Does Speeding Up Ruin The Game? | Toree Saturn Review

If you are someone who loves to hunt down short, low-cost indie titles, you might have already heard the name Toree. A cute little bird that runs really fast. If you are familiar with Toree, you might know that the first few games were a dollar and offered a short journey. This title is the latest release and a bit more costly compared to his previous games. 

What is a Toree?

Toree is a small, round, yellow bird. He's stylized with a backpack and a pair of cool shades. The game is dripping in the 90’s and Y2K visuals that inspired the quick-paced game. Bold colors and low-poly everything show that the devs went in with a style choice and stuck to it. 

The franchise is focused on short levels, built around speed. Go fast, jump around, and grab stars. The courses are filled with launch pads, speed boosters, and wind tunnels. Toree really seems to be aiming for the Sonic’s Son spot. 

He is a fragile little thing, running into an enemy will cause you to go back to your last checkpoint. Luckily, there are a few things that have been upgraded with Saturn compared to previous titles. You can focus more on Toree and avoiding dangers rather than focusing on your fingers on the controller. There is now no run button! No need to destroy your thumb by holding down a button. There is also a single input for the entire game. Toree just needs to run and jump. Hold forward to run; the joystick is all you need to guide him. The jump button will send you flying in the air, give you a double jump, and surge towards a locked-on target. 

Go an extra step and see if you can grab all three ice creams before finishing the course. The goal is to try and get all the stars scattered on the level, collect the three ice creams, and get to the finish line as quickly as possible. At the end of each level, you will earn a letter grade based on how well you helped Toree. 

There is a micro story that seems to go along with the game. Toree is facing off against an enemy, racing to see who is faster. You get to play a few levels as the other speedster; he handles the same as Toree, so it’s just an aesthetic change. 

Negatives

The issues come in the form of cash to content. Toree Saturn is selling on Steam for $4.99. This is a typical price for a small indie game, but how small is okay? My time with Toree was slightly over an hour. I redid a bunch of the levels to get a better score, clean up the ice creams I missed, and see if a redo would get me a faster time. This seems pretty in line with other players' timeframes of the game being about an hour long. 

Many will see this as being too short for $5. This only gets reinforced by the fact that the previous titles are only $0.99 and are also about an hour long. These 99-cent games were seen as a steal. An eshop/steam hidden gem that you can pick up for less than a Costco hotdog and enjoy your time with, ending with full satisfaction. Jumping up to the price of a $5 meal deal from McDonald's and getting a game that you can roll credits on before finishing off the fries just doesn’t hit the same. Many negative Steam comments are people voicing their displeasure for the shortness of the game and regrets for buying it at full price. 

There is also the issue of many players running into frame drops. In a game like this, it is far more noticeable than in, say, a turn-based game. Having to restart from a checkpoint is quick, but it’s still incredibly frustrating when it doesn’t feel like your fault. The levels are also not as impressive, lacking the dynamics of the previous titles. Many voices backed the idea that the need to make Toree rival the speed of sound was to the detriment of the game. The game feels like it plays itself in a lot of sections. Holding forward and spamming the jump button will get you to the finish line. No level makes you think, and are forced to be pretty linear in order to have Toree maintain a high speed. 

Ending Thoughts

My ending thoughts are that this game is too highly priced to justify recommending at full price. If Toree Saturn goes on sale to match the one-dollar price tag of the previous games, then I think it’s a good buy. I think it’s fun, but there are other games that focus on speed that I enjoy more. I do plan on getting ahold of the other Toree games to see how this one fares compared to the whole series. 

I think this ends with a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The game is too short for the price. It feels like it plays itself - so zero skill expression.