Review: Togges (Nintendo Switch)

Togges begins with an outrageously dramatic backstory. Star Wars-style scrolling text accompanied by a booming narrator sets the scene. This introduces the game’s sense of humor from the very first moments. Throughout, Togges has cleverly written dialogue that ranges from dry workplace satire to space dragon absurdity to meta humor acknowledging that it’s a game. The juxtaposition of the adorable design style with the dark, universe-destroying story leans into the silliness.

You play as a circular vacuum robot named Toomba. You drop into a bright, blocky world and are paraded in front of the King at your job interview to be his intern. After completing some quick tests, you join him in dominating the universe to prevent it being consumed by the void.

The tutorial is fun and the controls are easy to pick up. You create a trail of blocks – the titular Togges – around the world to collect seeds and fruit. The Togges can help you navigate to new areas of the map by stacking to form a platform or getting across obstacles like water or spikes. There are a number of different coloured Togges that each have different functions. As you explore the universe, you vacuum up the dark clouds of the void, along with collecting the fruit, seeds and Togges letters scattered around.

The universe is made up of planetoids with unique and exciting features. Each has a handy counter to track how many collectibles you have left to find. Each also has a goal – finding the ruler of that world to gain their alliance in the battle against the void. This means you can move onto the next world as soon as you’ve hit that primary goal, but can always come back to find any leftover goodies.

Togges encourages you to be creative in exploring. There is no one single way to complete levels. You’re left to your own devices to work out how you want to get to each prize. You can’t do everything just with the Togges either. You have to think about how you can use them to manipulate the world around you to get what you need. If you want to 100% the game, you will need quick reflexes and sharp thinking to reach the more elusive ones.

There are some elements that could be a bit more refined. Some of the instructions can be vague and the hint function isn’t terribly helpful. The camera sometimes resists control and at other times lands in an unhelpful place. But these are ultimately minor issues that a lot of indie games have. They’re easy to circumnavigate and they certainly are not game-breaking. If anything, they add some extra challenge to a game designed to flex your creative muscles.

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