Continuous improvement
At first blush, Toki Tori 2+: Nintendo Switch Edition may simply seem like it’s the same great game we released in April 2013 on Wii U. But in fact, in the nearly five years since that initial release, we kept improving the game.
When we brought it to Steam in July 2013, we included achievements, a whole bunch of new puzzles, better presentation and even a level editor (that we unfortunately can’t bring te consoles). We felt the game had become so much better, we added a plus to the title.
Then, when we launched it on PlayStation 4, exactly two years ago, we included a new hints system.
And now on Switch, we again made a major effort to make the game better. Somehow, though, we kept our programmers from adding more plusses to the title!
So what exactly did we change? First of all, here’s our official line on what’s new:
Toki Tori 2+ is better than ever on Nintendo Switch, with lots of gameplay tweaks and even some new secrets and puzzle solutions. Plus, you can now create checkpoints wherever you like, allowing for easy experimentation.
Tweaked gameplay, new secrets and solutions
Buttery smooth graphics at 60 fps
Featuring in-game Achievements
HD Rumble support
Video capture support
Unfortunately, such a short marketing message doesn’t convey all the detail that went into this version. So let us elaborate on a few points:
A great Switch release
First of all we wanted to make this a great Switch release, plain and simple. Like our first Switch release, RIVE: Ultimate Edition, Toki Tori 2+ runs at full resolution (1080p in TV Mode, 720p in Handheld Mode) and at 60 fps. We also made sure to fully support HD Rumble and video capture.
On top of that, we built a completely new menu system that’s much faster than the old one, including our own in-game achievements implementation (again, like RIVE). So you can hunt for achievements on a system without native support for them!
Teaching an old bird some new songs
We added the possibility to create a checkpoint wherever you like. So if you want to experiment to solve a puzzle, you can whistle the checkpoint melody (if you’ve discovered it) to spawn a checkpoint. If you die after that, or whistle the rewind melody, you’ll return to the checkpoint you just created.
Additionally, we improved the fast-travel melody. It can now be used (almost) anywhere, so no need to be above ground and near a checkpoint anymore!
Finally, we took out the map melody. Instead, we gave you a button to get a better view of the world!
Plus tons of other things
After all these years, we felt it was time to go through the entire game to fix little niggles, and even add something new and better here and there. Our main goal was to make the gameplay more predictable, decreasing the chance that when you already know how to solve a puzzle, you’ll still fail at executing your plan.
There are so many things, we decided to list all our release notes. Warning: Might contain some spoilers!
Gameplay
Added checkpoint melody, spawning a checkpoint wherever you like
Completely overhauled the checkpoints system, they’re more intuitive and fair now, and faster too
Added HD Rumble to a lot of instances that didn’t have rumble in other versions, including ambient rumble in the crystal room and escape bubble sequence in Tower Town
Flying Toki (spoiler!) is a bit easier to control nowFast-travel / island map
You can now whistle the fast-travel melody everywhere (except in some caves), no need for being near a checkpoint anymore
Quick access to the island map with the minus button, removed the map melody
Stomp button cancels the bird’s eye view and goes back to the last checkpoint
Golden wings are larger, and shown 20 seconds instead of 7 on the map
Map shows golden wings permanently after all Ancient Frogs have been found
Better feedback in the few instances where it is not possible to use the fast-travel melodyCreatures
When dropping Toki in a nest, birds now have a ‘cooldown’, so they won’t instantly pick you up again when walking out of the nest
Birds don’t stop anymore when they sense vibration, making them less annoying when accidentically stomping near them
No more random sorting of creatures: they all appear on their assigned depth value, preventing smaller creatures from sometimes getting lost behind bigger creatures
Fixed the ‘spawning multiple camera birds’ bug
Slug corpses can’t kill anymore, so no more accidentally walking into them and dying
Bugs
When stomped, berrybugs and copybugs now always hop the same distance (3 tiles), making their behavior more predictible
Berrybugs now briefly stop if they detect an edge above their heads while walking on the floor, making it easier to stomp them onto a wall
Copybugs and berrybugs get stunned when they’re in the trajectory of a to be spawned bubble, so they can’t hop/roll away before bubble is spawned
Glowy berrybugs now use the same turn animation as normal berrybugs, so no more faster glow bugs
Frogs and bubbles
Bubbles now prioritize Toki Tori over other entities, so no more accidental berrybug ballooning
Added a small delay before catching an entity in a bubble to allow for catching Toki Tori, even if he’s a little further away than an entity
Added possibility to queue a ‘turn by whistle’ while the frog is running towards a berrybug, so you don’t have to wait before being able to let the frog face the desired direction
Fixed a problem where a fat frog won’t belch anymore
Achievements
In-menu achievements system, including progress achievements
Added a number of new achievements
Tokidex completion is now a progress achievement (you can see how far along you are)
Fixed the Fried Chicken achievement, so it’s less hard to get
All electrocuted entities now count for the X-Ray Enthusiast achievement
Menu
Completely new, streamlined and fast to access menu system
Ability to set language from menu
New font
Graphics
Improved presentation of telepathic Ancient Frog messages, fixed a problem where sometimes they’d spawn multiple times
Fixed black flickering when buttonbashing during fades and level transitions
Screenfades are now 100% black
Added button prompts to the first time you need to use whistle and stomp
Areas and puzzles
Added l-ife area for Ife <3
Added an extra landing stone in the wasteland area
Added more snow globes :-)
Water mountain approach: berrybug in the ‘pro’ puzzle can no longer be lost
Water mountain top: frog for Ancient Frog puzzle now starts bloated, added light to make ‘pro’ puzzle easier to execute
Shaft top: Small tweak to make sure berrybug isn’t killed by the slugs midway through the level
Water cave: made the light shaft where you need to whistle the hermit crab a bit wider, created hole for frogs at end of level to prevent them from falling down, made some ‘pro’ puzzles a bit more forgiving
Dark forest: lowered warp when entering dark area, so it’s easier to travel up with a bubble
Lava cave: improved bat puzzle
Meadow: made some pro puzzles less difficult
Hideout: removed alternative solution for Ancient Frog puzzle
Descent: made it easier to pick up fat frog at beginning
from GoNintendo
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