Tokyo Jungle review. (PS3)

[ZombieHorde]

Tokyo Jungle is a $15 downloadable game available on the Playstation Store. Since this game is so unique, I am breaking this review into tiny bits. Hopefully, this will make the review more clear.

Premise
The game takes place ten years after all the humans leave Tokyo. The pets go feral, and all of the animals escape the zoo. You choose one of the 40 different animals and try to survive by stealth, hunting/foraging, claiming territories, and mating.

Animals and Stats

Animals
Playing predators unlocks other predators, and playing grazers unlocks other grazers. Other animals can be purchased online, but here are the animals you get for your $15: Pomeranian, Sika Deer, Cat, Chick, Gazelle, Beagle, Rabbit, Pig, Retriever, Porcupine, Blackbuck, Tosa, Chimpanzee, Sheep, Wolf, Axis Deer, Jackal, Boar, Lycaon, Goat, Hyena, Thoroughbred, Bear, Cheetah, Dairy Cow, Polar Bear, Black Panther, Zebra, Tiger, Buffalo, Lion, Hippo, Deinonychus, Dilophosaurus, Ostrich, Elephant, Mammoth, ERC-003 and ERC-2000 (robots).

All of the animals are very well balanced. I checked out the top scores online, and lots of different animals are represented.

Stats
Life: hit points
Attack: damage
Defense: damage reduction
Stamina: how often you can dodge/dash
Speed: how fast you run. This is the only stat you cannot raise.

Gameplay

Basic Game Mechanics
Move: Left stick.
Jump: X. Grazers have a double jump.
Stealth: Hold L1 to sneak around. Great for either sneaking past powerful predators or sneaking up on a tasty treat.
Fighting: Square is for basic attack, and R1 is for take downs. You can only perform a take down on an unsuspecting animal, or after priming the animal by attacking it with square. Small animals cannot one-hit-kill a large animal with a take down, but it will do some nice damage.
Dodge/dash: Right stick.
Foraging: Grazers can eat plants growing around the city.
Command: Once you have a pack, you can use triangle to tell predators to attack or to tell one of your grazers to fall to the ground, and act as a decoy so the rest of your herd can escape a nasty predator.
Use items: Press the up directional button to access your item menu. Items heal, reduce hunger, reduce toxicity, or give a temporary bonus.

Modes
There are two game modes: Survival and Story. Survival is the main mode, and the Story mode levels have to be unlocked.

Survival Mode
When you first play, there are only two animals unlocked: Pomeranian, a predator, and sika deer, a grazer. You will be given a "random" list challenges, such as kill x animals, or visit a specific area of town. Whenever you complete a challenge, you will gain either a bonus one of your stats or unlock something new, such as a new animal or an equipable item.

Mating is very important in Survival Mode because it permanently increases your stats, increases your herd, and prevents you from dying of old age. To mate, you have to claim a territory by marking specific areas. Once all the areas are marked in a territory, some mates will show up. There are three different types of mates: desperate, average, and prime. You have to rank up your animal by eating in order to mate to with better animals. The better the mate, the better stat bonuses you'll receive. The permanent stat bonuses are based on the temporary stat bonuses you received from completing challenges. Desperate mates give 10%, average mates give 30%, and prime mates give 50%. Fortunately, all numbers are rounded up.

Once you die in Survival Mode, the game ends and your save is erased. Fortunately, all of the stat bonuses you received from mating carry over to all of your future games with that animal. So if you play an animal a lot, that animal will become very powerful.

Story Mode
Story Mode levels are unlocked by finding archives in Survival mode. I have only unlocked the first two Story Mode levels, besides the tutorial, so I only know a little bit. They're both pretty short, with only a few objectives, but they are starting to fill in what happened to Tokyo.

Level Design
Level design is important to me, so fortunately, Tokyo Jungle has great level design. The game is 3D, but it often looks like a side scrolling game because of the camera angle. You can jump on top of cars and rubble to get to the tops of buildings and find lots of cool areas.

Graphics
The graphics are nice. The art style is realistic, and the animal movements look great.

Unlockables
Most things seem to be unlocked by doing challenges in Survival Mode, but I think I found some things, and a few things are unlocked in Story Mode.
You can unlock 38 animals, ?? Story Mode levels, and about 100 pieces of equipment. Equipment has four categories: Hat, collar, shirt, and boots. Each gives stat bonuses, and some of them look pretty funny.

My Opinion
I love this game. Unlocking new animals and permanently raising their stats is really addicting. There are a few animals that I am not that into, so I just play them to focus on unlocking the next animal. This is not the type of game I can spend all day playing, like Borderlands or Skyrim, but I find it a very enjoyable way to kill a few hours.

Here's a trailer. The graphics look nicer on my TV than in this video, which is in black & white for the fist half, for some odd reason.

[Evoman]

1. 15 is pretty cheap. I may have to pick it up. Right now I'm pretty busy

with Sly Cooper.

How are the controls? Intuitive? Easy? Weird?

[ZombieHorde]

2. The controls are tight. Pressing Select shows all the controls.

That is most frustrating thing for me. I'm used to Select being map in games, but Start is map. I find myself constantly pressing Select when I want to view the map.

Eating/drinking is a little touchy, but it isn't something you do when under pressure, so it isn't frustrating. It's just a little touchy.

I have seen some complaints about the take down kills, but I haven't had any troubles with them. They require a set up, either by stealth or priming with normal attacks, but a bright red fang symbol appears on the animal when it's ready to be taken down, so it's pretty easy, in my opinion.