$20 Game of the Week: Tokyo Jungle (Playstation 3 Network)

Tokyo Jungle is one of the more unique games lurking around the Playstation Network. It’s weird and sometimes repetitive, but how many games have you played that let you play as a Pomeranian? Well, this title not only lets you take control of a Pomeranian, but you also get to play as dozens of other animals. Tokyo Jungle was released as a retail disc in Japan. However, it came over here as a downloadable title, and is better off for it. While it is a good package, it’s not something most gamers would pay full price for.

Tokyo Jungle takes place in, well, Tokyo. 10 years before the start of the game, a mysterious event caused all the humans to disappear, leaving the animals in charge. Lions escaped from the zoo, house-pets turned wild, and wild vegetation took over as the streets and buildings decayed and society reduced to survival of the fittest, urban style. Each of the game’s animals are either carnivores of herbivores. Carnivores have to eat meat, so they must hunt and kill other animals to survive. Herbivores can eat plants, but are generally weaker than carnivores and must rely on stealth in order to avoid predators. Your goal is to take over a territory, find a mate, and reproduce. The children will inherit the parent’s stats. Make sure you eat regularly, or you’ll starve to death. After the game’s tutorial, you can take control of either a Sika Deer or the aforementioned Pomeranian. The rest of the animals have to be unlocked in the game’s survival mode. Strangely enough, you also have to unlock parts of the story in the survival mode. This might put off people who want to jump into the story, but the survival mode’s arcade style action will have players hooked. It’s fun to hunt down and kill other animals once you build up your Pomeranian. Of course you’ll also play as even bigger and stronger animals as well. Even more are available as DLC.

Releasing Tokyo Jungle as a downlodable title was a good move on Sony’s part. It’s a fun and unique gaming experience that Playstation 3 owners will want to check out, and the price is right to jump in. And jump in you should. I mean, you can play as a POMERANIAN! That beats Last of Us,God of War, Killzone, Uncharted, and Beyond any day of the week.