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.

[JeuxVideo.com via GameSetWatch]