In Toby: The Secret Mine you play as Toby and you go out on a quest to rescue your friends from the clutches of these big red-eyed creatures. Throughout your journey, you'll have to run and jump through a dark 2D world with a fitting soundtrack and solve several puzzles along the way while rescuing as many of your friends as possible.
It pains me to say this but only the first half of the game was actually enjoyable. When you start you are put in different situations that actually make you stop, think, and look for the right way to go forward. One of the best feelings while playing this game is finding passages cleverly hidden by the black silhouetted background and platforms. However, all of this gets overshadowed when trial and error sections start to appear.
When you reach a certain level almost all your progress will be achieved by trial and error, resulting in a very frustrating experience. My guess is that these sections only exist to extend the gameplay time since to beat Toby: The Secret Mine only takes roughly 3 hours! I think it would've been better if they spent more time developing more fun levels like the first ones where if I fail I know it's my fault and not die just because I took a single step. Also, sometimes you'll have to solve some puzzles that feel so out of place I had no idea how to solve them.
One thing I did like was the last level, it was a bit frustrating but it was fair and relied on skill. Plus the flaming background coupled with the dark silhouetted platforms and characters looked beautiful. Furthermore, giving us two different endings was clever since it made me want to go back to that last level again.
By the end of my playthrough, I had died more than 300 times and had found 21 out of 26 of Toby's kidnapped friends, I could try and go find the rest but honestly, I don't feel like revisiting most of the levels.
So, is Toby: The Secret Mine worth it? Visually and soundwise it's very appealing and when you start playing it sucks you in! However, most of the trial and error sections could be removed and replaced with a much cleaver level design like the first levels. I like when a game offers you a challenge but it has to feel fair, I like to know that I died because of my mistake and that I can improve and go forward but in Toby, I had too many times where I felt the opposite. But if this is your type of game give it a try!
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