French dev bringing Toki back with HD remake
by Xav de Matos 
{ Oct 22nd 2009 at 3:00AM } 
Toki HD producer Anthony De Sa Ferreira told Joystiq via email that -- while the game has no official platform as of yet -- the game has been submitted for approval for Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live Arcade. If its goal of resurrecting a classic arcade title isn't enough to get you on its side, Golgoth's motto of "2D refuses to die" might rope you in. Way to tug at our nostalgic heartstrings, guys. Check out the first gameplay footage of Toki HD after the break.
[Via GameSetWatch]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Giroro @ Oct 22nd 2009 3:11AM
I haven't heard of this game.
Ridgecity @ Oct 22nd 2009 4:29AM
You are not alone, this game is a cult classic. I'm glad someone remembered it and it's bring it back.
Richard @ Oct 22nd 2009 2:25PM
Ah man! this game was a rare find at the arcade, wow, back in or around the late 80's I think or very early 90's. If this comes to xbox live arcade or PSN I hope it has both versions, the arcade port and the remake. Sometimes the HD remakes are just not the same and sometimes they are better, so I like having the option to play the original too! A much better value too when you get the old and new. Looking forward to this!
dudemanreview @ Oct 22nd 2009 3:28AM
Awesome. Toki: Going Ape Spit was the 2nd game I got on the Sega Genesis. First game was Greendog the Surfer Bum.
Seanross @ Oct 22nd 2009 8:33AM
Dude! Rate up for Greendog!
ManekiNeko @ Oct 22nd 2009 4:27PM
It wasn't a very good conversion. The levels were completely changed and all the graphics came in two colors... brown and grey. Kind of like most of today's games, really.
You ought to play the Lynx game. It's as close to arcade perfect as the hardware could muster. Even the NES version wasn't bad, although visually compromised.
EGOvoruhk @ Oct 22nd 2009 3:29AM
Oh my God, I loved Toki!
This is one of the many reasons why I love XBLA. They could keep remaking all of my favorite 8-bit, 16-bit, and arcade titles in HD, and I would be eternally happy. I think Sega should open up a studio dedicated to this. I want some Sonic and Kid Chameleon
Worsel @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:30AM
I would KILL for a remake of Kid Chameleon and oddly enough, Quackshot. But then again I kill for things pretty easily...
ryan @ Oct 22nd 2009 11:09AM
Flashback: Quest for Identity anyone? I'd settle for a remake if not for a full blown sequel ala Mass Effect meets Uncharted. :D
Stevetrop @ Oct 22nd 2009 12:59PM
I was just thinking of a HD remake of Out of This World. I spent literally months on that game playing it and beating it over and over again.
Rawg @ Oct 22nd 2009 3:45AM
That actually looks really good graphically one of the smoothest looking HD remixes.
Andyh @ Oct 22nd 2009 3:57AM
Uhhhh! they better make the music better than that.
The music from the original was excellently dark - this sounds dire.
Neuromancer @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:37AM
It's a very fine line between dark and dire.
Ryoga Vee @ Oct 22nd 2009 4:10AM
Why?
Jigsaw @ Oct 22nd 2009 5:34AM
I was never a huge fan of Toki, something about it just kinda creeped me out, and it was ridiculously difficult on top of that. But man, this looks gorgeous! I almost don't care what the game is, I just want to support these guys for making a proper, great-looking 2D game in 2009.
nighttime @ Oct 22nd 2009 5:49AM
Great game, I remember playing this in the arcade. I miss those days.
doozer @ Oct 22nd 2009 6:33AM
Hmm.. well firstly I played this on the Amiga many years ago, it was ok. However this 'HD' update... well frankly it looks like shit. Look at the main character sprite. HOW FLAT is that? Seems a lot of so called modern re-inventions of classic 2D platformers are forgetting it's still supposed to have some 'depth' to the graphics. That looks like someone has hand-drawn everything to look nice in a kids book but not so hot on screen.
Personally I think the originally looks better because it looks like a game, and not an over busy flat cardboard-cut out sprites 'ooh look at my art skills' wank-fest.
Sangor @ Oct 22nd 2009 6:45AM
Have to agree with you about the looks doozer, the arcade original still looks way better than that so-called HD remake.
bm @ Oct 22nd 2009 6:59AM
Ok now you're just winging for the hell of it. If you want a 2D remake that makes everything just look worse, look at the Earthworm Jim Iphone game. What they did there was have some incompetent high school students badly trace over the old sprites, with total disregard of the basic graphical elements that made it good looking in the first place.
What they did HERE with Toki, this is how a true 2D remake should be done. Full of life and soul above and beyond the original. Who gives a shit if it's now celshaded, look at the video and tell me the original doesn't look miles worse. You must think SF3 looks better than SF2. Yegh.
The original Toki is a game from the early days of pixel art, where the only thing their barely capable graphic artists knew was "ohhh we have more colors now so we can make gradients!" And they did. Whether it was needed or not. As you can see in the original footage, any sense of color was absent, the animation was terrible, and everything had this bad "pillowshaded" look to it.
"Ooh look at my art skills wank fest", if that's what you wanna call good art, then hey. Fucking sucks to be you I guess.
Eh @ Oct 22nd 2009 12:50PM
What are you talking about? The original looks like ass even by 16bit standards. The new version is the best looking HD remake so far, they vastly improved the look over the original.
Maybe the key to making a good HD remake is to take games with bad pixel art and then just completely redo it without major regards to the style. Trying to remake master pixel work like Earthworm Jim or Street Fighter is just asking for trouble.
Gregory LHC @ Oct 22nd 2009 7:35AM
Oh man! Toki!
I had this on cartridge for my C64... Loved it!
In fact, I love it so much that I bought the arcade PCB last year and made an arcade cabinet for it.
Welcome back Toki :)
darkeyez @ Oct 22nd 2009 7:48AM
aww, how cute!
xFenixKnightx @ Oct 22nd 2009 8:40AM
AWESOME! I used to play the shit outta this one. Do New Zealand Story too!!!
freaparn @ Oct 22nd 2009 8:01PM
Oh man, yes please on New Zealand Story. That game was just bizarre. I'm pretty stoked to see Toki getting such a good-looking remake, I can only imagine what they'd be able to do with killer kiwis.
fred @ Oct 22nd 2009 8:44AM
The HD remake looks gorgeous. The whole thing also made me go wtf the entire time.
Lucas @ Oct 22nd 2009 8:50AM
I really wish they would make more 2D-HD remakes. Something about transforming old games into 3D on a 2D plain just loses the great feeling of the old games.
I DeX I @ Oct 22nd 2009 8:58AM
Yes, yes and YES! Although I don't believe I have played the original, I strongly encourage companies with this kind of talent and attitude to keep doing 2d classic style games. I, for one, would love to see a huge comeback of the 2d platformer.
Worsel @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:06AM
Well that made my day! I remember dumping so many quarters into that machine when I was a kid.
captainprotonx @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:23AM
Beautiful.
Glad they didn't take the TMNT: Turtles in Time route. Ugh.
2D will never die, and rightfully so.
Jonafun @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:37AM
Hory Crap! I used to play this at 'At's a Pizza in Newport, OR when I was a kid. It ate tons of quarters, because it was ridiculously hard. At least for a 9-10 year old.
Danny F. @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:40AM
Art Style seems similar to Braid doesnt it? If not it sure does resemble it.
Orion @ Oct 22nd 2009 9:46AM
Now THAT'S production value. This makes Earthworm Jim's "HD" iPhone port look like elementary work. It doesnt look like a retrace, but a reworked representation of what the world and it's characters would look like with more detail. It doesn't mean that the vines have to be in the same exact place, but that it just looks better.
Bravo, I'll buy this if only to give them support for doing the visuals correctly.
emperorzeroxx @ Oct 22nd 2009 11:27AM
I love how games are starting to do this trend of upgrading the 2D graphics instead of going to stupid 3D styles, sega you could learn a thing or two from these guys... I know you re released the old sonic games on xbla already but seriously you should consider doing something like this.... it would sell bazillions..
kid_ic @ Oct 22nd 2009 11:37AM
Dude, this looks pretty sweet. Let's hear it for more 2D classics coming to live and wiiware. I'm personally looking forward to the Castelvania Rebirth now that they've shown more screens and it's obvious they've completely re-hauled and updated it to look like Super Castlevania IV. Also, the new Bonk game from Hudson on Live and wiiware is gonna rock.
meatee @ Oct 22nd 2009 11:39AM
Wow, you could at least try to spam something gaming-related.
Warlock @ Oct 22nd 2009 11:43AM
Never played this game but based on the video it looks fun as hell. Definately keeping an eye on this!
Never @ Oct 22nd 2009 12:08PM
I cant be the only one who thought this was a new Metalocalypse game.
freaparn @ Oct 22nd 2009 7:19PM
To be fair, Toki is certainly *not* a bumblebee.
ManekiNeko @ Oct 22nd 2009 3:06PM
I like this game. It's the best Mario clone on the Atari Lynx by a wide margin, and wasn't too shabby on the NES, either (although the heavily altered Genesis version was a huge dud). I'm looking forward to this release... the new graphics are a big improvement over the arcade original and that much better than the low-res Lynx game.