Tokyo Jungle was a recommendation I picked up from the Games You Might Not Have Tried series from Extra Credits, way back when. In that series, it is explicitly stated that the games are not necessarily good, just interesting enough that you should try. I think that defines TJ rather well. It's a very neat idea that could probably be iterated upon, but the gameplay, as it is, is not that great. On the other hand, you get to play as a dinosaur in a pink dress and straw hat, so it's peak videogames.
The premise is simple enough: humanity has disappeared from the planet and animals have taken over the streets of Tokyo, and now fight every day for survival. In fact, Survival is the name of the game's main mode, in which you get to pick a species of animal and are tasked with staying alive for as long as you can, hunting for food and trying to win over the best mates, all while avoiding predators.
Yes, the game is about just that: you are an animal that needs to feed and procreate. You also get handed bonus objectives to complete as each species, which, if successfully fulfilled, unlock larger and/or stronger species to play as, as well as clothing and accessories that you can equip on the playable animals. This includes a dinosaur, and also a pink dress and a straw hat.
Animals come in two main types, Grazers and Predators, which determine the kind of food they have to eat. Curiously, though, they don't really alter gameplay all that much otherwise. In fact, my first criticism of the game is that most animals play the same. There are stat variations that define what you can do with that species, but a large part of the game is spent in combat, either hunting prey or running from predators, and combat mechanics are the same for every species: press square to attack, and once the indicator shows up, press R1 to do a finishing move.
Then there's the fact that the game is heavily biased towards Predators. Attackers are surprisingly hard to lose, often to a point of absurdity, with your pursuers running by packs of easier prey, completely uninterested. Besides, as a Grazer, you can get killed by surprisingly small animals. I was surprised when I managed to kill a pack of sheep as a Pomeranian, but then later, playing as a horse, I was slain by a pack of unprovoked house cats.
All that said, getting better animals with time makes progressing through the animal unlock tree all the more satisfying. It's the weird thing about the game: it starts out very frustrating, with you getting murdered by anything that looks at you funny. However, by fulfilling the objectives, you get to move up in the food chain, and in every new attempt, you are able to survive longer, and the map begins to open up. All the better, too, because to unlock further sections of the story, you'll need to move further and further away from the starting area every time.
Ah, yes, the story. There was a rather odd decision to lock the game's story mode behind Survival. It's counterproductive, even, because it teaches you mechanics in rather late chapters, by which time you'd probably have learned it by yourself in Survival so to be able to unlock said chapters. It feels like a bit of an afterthought.
Either way, the plot and backstory of the game are... I'm not going to spoil them, but they get really crazy, really fast. There are explanations to uncover for why humans disappeared, as well as why all these animals are around, and even, for why there are dinosaurs roaming around, dinosaurs which, mind you, are very playable and very, very fashionable.
That's the basic gist of Tokyo Jungle. I miss it. Not necessarily the game itself, but what it represented. It was a time when Sony was reinventing itself to try and stay competitive, and when it let its studios do their thing and come up with some really quirky games. "It wasn't a multi-million seller, but that was not the point" and all.
It is a repetitive game and has a lot of flaws, but it manages to keep you hooked. Distinct, not necessarily great, but you probably never played anything remotely like it, and you're unlikely to ever forget it. Also you get to play as a dinosaur donning a pink dress and straw hat, making it basically criminal that it never got ported to the PS4/5. I demand high-res textures and raytracing.
The premise is simple enough: humanity has disappeared from the planet and animals have taken over the streets of Tokyo, and now fight every day for survival. In fact, Survival is the name of the game's main mode, in which you get to pick a species of animal and are tasked with staying alive for as long as you can, hunting for food and trying to win over the best mates, all while avoiding predators.
Yes, the game is about just that: you are an animal that needs to feed and procreate. You also get handed bonus objectives to complete as each species, which, if successfully fulfilled, unlock larger and/or stronger species to play as, as well as clothing and accessories that you can equip on the playable animals. This includes a dinosaur, and also a pink dress and a straw hat.
Animals come in two main types, Grazers and Predators, which determine the kind of food they have to eat. Curiously, though, they don't really alter gameplay all that much otherwise. In fact, my first criticism of the game is that most animals play the same. There are stat variations that define what you can do with that species, but a large part of the game is spent in combat, either hunting prey or running from predators, and combat mechanics are the same for every species: press square to attack, and once the indicator shows up, press R1 to do a finishing move.
Then there's the fact that the game is heavily biased towards Predators. Attackers are surprisingly hard to lose, often to a point of absurdity, with your pursuers running by packs of easier prey, completely uninterested. Besides, as a Grazer, you can get killed by surprisingly small animals. I was surprised when I managed to kill a pack of sheep as a Pomeranian, but then later, playing as a horse, I was slain by a pack of unprovoked house cats.
All that said, getting better animals with time makes progressing through the animal unlock tree all the more satisfying. It's the weird thing about the game: it starts out very frustrating, with you getting murdered by anything that looks at you funny. However, by fulfilling the objectives, you get to move up in the food chain, and in every new attempt, you are able to survive longer, and the map begins to open up. All the better, too, because to unlock further sections of the story, you'll need to move further and further away from the starting area every time.
Ah, yes, the story. There was a rather odd decision to lock the game's story mode behind Survival. It's counterproductive, even, because it teaches you mechanics in rather late chapters, by which time you'd probably have learned it by yourself in Survival so to be able to unlock said chapters. It feels like a bit of an afterthought.
Either way, the plot and backstory of the game are... I'm not going to spoil them, but they get really crazy, really fast. There are explanations to uncover for why humans disappeared, as well as why all these animals are around, and even, for why there are dinosaurs roaming around, dinosaurs which, mind you, are very playable and very, very fashionable.
That's the basic gist of Tokyo Jungle. I miss it. Not necessarily the game itself, but what it represented. It was a time when Sony was reinventing itself to try and stay competitive, and when it let its studios do their thing and come up with some really quirky games. "It wasn't a multi-million seller, but that was not the point" and all.
It is a repetitive game and has a lot of flaws, but it manages to keep you hooked. Distinct, not necessarily great, but you probably never played anything remotely like it, and you're unlikely to ever forget it. Also you get to play as a dinosaur donning a pink dress and straw hat, making it basically criminal that it never got ported to the PS4/5. I demand high-res textures and raytracing.