A while ago I played through Toree 3D and I had fun. It's not the best game out there, but it's still a fun time.
See, Toree 3D is a game not particularly known for being a good game, but for being a good one dollar game. However, as someone who doesn't mind paying 60 dollars for a 5 hour game, I'm here to try and look at it in an objective way.
Toree 3D is essentially the best parts of a 3D Sonic game, without anything extra. It's a fast-paced platformer where you play as a funny little chicken and you can't do anything but run. The entire game you're just running and jumping through the levels without worrying about anything else. New obstacle? Jump over it. New enemies? Run away from them. Some creepy stuff happening in the background? Just ignore it and race to the finish. This game knows what it wants to do, and it does it well.
While the movement mechanics are really smooth and fun to control (though the jumps may take a bit getting used to at the beginning), I can't really say the same about the level design. Some of the levels are great sequences of platforming challenges where you're just blazing through the world, and a few others are filled with RNG-dependant jumps and waiting segments. It's not all of them, I would say about 4 of them , but when the game has less than 15 levels in total, those bad levels feel very impactful.
I really like the presentation. It's full of saturated colors and cute low-poly models. Everything looks so happy and vibrant and it fits the fast-paced gameplay perfectly. The music is also really good, although a bit forgettable for me.
And when it comes to the story, the game allegedly has one. From what I gather, the story's that this one reaper stole Toree's ice cream and now you're racing through levels to try and catch him and get your ice cream back. I think that's cute! It's simple and is mentioned like two times in the entire game. It fits the theme of "Only focus on the gameplay" the game has going for it, and I like that.
But now let's adress the elephant in the room, because Toree 3D is actually a horror game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i guess.
See, the story behind the game is that it was developed not as a tribute to PS1-era platformers, but as a haunted PS1 game. It originated from a short game compilation called Haunted PS1 Demo Disc 2021 where indie developers would make short horror games in a PS1 style and submit them to the itch.io page. And while a few of the horror elements do add some flavor to Toree 3D every once in a while, I also feel like the game tries way too hard on them and they end up beign super annoying, so in the end it hurts the overall experience.
Just like the level design, the horror elements are really hit or miss. I love a lot of the haunted elements of the game, like how the Reaper antagonist doesn't really fit in Toree's world but still keeps the same low-poly aesthetic, or how the final level is a glitched amalgam of the previous levels made by this same antagonist. But I also don't think the game would be worse if these horror parts didn't exist.
In conclusion: Toree 3D is not that great of a game, and I think people just praise it for its low price. It has great gameplay mechanics, but is held back by an unstable level design and a horror game aesthetic that takes over the game too aggressively. Is it fun? Yes, absolutely, but if you, like me, don't take a game's price into consideration when playing them, then it's a totally average game. 6/10
