Toby: The Secret Mine Reviews
What's frustrating about Toby: The Secret Mine is that it feels like it's actually trying to offer more than the sum of its parts, but just doesn't quite pull it off. It feels too bogged down in its inspirations to present any exciting ideas of its own, and while it's visually stunning at times, even this apes off superior titles that came before. Some challenging platforming and decent puzzles make it one to consider if you're looking to give your Wii U one last Nindie hurrah, but otherwise we'd recommend waiting on a digital sale before diving into this dark adventure.
Toby: The Secret Mine has fair visuals and a decent level variety, but disappointingly relies too heavily on inspiration from previous indie successes to blossom into anything truly original.
Good game with very interesting phases with puzles and plattformers level. It's very similar than other indie titles as Limbo or Badland. But Toby is original in some gampley's mechanic. Also is very short.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Toby: The Secret Mine's performance is pretty good as a whole with only a couple of instances that caused me some frustration. The most prevalent of these took place near the end of the game while platforming on a series of turning buckets. After I had fallen a number of times, I soon found that after regenerating at the checkpoint, I couldn't even land properly on the first bucket, a previously simple endeavor. I first assumed that I was at fault, making some sort of micro adjustment to force Toby to slide off the bucket. However, after testing this at length, I found that Toby just wouldn't stick to it. I eventually had to reload the level to an earlier checkpoint, which resolved the issue but not after significantly testing my patience. For all of the inspiration that similar titles have leant to Toby: The Secret Mine, the game fails to do the most important thing: to establish itself and become its own. The end result is a mechanically sound puzzle-platformer heavily reminiscent of other games from the genre, but in a far more watered-down form. Additionally, at only about three hours in length with few reasons to replay save for a second ending (you can just play the last level again to get it) and only a few missing collectibles, Toby: The Secret Mine is not something worth playing before getting to one of the games it was born from.
Games like this, you’ll die without warning, which can be pretty annoying.
Toby: The Secret Mine has plenty of great ideas that could make it a great game, but it quickly plummets down a mineshaft thanks to a number of missteps. It generally succeeds as a puzzle game, but the heavy focus on platforming doesn't work well and hampers the overall experience. By following the basic visual style and gameplay from such a highly regarded game like Limbo, The Secret Mine sets itself a standard it's never able to reach.
Toby: The Secret Mine is inspired, to say the least. Its not its imitation of previous games that kills it, but its execution of those elements. It had potential, but you've seen this game before.
There are interesting puzzles in Toby: The Secret Mine set within a fantastic visual environment, if only this was enough to extend the game's short lifespan then it would certainly be a highly recommended 2D platformer but the game is so quick to complete that it rules itself out from being at an advantage point when compared to other games of the same genre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Is a platform game developed by Lukas Navratil Games that at first sight stands out for its artistic and visual effects, this remind us other titles such as Limbo.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Toby: The Secret Mine isn't a bad game because it's so similar to other titles. It's bad because it can't even come close to matching the strength of releases from five years ago.
Toby: The Secret Mine lacks inspiration and original ideas: it's a puzzle-platform adventure inspired by masterpieces like Limbo and Inside, but it isn't able to rival with them.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Although it does share a few good, similarities when compared to the inspiration, enjoyment is sadly not one of them, and if I wanted to play a Limbo-esque game I would just rather play Limbo instead.
While beautiful in some aspects, Toby: The Secret Mine fails to grasp its potential, and leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. It's short, way too challenging, and way too random at points that will frustrate even the most patient of gamers.
When compared with its inspiration, LIMBO, it falls drastically which makes recommending it difficult - especially given its current, buggy, state.
Toby: The Secret Mine is basically a more colorful clone of Limbo. Same pros, same cons, with some puzzles that occasionally pushes too hard in the direction of the "trial and error".
Review in Italian | Read full review
Toby: The Secret Mine can be easily pardoned as a complete larceny of Limbo – but it’s not as simple as that. When Toby does craft its own uniqueness, there is a lot to like.
Toby: The Secret Mine is still fun, even with the slightly frustrating misgivings that are present. The game has some fun platforming and some nice puzzles, and would certainly be worth one or two dips into the mine. Make sure to rescue all of your friends, or else the denizens of the deep might get you!
The presentation and story are fun, but the rest really doesn't stand out much. All in all, there are better offerings out there that give you more consistent quality. The puzzle-platformer genre is deep, but Toby is nowhere close to that.
Regarding the game’s challenge and difficulty, I would say that Toby: The Secret Mine is challenging but never frustrating. It’s a short game, sure, but it has a lot of fun to offer. The developers have managed to deliver a polished game on Wii U. If you want a good puzzle platformer for your Nintendo home console, you should definitely download Toby: The Secret Mine!
To put it bluntly, Toby: The Secret Mine plays it too safe. It settles for a basic understanding of the fundamentals, and does little to push the player. The pacing is appropriate, the adventure never becomes monotonous, but there aren't any inventive or exciting elements. Trial-and-error game design has its own problems, but at least more effort could have been put into Toby's death animations. Usually, he falls over like a puppet that lost its strings. In some cases, he doesn't do anything, and gamers are merely kicked back to the last checkpoint. If death is such an integral part, at least make it fun.