Tokobot is an interesting puzzle game along the lines of lemmings or pikmin. You are followed around by a collection of cube little robots and with their help you must overcome obstacles and slay enemies.

The key of the puzzle is to figure out which of your combinations and actions are appropriate to solve a given situation. It might be that a given enemy is best defeated by hitting him from above. In that case, you might form a circle formation with your little tokobots, and then do a jump - stamp to squash him from above. In another case, you might need to climb up a cliff face. You then get your little tokobots to form a straight line, then throw them forward so they create a ladder. If you make your tokobots go out on either side of you like wings, you can then spin them around, creating a tornado style of attack.

There really is a lot of potential here, and several of the puzzles are quite challenging. The music is light and friendly, again much like Lemmings music, and the plotline is straightforward and simple. For people innundated with blood and gore games, this is a wonderful, friendly style game with family friendly themes and no swearing.

That all being said, the camera angles really make the game frustrating at times. You might know, logically, exactly what is needed to do in order to get past a given enemy. However, because the camera doesn't line up quite right - and because the tokobots always align themselves to you based on how you are currently facing - it can take you quite a while to actually execute the move. I realize the PSP has far less control ability than a PS3 or other modern system. You can see that clearly in games like the Ratchet & Clank series where they tried to reproduce the same level of gameplay on the PSP as they had on the bigger systems. Still, since Tokobots was made specifically for the PSP, they should have been able to make the gameplay appropriate for this little unit. I expect to see these kinds of issues in a port. I don't expect to see them in a game deliberately made for the small screen.

Also, some of the save points can be rather far from each other, meaning if you're playing for a few minutes while waiting in line or riding on the bus, you can lose all that work. PSP games really should let you save anywhere, for that very reason.

Still, it's a fun game, and it's worth it to get used to the camera system. I love the graphics and the cute theme. Well recommended.

Rating: 4/5

Buy Tokobot from Amazon.com