Oh, the delights of childhood. Candies and fairy tales, rocking-horses and music-boxes; who would want to abandon such pleasures? Wait a minute... maybe, when creating Toys, that was all part of Japanese designer Mydia's plan! Build a room escape game so enchanting that we won't want to leave; we'll instead click aimlessly about, drinking in the sweetness, never gathering up the will to escape... simply diabolical. I applaud you, Mydia. You are a worthy foe.
Luckily, we are all escape game professionals. No time for sentiment; we've got a room to escape! Beyond its pastel cuteness, Toys is a compact, high-quality escape game that, if not exactly groundbreaking, is certainly enjoyable. Its puzzles are solid, though mainly variations on themes we've seen before; the player must collect mysterious scraps of paper, combine objects, figure out codes, etc, etc. Some outside knowledge is required to solve one of the puzzles, but a Google search or two should be sufficient to find all you need.
Unfortunately, the only original aspect of the game is the one I feel duty-bound to spoil. A prominent feature of one of the game's puzzles is the usage of stereograms, a form of optical illusion in which a three-dimensional image is hidden within a two-dimensional picture. I was initially hesitant to reveal this (as it is unique and creative, and it's always nice to preserve the surprise of discovery), but ultimately, as the game can be rendered unfinishable if the player is not familiar with this sort of illusion, thought it best to mention. If you're unfamiliar with them, you can learn how to view stereograms. It appears that the illusions do not change from one play-through to another; if after a few attempts you don't quite get the hang of seeing the images, another player will surely supply the necessary information in a walkthrough.
On the more technical side of things, Mydia does a very nice job. The game's graphics are well-done, the room charming and easy to navigate, and pixel-hunting is at a minimum; the only glaring omission I see is the lack of a save feature (which, in a game this short, might not really be necessary anyways). All in all, a high-quality production.
So, enjoy diving into this solid, if not stunning, escape game. Quaint and sweet, it might be the perfect antidote to the midweek blahs. You might be an adult, but go ahead:
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Walkthough:
Get acorn from couch.
Get screwdriver from shade.
Elastic from drawer.
Unscrew lamp, for a hint.
Look at all three books, note the stories and colors.
Open color coded lock on cabanet.
Green:
Three little pigs
3
Red:
Cinderella.
12pm
Blue:
I have no clue, but by brute force:
7
FunnyMan:
It's from a Grimm fairy tale I'd never heard of before, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (as in goats). The blue book shows the seventh kid, who escapes death by hiding in the clock.
Get handle.
Get other part of sling shot.
Asemble sling shot, and acorn.
Get clue from balloon.
under couch
use clue with book case to get coin.
use coin on gumball machine to get peg.
Use first clue to get crank.
Peg in the eye, then rock
To left of the horse, after backing up
Crank in music box for the key
The key gets you the last stereogram
stereogram goes in the door.
Top stereogram:
paw print:
dog
Middle:
Italy:
it's flag
Bottom:
8 x 4:
32
Explanation for the blue book added. -FunnyMan
Posted by: Serre
|
May 13, 2009 3:03 AM