Stitchy in Tooki Trouble Game by the Polygoat BVBA

Stitchy in Tooki Trouble immediately caught my attention when I first saw its trailer, showcasing a colorful 3D art style and platforming clearly inspired by the Donkey Kong Country series.

Stitchy in Tooki Trouble

This was enough to pique my interest, but I was still cautiously optimistic. I had a few questions. Are the levels creative? Are the controls responsive? Is it fun to play? I got these answers after completing the game, and I can say that it is fun, albeit with some noticeable caveats. The story centers around a scarecrow named Stitchy, whose corn supply was stolen by the Tooki, a tribe of evil wooden creatures. Now it’s up to Stitchy to get the corn back and save his farm. It’s literally the same story of Donkey Kong Country Returns, but with corn instead of bananas. As expected, the story doesn’t play a major role.

Stitchy in Tooki Trouble gameplay

The main focus here is the gameplay itself. The worlds in Stitchy consist of some familiar areas: a tropical area, a snowy region, and an industrial factory. Each world looks great, being rich, colorful, vibrant, and with impressive backdrops to boot. The game also maintains its 60fps framerate across the board with no noticeable dips during my playthrough, which is important for a platformer. The music is decent, but the title theme sounds a bit familiar… Now, where have I heard that before? What else slightly irks me about the music is that there aren’t any tracks playing in the level select map screens. It just doesn’t feel right.

Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is a fairly straightforward platformer. You collect corn, jump on enemies, and get to the finish line where you’re greeted by a giant box of corn. While the main goal in each level is to get to the end, there are also two secondary objectives. First, if you complete a level under a certain amount of time, you’ll be rewarded with 1 to 3 stars depending on how fast you get to the finish. Second, there are three tiki statues hidden within most stages. Collecting all of them in a world will unlock an extra level in that world. There’s nothing special that stands out about them, they’re just quite literally extra levels.

While I haven’t gotten three-star ratings in every level, I did collect all the tiki statues, and it was hardly a challenge, as they weren’t hidden very well and were easy to collect all of in the first run. Perhaps if there were more types of hidden collectibles, I would’ve had more incentive to revisit some places, but once I found all the tiki statues, I quickly moved on to the next level. Handling-wise, while it is slower-paced than your average Donkey Kong Country-inspired platformer, it feels good to control, and I haven’t had an instance where I died due to unresponsiveness.

Stitchy’s method for the attack is to jump on enemies, but he can also do a ground pound by pressing B mid-air. Some of my favorite moments are when I jump on an enemy and then immediately jump on a few others later without touching the ground. It just goes to show how good the controls are. Stitchy also does more than run and jump. He swings off of chains, gets shot through cannons, and rides on minecarts.

What was this game inspired by again?

Joking aside, these parts do work well thanks to the good controls, but they’re few and far between. There’s only one minecart level per world and the cannons aren’t introduced until the final one. Even when these segments take center stage, they don’t do a whole lot to leave a lasting impression. Their levels are simple and to the point, not leaving much room for creativity or unexpected twists and turns. Truth be told, this is how I can describe the entirety of Stitchy in Tooki Trouble: it’s a safe platformer that does very little to stand out amongst the crowd.

While reflecting upon my time with it, I struggled to find any levels that blew me away by their design as the layouts of the platforms and enemies are relatively standard. That and the difficulty remains largely the same throughout. There will be more enemies and obstacles in your way as you continue, but I never felt a real challenge in any of the levels. The Tooki foes aren’t much of a challenge either, as they’re slow with predictable attack patterns.

The most I can say about them is that some of their designs are interesting, like this one that’s a bucket of fish skeletons. That’s actually quite creative. The only enemies that are deemed somewhat of a threat are the bosses, but they’re not the most exciting battles. As you might expect, you have to dodge their attacks until they expose their weak point, which you have to hit two times for each of the 3 phases. They’re basically giant waiting games. I still died a couple of times due to miscalculating dodges, and I would groan every time because that meant I had to go through the same waiting game again.

If the bosses had more health and more opportunities to hit their weak points, that would’ve at least been more engaging. Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is not outstanding by any means, but I’d be lying if I said I had a bad time with it. In fact, I enjoyed it. After all, the game has the basic fundamentals of what makes a 2D platformer fun: those being tight, responsive controls, and stages filled with collectibles and enemies to jump on.

If I had to compare it to anything, it’s like a rollercoaster that doesn’t do any fancy loops or twirls. It may not be original, but it’s still a rollercoaster you can have a fun time on. While Stitchy doesn’t do anything remarkable, it may still be worth picking up if you’re looking for a little snack to tame your Donkey Kong Country cravings. If anything, Stitchy in Tooki Trouble might be best suited for younger children before diving into the Donkey Kong Country series.

It’s easier to beat and it’s way shorter. It took me less than 3 hours to finish, with 33 levels that are about 2-4 minutes each in length. That said, a short playtime doesn’t matter to me if the content is worth playing. I LIKED Stitchy in Tooki Trouble. Though it’s a very safe game that doesn’t take many risks, you’ll still get a few hours of enjoyment out of it. There’s a solid foundation here for a sequel, one where I hope the developers flex their creative muscles a lot more.

Reference: YouTube