Back in the late ’90s, mascot platformers were all the rage. Spurred on by the popularity of Nintendo’s Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and other platformers of the era, many a developer took a stab at creating their own anthropomorphic mascot and sending them on a collectathon. In the years since, the genre has largely shrunk, but there are still devs like the folks over at Playtonic who are trying to keep the flame alive with series like Yooka-Laylee. Heck, even Banjo-Kazooie is set for a comeback on Switch when it eventually releases as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. If you can’t wait until then for more classic platforming goodness, might we suggest an alternative in Toree 2?
Developed by Marcus “Siactro” Horn, Toree 2 is a love letter to 32 and 64-bit platformers. This is especially true of the visuals—as the trailer so aptly demonstrates, Toree 2 is a beautiful low-polygon game. The graphics are bright, cheery, and perfectly evocative of the era from which Siactro is pulling inspiration from. Here’s the official synopsis for Toree 2:
Toree 2, the sequel to the surprise hit Toree 3D is a bite-sized 3D Platformer with more focus on the things people enjoyed in the first game like fast gameplay, flow focused levels and cute costumes (two this time).
- More late 90s low poly aesthetic
- Fast gameplay, flow focused levels
- Weird elements make a comeback
- 9 levels with unique elements
- Some secret characters to unlock
- The epic conclusion of the ice cream arc
Both this sequel and the original Toree 3D are available for purchase right now. Each sells for a whopping $0.99, so if you’re feeling trepidatious about giving either a try, the asking price is more than reasonable. If you’re interested in old-school low-poly games like this, the first Toree was released as part of the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc compilation from earlier this year. Haunted PS1 is a community of developers that work to create games (typically focused on horror but not exclusively) that are in the spirit of early PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64 games. You can give them a look right here.
If you’re interested in downloading Toree 2 feel free to click this link.
Source: Siactro Twitter Page