Toki

Toki from 1989 tells an unconventional story of a native warrior whom an evil shaman turns into a monkey the moment he tries to stop the shaman from kidnapping his beloved girlfriend. In this form, the player sets out on a journey across dangerous islands to reverse the curse and rescue his love – a premise that gave the game an unmistakable visual style and distinctive humor, setting it apart from the flood of similarly styled platformers from the late 1980s.

As a monkey hero, Toki doesn't attack with his fists but spits bubbles of energy straight from his mouth, dispatching the strange and often grotesque enemies inhabiting each level. The level design alternates dense jungles, caves, bodies of water, and volcanic scenery, forcing the player to master precise jumps over chasms as well as quick reactions to suddenly appearing opponents. The difficulty is on the higher side right from the first levels, making the game more of a challenge for patient players than a casual platforming stroll, and successful progress requires thoroughly memorizing the placement of enemies and traps.

Thanks to its striking art style and inventive bosses, Toki became known as one of the more distinctive platform machines of the late 1980s and later received a number of ports and remakes for home platforms. Even with the passing years, it remains a pleasantly fresh example of how far the platformer genre could be pushed with a creative idea and a bold, comic-book vision. The combination of an adorable hero and unexpectedly harsh difficulty also earned it a certain cult status among machine collectors.

Why play it: The unmistakable premise of a cursed warrior spitting bubbles offers a distinctive and visually inventive twist on the classic action platformer.