Review: Topatoi
We bark up the wrong tree in Boolat's gyroscopic platform puzzler. Article written by Pixl1983 in PS3 Reviews, on Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 17:00.The PlayStation store has been host to a huge variety of games from the insanely bizarre to the sublimely subtle. Aiming at many different demographics is important to keep the money coming in and for the smaller developers it’s the ideal place to cut your teeth and try out fresh ideas. Since 2001 Boolat have been making mostly mobile only games and Topatoi marks their very original first venture onto the PS3.
Story
Topatoi is a platform puzzler in which you play Raph, a character that seems like he’s been plucked right out of the Jak and Daxter universe of long eared trendy bystanders. Accompanying Raph is a Professor and a nondescript female companion. Their journey to wherever it is that they’re going falls foul to that wonderful plot device, the ‘pulling the wrong leaver’ trick, which sends them crashing down to an unexplored land that, simply put, is one big giant tree.
Once they recover their wits the girl is swiftly plucked away by the game’s villain Blackwing (I know), which seems to have no effect on the other characters at all. The Tree is home to some odd creatures and their attempts to stop the baddies results in the many puzzles and traps you have to endure – this is as much story as you need to know, as it feels very much like a minor after thought. So thin is this plot that you could easily cut cheese with it.
Gameplay
The basic gameplay is all based around the Professor’s invention, the ‘Gyroscopic Exploration Multidimensional Multiterrain Apparatus’ or GEMMA. It’s effectively a giant spinning top you can ride in. The levels are very linear which is to be expected when the whole story mode wraps itself around the trunk of the great tree.
As the game progresses you gain abilities that fall into three categories. Push, pull and jump are assigned to the face buttons and a double tap results in an enhanced interpretation of the move once unlocked. A super push and a super pull either blast objects away or suck them towards respectively and double jump does exactly what it says on the tin.
Other elements are drip fed into the game including a fuel system and various puzzle concepts based around your abilities. The fuel concept adds a lot of depth to the scoring of the game, which is uploaded onto a global leaderboard. Whilst it’s optional to collect all of it, running out of fuel will see you restating the level from scratch and it also translates into more points.
Falling, which is the only other way to fail in this game, will put you back to one of the frequent checkpoints. It’s something you’ll be doing a lot of, as there are certain elements of the controls that don’t quite run as smoothly as they should. Using the L2 and R2 buttons speeds up or slows down your actions. It uses more fuel when fully pumped up so high scores require a bit of fuel management but when playing through for fun, it only causes frustration.
After every super move a small gauge is needed to refill which can also require a bit of temper management as it takes just that little bit too long, stopping you from recovering from that misguided jump. There’s also a bit of clipping and strange surface recognition that can often result in a cheap death or five. The enemies, who seem to be using the same strange mode of transportation as you, are nothing more than a minor distraction with AI set to barge the most effective defence is dodging and barging back. Thankfully there’s not too many of them.
Arcade Mode
After the seven levels in the story mode you’ll find yourself reasonably comfortable behind the controls but it’s only when you venture into the arcade mode that you get the idea that this is a concept with potential. Free from the trappings of plot and cutesy bright colours, the Arcade mode gives the developers much more room to stretch their legs. And it does the game wonders.
Going down a similar route to Mirror’s Edge, the challenges are a test of skill and speed. Requiring patience for some really tricky levels, it feels like this is a game that would have been better off left abstract and faceless. Games like Echochrome and Marble Madness let the gameplay do the talking and Topatoi would have done well to take note.
The split screen mode has the feeling of being hastily implemented and won’t distract for more than a few attempts of each of the five variants. Including an air hockey clone, two race levels and a couple of knock off arenas the bugs will seem greatly amplified in a competitive capacity. Whilst it bumps up the overall package, you’ll wonder why the effort was spent here when other, more important aspects of the game required a bit more time in the oven.
Conclusion
At first glance it seems that this game is one that’s aimed at the younger audience. From the bright colours to the simple puzzles that never leave you scratching your head for more than a microsecond you will feel inclined to file it under ‘one for the kiddies.’ But you’ll find that behind the bad animation and dodgy plot is a game that has sound ideas at its core.
The deep scoring system and the longevity of the arcade mode would help ease the pain of the tacked on plot but the feeling of movement and laggy response to inputs mean that it’s more of the same frustrations. It’s unfortunate that Boolat felt the need for an explanation to the mechanics as it only makes the experience feel shallower than it is. If you have the ability to look past the story and the bugs you might find yourself enjoying the concept alone. It’s certainly original, I’ll give them that.
Score: 5/10
Addendum: In the review we stated that Boolat has been responsible for mostly mobile games. We have since been informed by the developers that they are also engaged in developing mainstream and casual games for PC. The company has a developer team with eight years of experience in creating games of various genres, such as real-time strategy, arcade racing, quests, adventures and casual games. After releasing our PC projects the company came to a decision to move to console development, becoming one of the first East European developer and publisher for PlayStation Network. We apologise for any inconvenience this omission might have caused.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
joeybamboo | 12/07/2009 18:29
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152 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
i just bought this, its not that bad actually
yogh_wayne | 12/07/2009 18:36
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I haven’t played Topatoi much yet, but I like what I’ve seen so far. It’s a nice platformer. The story isn’t really of importance for the game, but it’s actually just a variation of one of the most classic video game plots: Save the princess.
A_R_M_O_N | 12/07/2009 19:37
* Banned *
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Thanks for the review
mark w. | 12/07/2009 21:25
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Good review!!! Thanks guys.
ghost5 | 12/07/2009 23:17
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hmmm… ive not played this game and probably never will do but did you take into account that it is a psn (cheaper than blu-ray) game as from the review i didn’t get that impression
AllTheApesEscaped | 13/07/2009 00:59
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But should distribution platform and, to less of an extent, cost (psn vs bluray) come into it? If it isn’t that great it doesn’t matter how you get it or what it costs – should any pitfalls of a game be put down to “oh its only a cheap psn title”? Just a thought
flatspikes | 12/07/2009 23:59
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thanks, been holding off on this one!
BadBoyBoogie | 13/07/2009 08:41
Let There Be Rock
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Thanks for the review.
I’d been thinking about buying this, but then got Battlefield 1943 instead! Looks like I made the right choice!!
3shirts | 13/07/2009 13:31
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5/10 – That’s pretty crap then
nofi | 13/07/2009 13:44
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5/10 is ‘average’.
Pixl1983 | 13/07/2009 13:52
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Thanks Nofi, yes, it is average. Read the review and you might find that for you it has enough to satisfy a purchase.
teabag_titan | 13/07/2009 15:07
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Mmm, lucky I thought to bag Battlefield 1943 rather than this.
nickert0n | 13/07/2009 18:59
* Banned *
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Hell yes. That game has already exceeded my expectations.
chilimacncheese | 13/07/2009 20:14
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LMAO…. “cut cheese with the plot”…
Onna76_NL | 14/07/2009 12:52
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I’ve got the game myself from day one and finished it entirely and don’t really agree with the review especially not with the score. I agree that there are some texture issues and the controls can be a bit tricky, but the experience, puzzles, sound, atmosphere and even visuals which aren’t bad at all as mentioned, don’t hold back from being a good game. There are games with far more issues than I’ve experienced in Topatoi and they got far more appreciated in general by reviewers. There’s sure room for improvements but calling off this game as average isn’t really fair in my opinion.
I haven’t regret spending 9,99 Euro on this game and really looking forward to the next episode. I only wish others will see the same appreciation and most of all originality of this game.
Onna76_NL | 14/07/2009 13:18
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Also as a 32 year old adult gamer it didn’t occur to me that the game looked like for kiddies only but I’m glad you mentioned that the game has enough core in it to even please older gamers.
MazzingerZ | 14/07/2009 23:36
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7 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I purchased this game and I like it, I’d give a score close to 8.
2 years ago we were buying Joust for the same price. I prefer this type of games than a bunch of 10 bucks 2-D puzzlers. Visuals are good, good presentation. you get 8 levels and leaderboards + Arcade mode which has 10 “challenge rooms”, also with leaderboards
If you like platformers this is a good one, any other might think is hard sometimes and I’d agree but for some reason I find myself restarting the level to try again until I beat it.
The physics can be a little annoying sometimes, the machine could have better controls, but after playing several times I find myself doing stuff I never thought I would manage to do jumping from side to site without hesitation and with accuracy.
It feels old school definitely.
I was wandering around the SCEE official blog trying to find info about the game and I was sent here by some nice gamers.
what feels strange is that this game is the first game from a project betweeb SONY and western European developers and so far it has only be relased in SCEE territory and SCEE hasn’t done ANYTHING to promote this game…
difficult to buy a game when there’re no gameplay videos, no developers interviews, no demo and not even a preview!!! the preview in the PS Store has only some screenshots!
The game is good and I don’t regret my purchase…I bought it to play it with my girls but I’m the only one playing it, this is not for 6-8 year olders, this is more for a little older audience, call it hardcore if you want to.
One thing I realised was that trophies are a little weird, if I recall right, you don’t get anything for beating the SP (?!?)…but all the 7 trophies are earned by collecting stars spread across the levels and honestly if I have to choose between dying trying to reach a star and restart from the last checkpoint if I fail or just ignore the star, I choose the last so no trophies for me
nofi | 15/07/2009 10:25
Wants a custom tag.
3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Thanks for the comment.
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. The lack of promotional support from SCEE on this is disappointing, and I did enjoy the game more than Nick did (probably a 6 from me, and would have been higher if it wasn’t for the tree theme which seems unnecessary after you’d play the arcade mode).
It is hard, though, and there’s some real sticky difficulty spikes, but it’s not a bad game at all.
MazzingerZ | 19/07/2009 20:22
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Wow, first time ever I get a reply from someone from a gaming site. Sometimes one wonders if stuff is published on the sites by BOTS
Glad to see you guys manage to keep in touch with the site members despite the site being big and recognized.
Keep it up!
boolat | 15/07/2009 12:38
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3 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Thank you guys for the interesting review and all your comments! We greatly appreciate your opinions about the game.
As a developer and publisher of TOPATOI we are sorry for a lack of
information on the Store and on the Internet before the game’s release. We
are sure that in some weeks every gamer will find all facts and information about our game.
colossalblue | 15/07/2009 12:52
Team TSA: Editor
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the novel and interesting game. We’re watching with interest for your next!
MazzingerZ | 19/07/2009 20:14
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That was a nice surprise! Hope to hear more about you and your plans for the game (DLC)
Finally some gameplay video out
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/spin-tastic-gameplay-topatoi/52918
ps. Still enjoying the game, at my mid 30’s and with almost 30 years of gaming on my back I can tell a bad game from a good one, Topatoi is good, Thx
double-o-dave | 13/07/2009 15:15
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I remember people getting confused & having this rating discussion not long ago.
In defence of ‘3shirts’ I can see why he could mistake this for a poor review.
5/10 for average probably is correct but can be deceiving.
This is probably how most people work out the rating: if you worked out the percentage of an average score from all ps3 game reviews the score would probably work out about a 7 from what I’ve seen so surely an average score should be about 7?
I’m quite happy with… Poor • Average • Good
Don’t get angry!
nofi | 13/07/2009 20:18
Wants a custom tag.
3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Our scores go from 0 to 10, so 5’s bang in the middle.