October 18, 2010, at 04:25 PM

Mini Review: Toto World 3

An Korean original that hardly anyone will have seen, unless they're Korean or the lucky owner of the Australian 4 Pak All Action monstrosity. But will it blend is it any good?

Graphics

Well, what we have here is some extreme "borrowing". There's the kiwi from The NewZealand Story, the ape from Toki, the crab from Wonder Boy III, grass from Doki Doki Panic, some very Mario-looking stars... but the not-obviously-copied stuff seems pretty decent and mature.

Backdrops change completely between "worlds", although sprites don't change as much, and there are some nice graphical effects - the wiggling clouds (in opposite directions, makes all the difference), sprite overlay stage start screen and fade-to-grey world end screens come to mind. Nothing particularly ingenious but nice polish nonetheless.

Sound

Dreadful! Turn it off.

Longevity

You get six worlds with a couple of stages each and a boss. Nothing too taxing, all the collecting seems to be for points only, so there's little challenge and little replay value. But it's mindless platforming the whole way through.

Plot

None.

Fun

The control is not... quite... right. There's a bit of momentum but it doesn't feel "analogue" enough, as if it's being switched on/off as you change the movement. This is most obnoxious in the ice "world", where it seems they just turned it up to "extra annoying" rather than do the usual slippery-momentum thing you get in ice stages. Add that to occasional requirements to precision-jump and it's a pain. But conversely, you don't need to do that much and there's a decent variety of other stuff to keep you amused (moving platforms, wacky enemy movement, lots of levels).

Innovation

Of course not!

Conclusion

This is mostly just elements of successful platformers shamelessly stuck together. It's done reasonably well, but not compellingly so.


Mini Review Ratings