Tokyo Jungle

Gameplay

Tokyo Jungle has two modes: Story and Survival.

In Story mode, the player plays through missions centered around various animals. Eventually, the player will discover the truth behind humankind's disappearance. Pomeranian dogs are key characters in the story, as well as a Sika deer, beagle, Tosa Inu, spotted hyena, lions, and a pair of robotic dogs similar to AIBO.

In Survival mode, the player, or players (there is a local multiplayer), takes control of an animal and fights for survival against other animals for as long as possible. Tokyo Jungle has online leaderboards so the players can compare their survival skills against one another. Smaller animals will fight in groups, and the player's group can win fights against larger animals as long as one member of the group survives the fight.

The player will have to build up a pack of animals. This is easier for some herbivores, which means the player may not necessarily be at a disadvantage even if they choose a weaker type.

There are 50 breeds and 80 types of animals in the game. Animals in Tokyo Jungle include Pomeranians, lions, crocodiles, tigers, giraffes, hippos, cheetahs, chimpanzees, gazelles, chickens, beagles, Dilophosauruses, hyenas, Deinonychus, and Sika deer. As the player plays through the game, additional playable animals are unlocked.

There are other animals which are available for the player to download as downloadable content from the PlayStation Store, which include an Australian Silky Terrier, a Smilodon, an AIBO, a Peking Man, a (human) office worker, white and black Pomeranians, a cat, a panda, a crocodile, a kangaroo, and a giraffe.

Story

Some time in the twenty-first century, humankind is extinct, leaving animals to fend for themselves. The once busy streets of Tokyo are now home to lions, tigers, chickens, and various other animals. All of them are now fighting for survival.

Characters

After running out of pet food, the Pomeranian now has to fend for itself in a now-wild-and-vicious Tokyo. The bosses he faces are fat cats although one is fought by his children. He ends his story establishing a small pack of Pomeranians.

Two fawns search the hostile streets of Tokyo, looking for their mother. The fawns are separated briefly, and their reunion is short-lived, with one of the two being killed by a Cheetah, leaving the other to continue the search. His/her story ends with a series of cold trails leading to a dead end.

A hungry Beagle tries to overthrow a tyrannical Tosa Inu. The Beagle builds an army out of his pups to fight the Tosa. The boss he faces is the Tosa himself. The Beagle is killed by The Hyena.

The Tosa Inu is injured by the Beagle, and must escape. He then works to regain his lost honor. The Tosa is trained by a bear to fight better, and confronts the entire army of the Nomad Pack, and manages to kill them all. He duels the leader of the pack, The Hyena, and kills him. His story ends with him retaking his position, and is implied to have become a leader rather than a tyrant. The boss he faces is in one stage a chimp, a crocodile, a tiger and in his final stage 2 giant hyenas, a Smilodon and the same hyena that overthrew his master.

The lioness and her hunting party have to hunt the targeted animals all over the Subway area. The boss she faces is a kangaroo with 4 rabbit sidekicks. She ends her story going back to her family after hunting.

The male lion has to defend his pride from the roving male lions. The boss he faces are 4 hyenas and another lion. His story ends with him defeating the pack, allowing his family to live in peace.

The hyenas and the roving lions are planning to take over the beagle's territory. The Hyena kills The Beagle, and takes over his territory. The boss he faces is the Beagle himself. His story ends with him fighting the Nomad Lion for control of the pack, with the Tosa's story picking up almost immediately after, where it is discovered he killed the Lion, and runs away from the Tosa, who is trying to kill him. The Tosa catches up to him and fights him, and prevails, with the Hyena dying after one last attempt to kill his rival.

ERC-003 is a robotic dog resembling a Sony AIBO Codenamed "Lily". After being found by ERC-X with its family of two wolves, ERC-003 now has to scan all of Tokyo for the disaster signals being put out by the humans' underground facility. It then faces a moral choice of whether to bring humanity back to Tokyo, or let the animals rule. Choosing yes will end the game, whereas 'no' will trigger a series of final boss fights and what is considered to be the "true ending". The first boss it faces is the Tosa just as the Beagle's was. Unless it decided to bring the humans back the boss it faces are its former ERC-X pal, 2 Deinonychus, 2 Smilodons and the final boss, the upgraded ERC X named ERC X 2. It either lives with the future humans, or dies from its wounds during a fight saving the animals from being exterminated by the humans.

Reception

Ellie Gibson, writing for Eurogamer, gave Tokyo Jungle a 9/10, describing it as "basically Grand Theft Auto with lions". and calling it "a celebration of classic games, with their ridiculous plots, repetitive tasks, excessive violence and all. It pulls off the impressive and nigh-on impossible trick of being an original homage. Also it lets you set a giraffe on a bear."

Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek also praised the game, giving it 4/5 stars and calling it a "well-designed, supremely funny game". Klepek went on to praise the game's animal variety and the system for unlocking new animals, as well as the loot system and the story mode. However, he criticized the game's inclusion of certain animals as paid downloadable content.

In an interview with Siliconera, director Yohei Kataoka was asked about Tokyo Jungle's reception outside Japan:

Europe loved it, and we got a lot of great feedback from that audience, but [in] America… that simply wasn’t the case. We received a lot of negative feedback for the game.

Mobile version

On July 9, 2013, a grid-based version of the game titled "Tokyo Jungle Mobile" was released on PlayStation Mobile.