I still wish a Tokyo Jungle remake would happen.
The other day I was thinking about how many of my friends have Pomeranians. I get it: they’re cute, playful little dogs. It’s a coincidence, given how many dog breeds there are in the world and how few friends I have, but somehow about 75% of the dog owners I know have the same type of dog. However, whenever I think of Pomeranians, one thing comes to mind: Tokyo JungleWhat kind of world do we live in? Tokyo Jungle Stuck on PS3 and PS Vita? A world where Tokyo Jungle 2 doesn’t exist? The PS4 is on its way out, but before it becomes as obsolete as the PS3, I’d definitely like to see a PS4 or PS5 port of Tokyo Jungle.
For those unfamiliar with Tokyo JungleIt is a single or multiplayer roguelike action game. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, in a world without humans. House pets and zoo animals roam free and must survive in this new natural order. Oh, yeah, and dinosaurs are here too. Imagine. Personally, I really like this story, although playing Story mode is a completely different experience.
The ultimate goal of the main part of the game—survival mode—is to live to a hundred years as a species of your choice. You can choose to play as either a herbivore or a carnivore. Each has its pros and cons. Carnivores need to kill prey to eat, but you can find non-toxic food even late in the game. Herbivores, meanwhile, have more offspring per litter, which equates to larger herds and higher survivability. You can also breed to pass on stat boosts to future generations. For example, I’ve played through nearly fifty generations of Pomeranians in my file. The stat boosts I’ve accumulated with Pomeranians alone make this squishy little creature stronger than a default tosa. This adds another layer of replay value, as you can grind stats for your favorite species.
When Tokyo Jungle When it first debuted in 2012, it received a lukewarm response. Europeans love it while Americans hate it. In Japan, people either love it for its unique gameplay and replay value, or hate it for its lack of depth. Although I would love to see Tokyo Jungle back to modern consoles like the PS4 or PS5, of course I have my own issues with this game. The toxicity mechanic feels like a way to make turns harder for no reason. For reference, if you’re in an area or eat something with a high toxicity level and you reach 100% toxicity, you’ll start losing HP. This is really bad. When I replayed my file to remember this, 90% of my deaths happened because of other rather than toxicity.
While there are ways to control toxicity, it feels like an unnecessary layer of difficulty in an already difficult game. The controls aren’t the greatest to handle. It’s easy to lose control of a situation when enemies swarm you like ants on candy. Newcomers will definitely find it difficult to balance everything—age, hunger, toxicity, timed missions, calories for better mates, etc. It definitely took me more than a few runs to stop dying in the first three decades or so. But the feeling of improving the game and beating my own records kept me coming back. I’m sure people who enjoy difficult games can relate to that feeling.
Tokyo Jungle feels unique in its setting and gameplay. Kataoka and the development team at Crispy have completed their goals of creating something that feels fresh in both concept and execution. Now, the game happy? Yeah…I definitely romanticized it in my memory. It wasn’t fun, per se. But it was an addictive time-saver. When runs didn’t go well, I wanted to try again. When runs DO well, i want to play again to increase stats or clear more targets. fun is subjective, but Tokyo Jungle especially feels like a game that really appeals to certain personalities. Like people who like the feeling of completing lots of small tasks for a bigger reward at the end. Or people who like pointless games so they can turn their brains off for a while. And gosh, I’m in between both.
Rights are a complicated issue. Although I started this in the hopes that a PS4 or PS5 port Tokyo Jungle would appear, I knew I was just inhaling decades old copium. Crispy’s! hasn’t made anything since 2014 and doesn’t exist anymore anyway. Japan Studio has become defunct in 2021. It’s hard to say whether Liberation war redo is a viable glimmer of hope, considering Dimps is here. But if Liberation war must escape from Vita prison, then hopefully one day, players will be able to explore the concrete lawns of Tokyo Jungle once again.
Tokyo Jungle Available on PS3 and Tokyo Jungle Mobile appeared on PS Vita and mobile devices until PlayStation Mobile was shut down.
