominance in an overpopulated, post-apocalyptic Tokyo, long after the complete disappearance of mankind. are. This is no doubt one of the greatest gaming elevator pitches of the 21st century.
The PlayStation 3 game that originated from this idea in 2012 is exactly as harsh, comical, and weird as it should be (and it’s now available to stream with PlayStation Plus Premium). It is not, by any means, a masterpiece of game design or technology. But it’s a brilliant idea realized in a completely unfiltered way, which makes it even more precious.
Tokyo Jungle Crispy! , an inexperienced indie studio under the wing of Shuhei Yoshida, then president of Sony’s Japan Studio and PlayStation Studios. It’s a strange mix of slick, corporate production and naive outdoor art, with charmingly conflicting aesthetics. The catchy, Score Attack-style interface and insistent background techno music hail from early 2000s games. Meanwhile, rough-textured models are going for a hazy, bleached, primitive kind of realism.
Image: Crispy, Japan Studio / Sony Computer Entertainment
Structurally, in the main survival mode, Tokyo Jungle Plays like arcade roguelike invented by someone who’s never heard of roguelike. You choose your animal – at first, only small Pomeranian dogs and delicate sika deer are available – and start looking for food while avoiding larger predators. Time flies by at a terrifying speed; Every few minutes a year goes by and your hunger scale continues to drop. Death is always near, and it ends the game.
Therefore, it is important to keep going. Tokyo is divided into smaller districts, and if you can “mark” your territory, you can find a mate and breed there, where you are reincarnated as a new generation. It also comes with a stat boost and a pack of siblings, who essentially follow you in the form of extra lives. But with that said, it is time to enter new, more dangerous territory, as no breeding nest can ever be used twice. (Nests are also the only place you can save your game, which is probably Tokyo JungleThe cruelest characteristic and most depressing flaw of
If you’ve picked up a carnivore hunter—and yes, the ridiculously little Pomeranian counts as a hunter—the focus of your game will be on basic, frenetic, and surprisingly brutal combat. If you play as a shepherd, it’s easy to breed – but more stealthy when you try to sneak up to edible plants known to predators. The game’s large suite of animals consists of a bespoke list of challenges that unlock new animals, and these challenges also have a time limit. The pressure is relentless.
Tokyo Jungle Funny, both in its intentionally surreal, video-gamey touches – dinosaurs! big Buck Bunny! Unlockable Costumes! – And in the dead juices of a world where beagles, chickens and tigers fight to the death in ruined shopping centers. But it also bears the uncompromising, sex-and-death brutality of a particularly unsatisfying nature documentary. Its message: Time is running out, eat or eat, leave a legacy early before you die.
As such, it’s a less refined, but more accessible and arguably more fun version of the playable Darwinism from 10 years ago: the GameCube’s Cubivore, This is another game that would be great to be rediscovered in the weeds of some future subscription list. Until then, Tokyo Jungle Blunt remains the alpha of video game animalism, red in tooth and claw.
