Don't let these cute creatures fool you. I'd seen these tiny puffballs take down a cow and strip it the the bones. Okay so it was just in a videogame, but I'll be damned if the images aren't seared permanently into my brain.
Tokyo Jungle is a PSN exclusive game that lets you play as a variety of domestic and exotic animals struggling to survive in Tokyo after mankind has vanished. What happened to humanity is left largely a mystery, although collectible newspaper articles and weblogs hint at what might of happened. Personally I'm happy not knowing, I find the mystery much more eerie. Besides it ultimately doesn't matter. We lost, we're gone, our pets are in charge now and we need to accept it.
At its core, Tokyo Jungle is a simple and repetitive arcade-style game. As a word 'repetitive' gets a pretty bad wrap in the world of gaming, but in the case of Tokyo Jungle it's that sort of addictive repetition that a well-designed mobile phone game might have. I mean sure I played through this level 20 times before, but this time I can play as a beagle wearing headphones. You start the game with only two animals to choose from but each of those can unlock another when certain conditions are met, with the added possibility of finding clothing and accessories for your animal. I don't know about you but I'm willing to put in a metric fucktonne of hours just to see how pervy these outfit and animal combinations can get. There are two main modes to play; survival and the story chapters (which must be unlocked in survival). The story chapters offer a few scenarios to play out as a seletion of animals, each with a certain amount of humour, charm and characterisation built into it. Most of the lasting appeal is found in survival mode, where you must eat, fight and fuck in order to keep your species in the gene pool. It's quite simple yet has enough depth to it to remain engaged. You have a hunger bar that keeps decreasing, so obviously you've got to make sure you're constantly fed. But you can't live forever, so you need to reproduce to keep the game going. But what of the females? Well they don't even present themselves until you've marked your territory in several key locations in the area. Then there's choosing. Do you want a guarenteed fuck or would you rather hold out for the finest pussy that the feline kingdom has to offer? The better the mate the better the stats of your offspring, who you will go on to play as. But in order to bury your bone in the alpha bitch you've got to become alpha yourself, by securing large quantities of food. And oh fuck is that smog? Better get the fuck out of this district before I assimilate a lethal dose into my system. All the while the clock is ticking by, keeping track of how many years you've managed to not be an evolutionary dead end. When you finally die, and you will die, the game tallies up your achievements and time spent on this earth and gives you a nice fat score that you can stick up on a leaderboard and say to yourself "boy, I'm so much shitter at this game than everyone else".
The game also has a multiplayer option, which I've been enjoying with my housemate and podcast collegue Joey. Doing so allows you to form a pack and what's interesting is that you don't have to be of the same species. You can literally be playing on the same team as an animal you'd normally consider as food. Would you like to see a velociraptor work collaboratively with a rabbit? Well lucky for you because this is possible in Tokyo Jungle.
Of course, the game isn't without its flaws. Many of the aforementioned animals take many hours and playthroughs to unlock and you're forced to play as a lot of shit creatures before you finally earn the right to play as a tiger or a chimp. There's a definite sense of reward to be found here and it's nice to experience everything but on the other hand it's likely to be very offputting to newcomers to be landed with only the pomeranian and the deer to play as without a fucking clue how to unlock any of the other 80 or so animals. Also, it pisses me off to no end to see that there are a few awesome animals that are left out of the game unless you pay for them with real money. If you were hoping to just buy the game and have instant access to the panda or the kangaroo them I'm affraid you get to eat more shit than a starving terrier, cos that's gonna cost you extra.
But minor gripes aside there's a lot of fun to be had here. It's a lot of simple, well thought out retro gaming in a unique, intense and rewarding package. For just under $16 Australian you'll laugh, scream, clench your teeth, tense your buttocks and yell at your friend to stop eating the rabbits you killed. All in all, sounds like good value to me.
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