Toki is one of those arcade games I will forever remember. Fans of this ape game will want to pay attention here. Recently an independent developer created a hack for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version. Better colors and a new sprite await you.

Toki and me

It was in a Safeway in Northern California, right between a stand-up Afterburner and Shinobi. I would play Toki for the first time because someone had the Shinobi unit tied up and I wanted “next”. I placed my quarter on the marquee area and put one in Toki and waited. While I was not a fan right off the bat, I did find myself “trying” Toki more often than I thought I would.

In the beginning

Toki was originally released in 1989 in Japan arcades. North American gamers would have to wait a year to enjoy it. Over the years Toki has been released on home consoles such as the NES, Sega Genesis, and various computers. It has also seen release on some portable devices.

More recently there has been a remake of Toki for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and on personal computers. This remake is nice looking and one that is worth checking out. It is available on Humble Bundle and Fanatical often and at a great price.

Changes made in the hack

Toki for the Nintendo Entertainment System is changed a bit. First, the main sprite. The facial expression matches the arcade version much more now. His ears are smaller, as well as his eyes, overall lending more of an arcade look to it.

The backgrounds are more in line with the arcade game too. The NES is probably not able to match the shade of purple from the arcade game for the backgrounds. Still though, just them being a shade of purple is an improvement over the blue we got originally.

Player hearts have a deeper, richer, red hue, and the opponent life bar is now green.

Keep in mind, this is a cosmetic improvement. If you want a closer experience to the arcade machine on your Nintendo NES then here you go.

Grab the hack over on ROMHacking.net, unfortunately we cannot link to the ROM file.

Carl Williams

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