If the world went feral, would you survive? I know I wouldn’t. If all humankind were wiped out, do you think all the animals would just behave? Tokyo Jungle doesn’t. For whatever reason, Tokyo’s animals, domestic and wild, have become bloodthirsty, and you are tasked with helping one fight for survival and keep its family line going for generations.
Tokyo Jungle was originally only destined for Japanese retail, but Sony, now accustomed with taking risks on quirky Japanese products in the Western markets, decided to take a punt on it as a downloadable title in the West.
Fending for yourself is the name of the game here, and as such you are only afforded one life. If you die, you’re done. Your first tasks are usually to get some food (by either killing other animals or finding plants and fruit, depending on the type of animal), mark some territory and find a mate, in that order. Without the territory, you cannot mate, and you must mark all locations in an area to claim it. Your mates, of which you can usually choose between two, are split down into desperate, average and prime, with the ‘quality’ of your mate influencing the amount of offspring reared. A desperate mate will almost always give you fleas, too. Once you mate, you create a new generation which is always at least a pack of two. Once this is the arrangement, you can die and move to another member of the pack. Effectively, mating gives you lives, not that they will necessarily help you out of desperate situations.
The difficulty curve is as ruthless as the theme tends to suggest. You can mosey along for thirty years having no trouble at all, when suddenly you run into a tiger and get completely mauled, meaning you must tread carefully at all times. You can see where other animals (and food if you’re a herbivore) are by radar (assuming it’s not raining) and are required to utilise this knowledge when progressing forward. If you fail to, you may dash headlong into certain doom more than you’d care to. By the same token, though, it is this that creates the excitement and head rush that will make you replay this title time after time, and most importantly makes the mechanics work effectively. You are constantly reminded of your place, and by making you instantly sure when you have overstepped your mark, the thrill of escaping a situation where you have done so is quite remarkable.
Something else you must factor in is hunger, as if you get too hungry, you will start to lose life. This also happens with toxicity, as some areas build smog which spoils food and poisons you over time, also eventually reducing your life total. With these extra considerations, you may think you’re too up against it, right? Thankfully, there is some respite in the way of random items that can fall out of any enemy or just be hidden on the map. The items cover several effects, but mainly reduce hunger, increase life, and reduce toxicity. Look out for the elusive ‘Magazine’ which cures all of your ailments, to be used in an emergency. There are also items of clothing you can buy/find for your animal, which offer you stat bonuses to make your overall life a little easier. Utilising all of your resources effectively and strategically is a key part in prolonging your victory over nature.
As you complete tasks in Survival mode and find archives, you unlock Story mode segments. Slowly but surely, these archives and story mode chapters will peel back layers of the mysterious surroundings of this apparent human apocalypse, and perhaps find out why the animals have taken over and returned civilisation to martial law.
Story mode is considered the endgame by the game’s manual, and in a sense that seems completely correct. Each segment can only be unlocked through Survival and they all try to personify the very abstract concept of ‘wild animal’ you’re generally faced with during Survival mode antics. To unlock new animals and species for you to play as, you must encounter bosses, with each type of animal having their own boss target. For predators this is usually a similar but slightly larger creature which you must defeat to unlock. As a herbivore, you merely have to touch the boss to unlock them, and the size difference seems to vary a little wildly in comparison.
The experience subtly morphs as you progress between animals. Your place on the food chain differs, and this means your entire approach to some creatures changes. Animals you would previously have quietly sneaked around, you can now go directly for the jugular. This slight increase in power instills you with more and more strength as you climb up the food chain, making life easier for you (but also reducing your score multiplier).
On the subject of score; Your score gives you currency with which to buy new animals that you have fought the boss of, as well as buy new copies of clothes (which get worn out in battle) you have previously found or won through the challenges the game sets during Survival mode, requesting you mark territory, go to specific areas of Tokyo and so on. These challenges certainly help keep the ball rolling and give each new game some extra purpose, greatly increasing the longevity of the product.
It’s prudent that I give an example of the kind of antics that can occur. Having found a mate and walked her towards the ‘nest’ to advance to the next generation of Golden Retrievers, I found a cow. Now, I could have easily ignored this poor cow, but I was starting to get hungry, so instead I felt like attacking it. My dog leapt onto its back, pulled a few chunks out of the cow, then fell off. At this point, the cow headbutted my dog in anger, then ran away far faster than I’ve ever seen a cow move. Not wanting to be defeated, I chased the cow all the way along the street, until finally it turned back towards me, at which point I bit it in the back again, then slashed it a few times to finally succeed in my hunt. After the feast, I had some victory intercourse and started anew with my offspring. Stupid moments like this are what affirm Tokyo Jungle as a unique, strange, and entertaining world to be in.
This one is definitely not for the ranks of PETA, as the sight of a dog eating another dog may put you off your lunch, but really it is just describing what is a natural phenomenom, on stranger and more dramatic terms. There’s also a chance this is too Japanese for you, as there is only a tenuous sense of sanity in the world of Tokyo Jungle. If what you want is an old-school, crazy, satisfying gameplay experience, though, I really can’t recommend this enough.