Up until yesterday, if you were to ask me about monkeys in videogames, I'd start off with Donkey Kong and then mention Super Monkey Ball, Samba de Amigo, and maybe those enemies in the Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog. I never would have thought of Toki, the titular character of Tun Corporation's 1989 run and gun platformer, because I'd never heard of his game until Golgoth Studios decided to remake it for Xbox Live Arcade and Games for Windows. When your sprites and animation are this good, I pay attention.
Toki will be getting a facelift, with beautifully hand-drawn 2D graphics courtesy of the young, six-man team at Golgoth Studios: "Our goal is to keep 2D gaming alive within this 3D world. We try to bring our small contribution in the Games industry and propose high quality content for digital platforms. 2D refuses to die!" France-based Golgoth (not to be confused with Golgotha) is keeping the arcade game's original 2D graphics and, by the looks of things, the power-ups (football helmet!) and enemies are also identical.
In case you're fuzzy on the specifics of Toki's plot (the game's 20 years old, after all), here are some details: "Toki's mission is to rescue his princess Miho from the evil sorcerer Vokimeldo and get back his human form." Sounds pretty straightforward, until you realize that Toki plans to do this by shooting energy bullets out his mouth. Check out the first gameplay video above for a look at how shmup/platforming works. (You can also see some comparison shots in the gallery).
Personally, I think the game looks great, and I'll definitely be keeping tabs on Golgoth Studios.
Joseph Leray is a founding Destructoid editor and has better hair than you. He speaks French and needs to send us his updated bio in English, preferably.
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Love the art style. I remember playing the original in a Pizza Hut back during grade school. I was terrible at it (I wasn't much of a gamer back then), but I liked the idea of playing as a monkey who spits fireballs.
"Our goal is to keep 2D gaming alive within this 3D world. We try to bring our small contribution in the Games industry and propose high quality content for digital platforms. 2D refuses to die!" Yes please.
"Our goal is to keep 2D gaming alive within this 3D world. We try to bring our small contribution in the Games industry and propose high quality content for digital platforms. 2D refuses to die!"
Golgoth is now officially on my radar. The game looks damn sweet. Picking it up. Support hi-def 2d!
Holy crap, I'm sure I've seen this before but I have no idea where. It must have been well over 10 years ago, but I swear I've seen that old game footage. That's so crazy how seeing that brought instant recognition. It's such a bizarre feeling.
Anyway, old arcade games are my favorite kind of games, so I can't wait!
Stupid question - where on the site does it say that the PC and XBLA are the platforms for this? All I see offhand is the "coming soon to ???" near the top.
I'd never even heard of Toki but this looks amazing. Fantastic artwork and animations. If this is what the studio is aiming for with all its projects then I think I'm going to be a long term fan.
all I have to respond to this post is with a fuck yes and please make sure the football helmet is in the game like it was in the arcade. Thank you golgoth I love you already.
Holy crap, i used to play this game on my old Sega. If i recall he was a human that got transformed into a monkey and was trying to save a princess or something.
With this, rocket knight, splatter house its like 7 year old me is getting a lot of nostalgia love.
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Contest:
3:20 PM on 10.21.2009
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All those memories just came flooding back
can't wait for this!
Anyway, the updated visuals are gorgeous and very nicely done.
Golgoth is now officially on my radar. The game looks damn sweet. Picking it up. Support hi-def 2d!
I am happy they bring back this game , they did a terrific job with the grapichs and looks like a lot of fun.
I was rather dissapointed with the looks of the new rocketknight game but this make me happy again.
Anyway, old arcade games are my favorite kind of games, so I can't wait!
I would love to buy this
With this, rocket knight, splatter house its like 7 year old me is getting a lot of nostalgia love.