Toki (1989)

Toki, known in Japan as JuJu Densetsu (JuJu伝説, Legend of JuJu), is an action plaformer game originally released on December 08, 1989 for Arcades. The game was developed by TAD Corporation and licensed to Fabtek for worldwide distribution.

The game was ported to the Atari Lynx handheld in 1990 by Atari themselves, who also planned a version for the Atari 7800 which was never released. Ocean Software developed ports for the Commodore 64, Comodore Amiga and Atari ST which were released in 1991. A port for the Nintendo Entertainment System was also released in 1991 by Taito.

An action-puzzle sequel to the game was planned for the Super Famicom, but ultimately never released due to TAD closing it's doors in 1993. While no direct sequels were ever made Sega licensed the rights to the game and produced a semi-sequel/remake for the Sega Mega Drive titled Toki: Going Ape Spit.

The rights to the game were acquired in 2008 by Golgoth Studios, who began production of a remastered version of the game with HD graphics. Golgoth eventually went bankrupt and stopped production of the game, which was later picked up and finished by Microïds, which released the game, simply titled Toki, in November 2018 for the Nintendo Switch and later ported it to the PlayStation 4 and PC.

Story
So there I was, walking in the jungle with my girl, Miho. Man, she was beautiful. (By the way, I am - or was - Toki the Warrior.) Suddenly, I saw my worst enemy, Vookimedlo the Sorcerer, step out from behind a tree. With him was second worst enemy, Bashtar, the invisible giant. I should say "nearly invisible giant," 'cause you can see his boots, gloves, and heart. Well, they attacked us. As Bashtar carried Miho off, Vookimedlo turned me into a little helpless monkey. I was in despair, until the Spirit of the Jungle stepped in. The Spirit was really mad about the sneak attack, and so he gave me the ability to shoot fireballs from my mouth. (It feels like gargling.) Now, to win back Miho and my human form, I must go to the Golden Palace to beat Vookimedlo and Bashtar in a fair fight. But I'll do it, no matter what it takes. Come on along, it's going to be a wild ride!

Gameplay
Toki is a typical platformer game, where players control the titular Toki and must traverse the stages while fending off enemies. Toki can jump, climb on vines and swim underwater, though his movement is relatively slow. His main form of offense is to shoot pellets from his mouth, which serve as projectiles to defeat enemies. By picking various power-ups Toki can temporarily fire different types of projectiles, with other items giving him high-jumping ability and protecting him from damage.

Enemies

 * Geeshergam
 * Herbamo
 * Ivor
 * Pike
 * Buzzsaw
 * Timagon
 * Garnidare
 * Webstamite
 * Shartoesi
 * Killer Harnas
 * Flying Shardu
 * Thorpedo
 * Wobalin
 * Kalgatrobe
 * Bellzador
 * Armorel Kemin
 * Galartor
 * Gabranha
 * Mortoise
 * Cupper
 * Blastums
 * Pengafin
 * Bungataras
 * Creepavore
 * Katyerows
 * Catecormos
 * Shoshanu

Development
Toki's development began in December of 1988, with the idea being based around a design submitted by a freelance artist around the time. Though the first prototype was ready by February of 1989, the team decided to reprogram the game from scratch. They did the first location test in September 07 of that year, with a public test being done on September 15 in the TAD office and at the University of Washington simultaneously. The final public test was done in October, with the game being ready by November and finally released by the next month.