Developer: Ubi Soft Publisher: Ubi Soft Release: 09/07/99 Genre: Platformer
Rayman was the surprise hit 2d platformer of the early 32-bit era. It was a bright star on every system it hit, even the Jaguar. But as with all things during that era eventually the limbless one would go 3d. But before his seminal 2nd adventure would release Ubi Soft would try a test run with Tonic Trouble. Obviously that was not the intention as they both came out the same year. But the gulf in quality between the two titles cannot be denied. Rayman 2 would go on to have ports to many platforms even as late as the 3DS in 2011! Meanwhile no one remembers Tonic Trouble. Can you guess why?
Ed is a janitor on his mothership and tuckered out from a job well done. He stops for a drink from an unknown container and spits it out. To his surprise the liquid makes anything it comes in contact with come to life. The screws come to life and open a trapdoor which the container falls through and lands on Earth. The container falls in a river and begins to mutate the planet, including Grögh, a drunkard sleeping nearby. Grögh becomes a superhuman and conquers Earth and now Ed must stop him to fix his mistake.
Tonic Trouble is an interesting case study. Coming from some of the minds behind Rayman it had glowing previews a year before release (especially from Gamer’s Republic). But it was heavily delayed and what was shaping up to be a good platformer became less impressive due to the presence of Rayman 2 from the same publisher, in the same year no less. Allegedly the game they created for Windows was too much for the Nintendo 64 which necessitated a late stage redesign. Whether that is the reason for the game’s problems is irrelevant, Tonic Trouble is a troubled mess of a game that does not live up to its potential.
Although Ed resembles Rayman he plays nothing like Ubi Soft’s mascot. Initially you cannot attack until you receive your stick weapon. Your abilities further evolve as you progress and the controls manage to keep up. Soon you receive a blowpipe that shoots bees from the first person view, a bowtie to fly in specific areas by jumping twice, a diving helmet to swim underwater and a cloaking device to shape shift in to other characters. The game doles these out at an even clip and entire areas revolve around these abilities. They also provide incentive to revisit previous areas to find unreachable items as well. As far as giving the game its own “feel” Ubi Soft did well in this regard.
I will give Tonic Trouble credit, they provide a wide variety of activities to participate in. Each world presents a new challenge that the doctor’s inventions play a part in solving. But the game’s lack of direction is confusing and the bite sized worlds feel stifling rather than freeing. The main hub is the only free roaming area and it is a perplexing mess of portals and hideous graphic design. Once you actually manage to find the world you must visit the objective is usually unclear. Tonic Trouble is a collectathon as you gather increasingly ridiculous items to complete the machine needed to reach Grögh’s fortress. Despite the variety of mechanics and puzzles involved in attaining these items it feels tedious and downright frustrating due to the bad camera.
The camera is the ultimate villain in Tonic Trouble. The camera is fixed with little room to move it before it snaps back to its default for the area. This leads to far, far too many blind leaps as you will not see the platforms you need land on or points of interest. Judging distance between objects is a problem up until the game’s conclusion. This is bad during any of flying segments, especially the auto scrolling flying sequences. Combined with Ed’s low center of gravity and sluggish feel and you have a platformer that never feels right which is the kiss of death in this genre.
Visually Tonic Trouble both impresses and disappoints. There are many imaginative worlds to explore imbuing the game with great visual variety. But the textures are blurry and lacking compared to the PC version. It is hard not to compare Tonic Trouble to Rayman 2 as the two were in development concurrently and released within months of each other. Yet there is a massive gap in quality as it is evident Ubi Soft rolled out the red carpet for Ray. Where Rayman 2 is sharp Tonic Trouble is dusty in comparison. To its credit the framerate is solid but that is the bare minimum standard the game should meet. At least the music is good for a cartridge game, they knocked it out of the park in that area.
In Closing
Tonic Trouble is ultimately disappointing. It was hard not to be optimistic as Rayman 2 was a delight even early on. The hope was that some of that magic would rub off on Tonic Trouble. But the multiple delays should have been a warning that something was not right. In the end Tonic Trouble is a footnote in Ubi Soft’s history and one we will likely never see again, and with good reason.
