Tonic Trouble

Tonic Trouble
North American Nintendo 64 cover
Developer(s)
Publisher(s) Ubi Soft
Director(s) Sandrine Polegato
Producer(s) Grégoire Gobbi
Designer(s)
  • Michel Ancel
  • Frédéric Houde
  • Serge Hascoët
  • Gunther Galipot
  • Benoît Maçon
Programmer(s) François Mahieu
Artist(s) Stéphane Desmeules
Writer(s)
  • Stéphane Beauverger
  • Olivier Rigaud
  • David Neiss
Composer(s) Eric Chevalier
Platform(s)
Release
  • Nintendo 64
  • 31 August 1999
  • Microsoft Windows
  • 6 December 1999
  • Game Boy Color
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Tonic Trouble is an action-adventure game developed by Ubi Soft Montreal and published by Ubi Soft. Conceptualized by Michel Ancel, the game follows janitor Ed, as he drops a can of an unidentified fluid from his spaceship to Earth, which is transformed to a surreal version of itself. As drunkard Grögh finds and drinks from the can, he is granted powers that lead him to conquer Earth. Assuming the role of Ed, the player is tasked with solving puzzles and defeating enemies to surround themselves with enough tools to defeat Grögh and reposses the can to create an antidote for it.

Tonic Trouble was developed by a team of around 120 people, starting production in June 1996. After multiple delays, the game was released for Nintendo 64 in August 1999, with a Microsoft Windows version following in December that year. A Game Boy Color adaption of the game was developed by RFX Interactive and released in Europe in 2000.

Gameplay

Ed traverses a ski slope.

Tonic Trouble is an action-adventure game played from a third-person view.[1][2] The playable character, Ed, navigates three-dimensional environments through platforming and entering portals, while wielding a peashooter (used in a first-person perspective); new gadgets are rewarded as more levels are completed.[1][2][3][4] Gadgets are built by a "mad doctor" character.[5] There are six levels on the Game Boy Color version,[6] contrary to the twelve featured on Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows.[7][8]

Ed may jump, climb, fly, pogo, swim, and crawl. To unlock the ability to kick and slap enemies, he must enlarge himself with consumables.[3][7] The health bar increases from obtaining golden thermometers.[6] Fetch quests include collecting red orbs and other items;[3][4] solving puzzles can grant power-ups and help defeat enemies.[2]

Plot

Tonic Trouble revolves around Ed, a purple alien working as a janitor on his mothership, Albatros. As Ed finds himself cleaning the ship's "space oddities" storage room, he start hunting a bug, trying to squash it. Exhausted from the hunt, he proceeds to drink an unidentified liquid from a nearby can, but as he spits it out onto the floor, screws hit by it become alive, unscrewing themselves and opening a trapdoor they previously held shut. Ed lets go off then can, which rolls into the open trapdoor and falls to Earth. Landing on Earth, one drop pollutes a nearby river and causes the entirety of Earth to be mutate. Grögh, who was sleeping nearby, witnesses the mutations happening around him, including vegetables turning into hostlie sentient beings, and proceeds to drink from the can to also mutate and gain supernatural powers.

Shortly following the incident, Ed is contacted by Agent Xyz, leader of the resistance, and asked to travel to Earth to reclaim the can and clean up the mess he has made. Xyz continues to introduce Ed to the Doc and his daughter Suzy, who are set to help Ed in the mission he has been given, as well as Grögh and his associate, the pharmacist. Subsequently, Ed takes a small space ship to travel to Earth to meet the Doc and Suzy, but crashes into a snowy mountain, causing him to continue by sled. As he arrives at the foot of the mountain, he takes the direct way to South Plain, where he encounters Suzy. Suzy tells Ed that her father, the Doc, had been imprisoned in his cave by his own robot following the contamination of Earth, and asks Ed to free him.

Once liberated, the Doc informs Ed that he was building a catapult that could get one into Grögh's Castle, where they would face off against Grögh, however, multiple items required to finish this catapult had been stolen by Grögh's henchmen. The Doc instructs Ed to travel from world to world to retrieve these items, one set of six equal items per world. With every set of items Ed returns to the Doc, Ed is rewarded a new ability that he is required to have in order to progress further. While trying to get the last piggybank, from the last item set required to complete the Doc's catapult, Magic Mushroom, a previously unknown foe, appears to steal it. To access Magic Mushroom's Hideout, Ed is set to find 160 antidotes, which are scattered around the various worlds. Once done, Ed faces off against Magic Mushroom, defeating him and claiming the last required piggybank.

With the Doc's catapult completed, Ed is flung into Grögh's Castle, where he encounters Grögh in a mechanical tower. After being chased by Grögh across the castle, Ed engages in a final battle against Grögh and wins. Subsequently, Ed reclaims the can, enabling him to fix the infestation of Earth, ending the game.

The premise of Tonic Trouble has been compered to that of the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy.[9]

Development

Tonic Trouble was conceived and initially designed by French video game designer Michel Ancel, who previously created Rayman in 1995.[10] Ancel was laregly inspired by the storyline of Day of the Tentacle and the world-travelling mechanic from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.[11][12] Starting with pre-production in June 1996,[11] Tonic Trouble was the first project to commence at the previously established Ubi Soft Montreal.[13] The game was developed by a team of 60 programmers, 30 animators, twelve level designers, twelve 3D artists, and four people in the audio department.[14] The game's engine, known as "Architecture Commune Programmation" (ACP),[11] was developed by 50 in-house staff over a course of 18 months, with a total cost of US$4 million.[15] Using the engine, the developers wanted to take full advantage of Intel's newest Pentium II generation of central processing units.[11] It was also looked forward to making Tonic Trouble one of the first games to be distributed on DVD-ROM,[16] a rarity at the time.[17] The additional storage of DVDs allowed Ubi Soft to include a longer introduction and more music tracks with the game.[18] Designer Pierre Olivier Clement stated that the game's design team aimed at making the player rationalize every step they took, as opposed to only killing enemies in games such as Duke Nukem or Quake.[11] Furthermore, they opted to differentiate the game from its sister project, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, by focusing more strongly on the adventure aspect in Tonic Trouble, while Rayman 2 would build upon action, but still have both games be action-adventure games at their cores.[19] The soundtrack for Tonic Trouble was created in six months, by composer Eric Chevalier and five in-house sound editors.[11]

The game was first previewed as Ubi Soft's first Nintendo 64 title in Electronic Gaming Monthly's January 1997, under the working title "HED" (which was also the protagonist's name at that point),[20] and later listed on Ubi Soft's website as Ed.[21] By that time, the game had already been renamed eight times.[22] The game was officially announced by Ubi Soft on 4 April 1997, with a release slated for December 1997.[22] The company held an online contest to determine the game's final name;[22] the winner, drawn on 25 April 1997, was "Tonic Trouble".[23] Premiering at June 1997's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) for Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows, it was announced that the game would feature four-player cooperative multiplayer, as well as have a 64DD add-on release that would follow after the cartridge release,[24][25] however, representatives later stated that they would not want to focus talent on the development for the 64DD, as the device was still in development, and that puzzle-solving gameplay would make the game a bad candidate for a multiplayer game.[11] It was noticed early by critics that game strongly resembled the appeal of Rayman, judging from Ed's limbless design, the colourful worlds, and similar platforming gameplay, though renewed in 3D, in contrast to Rayman's 2D visuals.[26] Ubi Soft also entered into a partnership with Newman's Own in May 1998, which would see Tonic Trouble include the branding of Newman's Own Popcorn in-game and a free box of Newman's Own Popcorn included in the box of the game's Microsoft Windows release.[27] In November 1998, Newman's Own started packing in $10 rebate coupons for Tonic Trouble with four million boxes of their popcorn products, where the coupons would expire on June 1, 1999.[28] For every coupon redeemed with Ubi Soft, the company was to donate $1 to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in France.[28]

Tonic Trouble saw multiple delays, with its release being publicly pushed back to early 1998 by November 1997,[15] to April 1998 by March 1998,[16] to June 1998 by April 1998,[11] to Q4 1998 by May 1998,[19] and to 15 February 1999 by November 1998.[29] According to an editor at gaming website IGN, the version of Tonic Trouble shown at E3 was in a very rough state, lacking animation and suffering heavily from low framerates and stiff controls, though all of those issues had been resolved by the time they received a new preview copy of the game in December 1998.[30] From 9–11 October 1998, the game was also exhibited at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) alongside Rayman 2.[31] A critic from IGN noted that, although both showed great attention to detail, Rayman 2 looked "significantly sharper".[32] Early versions of Tonic Trouble were distributed as part of the software bundles shipped with graphics cards, including those of the Marvel G200-TV, Mystique 200 and Marvel G400-TV models by Matrox,[33][34][35][36] and Guillemot's MaxiGamer Phoenix PCI.[37][38] Around February 1999, it was rumoured that Tonic Trouble and Rayman 2 would be releasing for PlayStation,[39] with that year's TGS line-up also shortlisting such versions for both games.[39] In March 1999, Ubi Soft acquired a Dolby Pro Logic surround sound license for usage within Tonic Trouble and Rayman 2.[40]

Tonic Trouble was released for Nintendo 64 on 31 August 1999,[41] and for Microsoft Windows on 6 December 1999.[42] An eponymous Game Boy Color counterpart to the game was developed by RFX Interactive and first shown at France's Milia expo, from 15–18 February 2000.[43] The conversion featured the same cast and story as the main game, with the gameplay adapted from a 3D perspective to a 2D perspective.[44] Tonic Trouble was releaesd for Game Boy Color the same year, exclusively in Europe.[45] A potential sequel to Tonic Trouble, titled Tonic Adventure or Tonic Trouble 2, was originally planned but later abandoned because Tonic Trouble "would have not been a popular IP".[46] The only remnants of that game were found to be pieces of concept art created by Ubi Soft artist Yann Jouette.[46]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
GameRankings(N64) 53.32%[41]
(PC) 70.00%[42]
Review scores
PublicationScore
EGM(N64) 6.12/10[47]
Game Informer(N64) 7/10[1]
GamePro(N64) 3.0/5[2]
Game Revolution(N64) F[3]
GameSpot(N64) 3/10[4]
GameZone(PC) 8.5/10[48]
IGN(N64) 5.0/10[7]
(PC) 6.3/10[49]
(GBC) 6.0/10[6]
Next Generation(N64) [5]
Nintendo Power(N64) 7.4/10[50]

Tonic Trouble was met with mixed reception upon release, according to review aggregator GameRankings.[41][42] Tonic Trouble sold 1.1 million copies as of 2001.[51] Electronic Gaming Monthly thought that, in terms of level design, Tonic Trouble was "a tightly developed platformer"; the control scheme was similarly praised.[47] Game Informer wrote that the "wide variety" of gameplay and "solid" controls would be enjoyable to platformer fans.[1] GamePro commended the musical score and sound effects, noting the puzzles as what kept the gameplay "diverse" and "challenging".[2] Suzi Sez, reviewing the PC version for GameZone, enjoyed Tonic Trouble's "stunning" 3D graphics, "great" sound effects and music, "cute and fun" storyline, and unrelenting replayability.[48] IGN's Matt Casamassina considered the visuals to be "good", the characters and levels to be "well designed", and the music to be one of the game's strong points.[7] IGN's Game Boy Color review of Tonic Trouble, written by Tim Jones, described the controls as "tight and responsive" and the humor and visuals as "enjoyable". Jones thought the graphics, seen as "clear" and colorful, complemented the level design, adding that the sprites boasted "excellent" and detailed animation. He felt the music was also well made.[6] Jeffrey Adam Young of Next Generation approved of the game world and its blend of platforming, exploration, and puzzle-solving elements. In agreement with Jones, Young lauded the "responsive" controls as well as the humor.[5] Nintendo Power appreciated that the controls made the characters and world more enjoyable. The music was said to offer a sufficient match for the graphics.[50]

Conversely, Electronic Gaming Monthly blamed the Nintendo 64 for the game's visual shortcomings, criticized the boss battles for their lack of difficulty, and saw the music as insignificant, while also calling the main character "annoying" and camera system "confusing".[47] Game Informer disliked the graphics and noted some camera problems.[1] GamePro disparaged the "sparse textures" and "low-res and fuzzy" characters, whose voices were regarded as "forced". Their primary issue was with the controls for being incongruent with the camera.[2] Johnny Liu of Game Revolution gave Ed the award for "Worst Video Game Character of 1999", citing an "awful performance in the equally bad game". He slighted the "inane" story and unrefined controls, agreeing with other critics on the "irritating" camera angles and "jumbled" visuals.[3] GameSpot's Ben Stahl declared Tonic Trouble "a shining example of how not to do a platform game". He termed most the colors of the environments as "an eyesore", the graphics as "simply horrible", and the level design as "bland and unoriginal". Disagreeing with GamePro, the soundtrack was rather interpreted as "cheesy" and of low production value. Stahl expressed disdain for the lack of sound effects, felt the gameplay was "downright lame", and also met hardship with the camera.[4] Casamassina dubbed Tonic Trouble the S. S. Minnow to Ubi Soft's previous platformer Rayman 2: The Great Escape's Love Boat, observing the game's "generic feel" as its largest obstacle. Echoing Stahl, Casamassina found there to be too few sound effects.[7] Reviewing the game on PC, Vincent Lopez of IGN compared the game to Rayman 2: The Great Escape like Casamassina, faulting Tonic Trouble for being too much like past platformers. The camera was subject to reproval for how it would inherently worsen the gameplay experience, adding to his dissatisfaction with the "wonky" controls.[49] Jones derided the game's "shamelessly derivative" nature.[6] Nintendo Power complained about certain areas where "hit detection" failed to give effect.[50]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Matt, The Original Gamer (1 August 1999). "Tonic Trouble - Nintendo 64". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 6 December 2000.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Freshman (1 January 2000). "Tonic Trouble". GamePro. Archived from the original on 13 February 2005. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Liu, Johnny (January 2000). "A Disgrace to Janitors All Around the World". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 25 October 2004. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Stahl, Ben (24 June 1999). "Tonic Trouble Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Young, Jeffrey Adam (October 1999). "Tonic Trouble". Next Generation. No. 58. Imagine Media. p. 109.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Jones, Tim (30 May 2000). "Tonic Trouble". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Casamassina, Matt (13 October 1999). "Tonic Trouble". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Kornifex (12 December 1999). "Test : Tonic Trouble". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  9. ↑ Muldoon, Moira (6 March 1998). "Ubi's Tonic Trouble". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  10. ↑ Funk, Joe (February 1998). "Previews: Tonic Trouble". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 103. Ziff Davis. p. 53.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 IGN Staff (13 March 1998). "Tonic Trouble Q & A". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  12. ↑ IGN Staff (11 March 1998). "Tonic Ups the Intro". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  13. ↑ Hartup, Andy (8 April 2013). "Your favourite game developers... before they were famous". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  14. ↑ Ward, Trent C. (20 September 1999). "Tonic Trouble". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  15. 1 2 "TONIC TROUBLE, UBI SOFT'S NEW ACTION-ADVENTURE GAME, BREAKS NEW GROUND IN CHARACTER INTERACTIVITY". Coming Soon Magazine. 14 November 1997. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  16. 1 2 Wired Staff (1 March 1998). "Just Outta Beta". Wired. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  17. ↑ Russo, Tom (July 1997). "ng alphas: Tonic Trouble". Next Generation. No. 31. Imagine Media. p. 124.
  18. ↑ "Picking the Fastest Hardware Pony". Boot. No. 17. Imagine Publishing. January 1998. p. 17.
  19. 1 2 IGN Staff (27 May 1998). "An Interview with Ubi Soft". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  20. ↑ Semrad, Ed (January 1997). "EGM Exclusive: HED". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 90. Ziff Davis. p. 44.
  21. ↑ IGN Staff (3 January 1997). "Nintendo 64's New Mystery". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  22. 1 2 3 IGN Staff (4 April 1997). "Ed Slated for December". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  23. ↑ IGN Staff (25 April 1997). "UbiSoft's Ed Gets New Identity". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  24. ↑ IGN Staff (20 June 1997). "E3: Tonic Trouble Comes to...64DD?". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  25. ↑ IGN Staff (17 September 1997). "What Is the 64DD?". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  26. ↑ IGN Staff (14 November 1997). "New Tonic Trouble Screen-shots". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  27. ↑ Mullen, Micheal (27 May 1998). "Newman's Own Gets Into Tonic Trouble". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  28. 1 2 Johnston, Chris (23 November 1998). "Popping Some Tonic Corn". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  29. ↑ Gamespot Staff (17 November 1998). "Tonic Trouble Preview". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  30. ↑ IGN Staff (3 December 1998). "Tonic Trouble". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  31. ↑ IGN Staff (25 September 1998). "Tokyo Game Show N64 Game List". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  32. ↑ IGN Staff (8 October 1998). "TGS: Ubisoft – No Strings Attached". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  33. ↑ Ozer, Jan (December 1998). "Matrox Millenium G200, Marvel G200-TV". PC Magazine. Vol. 17 no. 21. Ziff Davis. p. 267.
  34. ↑ Mullen, Micheal (23 June 1998). "Tonic Trouble to Ship With Matrox G200". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  35. ↑ Sanchez, Andrew (February 1999). "Matrox Marvel G200-TV". Maximum PC. Vol. 4 no. 2. Imagine Publishing. p. 81.
  36. ↑ Downey, Sean (May 2000). "VCR Videocards". Maximum PC. Vol. 5 no. 5. Imagine Publishing. p. 79.
  37. ↑ Sanchez, Andrew (December 1998). "Voodoo Banshee Bonanza". Maximum PC. Vol. 3 no. 11. Imagine Publishing. p. 101.
  38. ↑ Mullen, Micheal (25 September 1998). "First Banshee Card Ships". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  39. 1 2 IGN Staff (19 February 1999). "Off the Record". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  40. ↑ IGN Staff (31 March 1999). "Ubi Goes Surround". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  41. 1 2 3 "Tonic Trouble for Nintendo 64". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  42. 1 2 3 "Tonic Trouble for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  43. ↑ IGN Staff (8 February 2000). "Ubi Soft at Milia". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  44. ↑ Strohm, Axel (20 March 2000). "First Look: GBC Tonic Trouble". GameSpot. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  45. ↑ "Tonic Trouble for Game Boy Color". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  46. 1 2 monokoma (21 September 2015). "Tonic Adventure (Tonic Trouble 2) [Cancelled Concept]". Unseen64. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  47. 1 2 3 Johnston, Chris; Hager, Dean; Davison, John; Boyer, Crispin (September 1999). "Tonic Trouble". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 122. Ziff Davis. p. 213.
  48. 1 2 Sez, Suzi (14 January 2000). "Tonic Trouble". GameZone. Archived from the original on 2 November 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  49. 1 2 Lopez, Vincent (17 December 1999). "Tonic Trouble". IGN. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  50. 1 2 3 Hunter, Kyle; Pelland, Scott; Crowell, Andy; Leung, Jason; Bihldorff, Nate (September 1999). "Tonic Trouble". Nintendo Power. No. 124. Nintendo of America. p. 142.
  51. ↑ Malaval, Philippe (2001). Strategy and Management of Industrial Brands: Business to Business Products and Services. Springer Science+Business Media. p. 298. ISBN 978-1-4020-7753-1.
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