Tokyo Scramble Review – Campy Dino Thrills

Tokyo Scramble is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive that mixes camp and stealth with dinosaurs to various degrees of success.

I want to start this review by taking you back to a scene. A spine-chilling moment, so unforgettable, that you will instantly remember it if you have watched that movie. A velociraptor instinctively opens the door to a kitchen, and it signals to its fellow carnivores with a hair-raising screech: their prey is close. Two kids hiding for their lives, their extreme fear palpable in their breath, chose the wrong shelter. What ensues is one of the most iconic chase sequences of cat and mouse ever filmed. To put it mildly, that is precisely how Tokyo Scramble feels: a vulnerable character escaping by the skin of her teeth.

To tone down the excitement a bit, it is not without its faults. Tokyo Scramble, a Switch 2 exclusive from the Ender Lilies team, feels very much like a late PlayStation 2 era stealth game. From its unimpressive graphics to mission-based structure, once you adjust your expectations, it ends up being a rather charming experience. I say this because it is also extremely campy, by design, and you can see it as soon as its main character, Anne, starts quipping jokes while running from a hungry dino. The voice acting, in turn, feels appropriate to the goofy dialogue, evoking the classic “You were almost a Jill sandwich!” line from Resident Evil.

The cinematically inspired opening scene poses Anne, a rising singer in a band, riding the subway in Tokyo. An unexplained accident occurs, leaving her unconscious. As she wakes up underground surrounded by debris, it is clear no one survived the crash. What’s worse, there is no signal, and, above all, dinosaurs akin to velociraptors are roaming the wreckage. Armed with her smartphone and her wits, she must escape this hellish landscape and make her way to the top. Over the course of 23 chapters, some of which can be finished in 5 to 10 minutes, an increasingly deadly number of species will hunt Anne to no end.

As a recent high school graduate, Anne cannot take these prehistoric animals head-on. Only able to crouch, jog, or dash, the game limits how long you can run with a heart rate monitor. Anne’s heavy breathing as she’s being hunted feels heart-pounding. When the dinos get a whiff of you, a sound vibration visual effect will indicate they are on the hunt. The choice to remain hidden in place or try to make a move to a different spot is always nerve-wracking. Making a run for it is a latent option, but the riskiest of them all. The dinos move faster than Anne, but making it at the last moment just before dying is an unmatched relief.

Tokyo Scramble is a stealth game, through and through. And you know what they say: stealth games are actually puzzle games. And that couldn’t ring more true here. The goal is to make it from point A to point B of each level unscathed. If you are found, there’s only a sliver of a chance to flee. I know that sounds punishing, and the fact that being caught means almost certain death can definitely frustrate some players, but that is the nature of the beast. Besides, reaching that coveted finish line does feel earned, mainly since the dinosaurs movement feels so erratic. As game design goes, it’s obvious that they have a straight path to follow, but sporadically, they’ll sprint, or scratch themselves, look around, or just stand still, making your sneaking about trickier.

Giant turtles, praying mantises, and dodos are but a few of the nightmarish monsters Anne will find on her journey. Never becoming predictable, Tokyo Scramble’s levels usually introduce a new mechanic to retaliate or escape more easily. Her phone will unlock different apps to interact with the environment, making it so rewarding to fight back at some point during the adventure. No more running around; Anne can trigger cranes, bulldozers, and flashes to either stun or outright kill some of these dinos. In the latter part of the game, you can even find more aggressive patterns, so players can breathe easy that it is not all stealth in its entirety.

What mostly won me over was how very campy everything is. Yes, the shifting around is methodical and precise, if a little annoying at times due to the trial and error, but the underlying narrative is pure teen drama. Told through text messages from Anne with her friends whenever she reaches a cell tower, it becomes apparent that there was a sort of fallout between them. Jealousy, insecurity, and intrigue are all drip-fed as the story goes on, eventually picking up optional collectibles scattered across the maps to get the full picture. This juxtaposition of an extremely harrowing situation and a teenage feud makes for unexpected laughs that make the whole journey enjoyable.

Fans of the genre who love to sneak around should not miss this one, thanks to its unique take on camp & stealth. Reaching the end of each chapter makes you exhale a deep breath without faltering, and the hopeful, if exaggerated, tale never ceases to entertain. Tokyo Scramble knows exactly what it wants to be, and it is all that much better for it. Escaping from dinosaurs is one hell of an experience, turning even wilder as the game introduces new species in a progressively surreal scenario. Its pivot to humor when the horrors abound ends up a winning formula.