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Toribash

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Developer: Hampa Publisher: Hampa Genre: Simulation > General Released: Feb 14, 2006 Players: 2 Website

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Toribash is a very unique title and will be a point of much contention among the gaming world, I'm sure. I'll tell you what it is before I tell you what I think, though, unless you just scrolled right to the bottom to read my overall recommendation before reading the intro, naughty monkey.

Toribash is a totally freeform fighting game. How can that be, the keyboard only has so many buttons, you ask? This isn't a fighting game the way you're used to thinking of it (insert "This isn't your older brother's fighting game" tagline here). In Toribash, you control a faceless rag doll with joints, in essence. By clicking on the many joints on your ragdoll's body, you give it form and movement and hence, the fighting.

Okay, some more in depth explanations: The bodies of the fighters are composed of the basics of human anatomy. There are limbs and joints and they will respond when prompted. Clicking each joint multiple times will scroll, in succession, through the options each joint can be set to. Joints start out in the single player mode (more on this later) as relaxed. Clicking on, say, the knee joint will set it to "Extending", clicking again will set it to "Contracting", clicking again will set it to "Holding", and then a fourth time sets is back to "Relaxing". This can be done to all joints, though some have additional options such as "Lowering" and "Raising" and rotating to the left or the right. This system, applied to about 20 joints across your fighter's body, allows for a great freedom of movement.

However, Toribash is physics-based... sort of. The game is based on complete ragdoll physics. If you set your fighter's joints to relax, he crumples completely to the ground. If you punch your opponent, like an astronaut going independent, you sail backwards through space with no way to correct yourself. So, working within this unique physical space takes a great deal of work as actions don't have reactions like their real-life counterparts. Along these lines, limbs can be broken and pulled clean off an opponent's body for big points, and a large part of the game is learning what kind of attacks and leverages will bring this about. Practice and experimentation is essential to success.

The game has two modes of play. In single-player, the gamer must play both sides of the conflict. Your opponent, by default, will do absolutely nothing. So, in order to practice moves, the gamer must hop back and forth, attempting to set up scenarios they might find in the multiplayer portion of the game. The game aids in the practice process by allowing you to see a ghosted image of what your fighter is going to do with the joint settings you've placed on it. This is essential for new gamers to figure out just how the game works.

Figuring out how to play the game is the single largest hurdle to the title. This is largely due to the severe lack of documentation that accompanies the game. There are videos (buried in the media section of the Toribash webpage) that explain how to execute a basic punch, kick and jump. These vids are extremely helpful, but they're just the tip of the iceberg. There's no documentation on technique or even game-critical abilities like grabbing. These techniques, and many more complex moves, are things that must be learned by browsing through the game's forums or by gleaning the info by watching user replays.

The replays are a fantastic feature to the game. They're very easy to create and share and, for me, the highlight of the game is in using it as a replay viewer and seeing what kind of crazy moves other gamers have managed to perform. However, they're not always enough to teach a gamer how to play, just to give a good gamer more ideas. Trying to read the tutorials on the forum was maddening for me, but that might be because I was being a grammar snob. The tutorials on the site are user-created, which is awesome because it means the community is active and involved, but it's decidedly not awesome because it means there's no official structure to it, so you'll have to just want to sit and read through posts until you find what you want. The kicker here for me was that, clearly, the Toribash team had the resources to make tutorials (they did create 3 basic video ones), but chose not to include an extensive set for whatever reason. There are tons of replays included, but no explanations on how to pull any off. It could be argued that there's simply too much potential for the creators to cover everything you can do, but there's more than punch, jump and kick to the basics and even those basic things should be included in your download.

The meat of Toribash is in the multiplayer. Here, gamers square off one on one to test their skills. Player ranking is measured by what level of Toribash belt you have received, which is a fun inclusion. However, the same problems that exist in the single player exist in the multiplayer. The versus mode experience consists of a lot of waiting while your opponent ponders their turn. Once you've each inputted your moves, the screen reflects the changes and then the cycle begins anew. The awesome part of multiplayer is the strategy involved. There's a greater degree of planning and anticipation involved in turn-based multiplayer combat. Where will your enemy's leg be at the end of next round? Will they turn away from you? Should you kick, or go for the grab?

There's a lot of waiting involved. Enough to scare off many gamers, in fact. There is a queue system in the multiplayer. Gamers are placed in line when they enter a game arena. They then move slowly up in the queue as the matches proceed in a winner-takes-on fashion. Each match can take anywhere from under a minute to around 5 minutes, which means that depending on where you are in line, you could have some sitting around to do. Watching is a fun learning experience, but it can be tedious, especially when, right as it becomes your turn to fight, the server lags out, everyone is booted and when you get back on you're at the end of the line again (this is not entirely rare).

Community involvement is key. Finding an experienced player and taking them on one on one is pretty much necessary (shoutout to Flexible_Fool for helping me). Noticing things like the very faint timer on the screen, or the fact that touching the ground with anything but hands and feet is a disqualification, is very difficult for new gamers without assistance. But, thankfully, those involved in Toribash are eager to see it grow, so they're very helpful.

Okay, let's get to my wrap-up. I've been sort of down on Toribash through this review, I know, but the game is a refreshing take on the fighting genre. The game is spurred forward entirely by user creativity and involvement. The only real problem is that it takes so much involvement to play the game. You simply cannot pick up the game and intuitively learn how to play it. It doesn't help that the game leaves you more or less on your own in terms of the learning experience. However, for those gamers with the dedication to learn how to play Toribash, it's great fun. There are little to no restrictions on what the gamer can do, and that's always a good thing.

Graphics:
Toribash is heavily minimalist. You get a white background populated by two stick figures. Character models are fleshed in wireframes with big, bulbous joints. This makes them easy to control, but not exactly eye-candy. Complicating matters further is that when you get two stick figures intertwined, it can be heinously difficult to tell what limbs belong to which figure.

Sound:
Not much here. The collision of bodies gives some good thwacks, but it'd be nice if there was more music for a game where most of the action is inaction.

Gameplay:
Contrary to a lot of what I've said prior to this, I'm giving gameplay a "+". Why? Well, just because it's not my thing doesn't mean I can't say it's done pretty well. The interface makes it very easy to see what each joint you select is set to do and the ghosting on your figure allows you to accurately see the result of your path of action. It's point and click. So, while gameplay can be very slow, it lends itself very well to what Toribash is trying to be: the thinking gamer's fighting game.

Concept:
Like I said previously, Toribash is a fresh fighting game paradigm. There are moves and blood and boots to the head, but it's not action-packed. It is entertaining… but it's more thoughtful than one would think. Toribash is, in the end, sort of like full contact chess and that's pretty cool.

Value:
Toribash on its own is almost too expensive. It's $19.95, which is not bad at all, but the game is so thin upon download. The tutorial vids aren't even included, you need to get those from the website. However, when you add in extra licenses (if you get three at once, the cost drops to a tasty $11.95), you get a party in terms of price and people. A fantastic idea to help spur an on-line community.

Overall:
Toribash was always going to be a "Try", quite frankly. Even if every other category was rated "+", it's a niche game. Some gamers will fall in instant love and become rabid advocates, some fans will find it too hard, too boring, too whatever. My "Try" recommendation for Toribash is a broad one, though. I think everyone should try this game. It's something new and it may really strike a chord with gamers.