Togges review for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, Xbox

How would Katamari work as a 3D platformer? I’m not sure that’s a thought I’ve ever had in my life, but judging by Togges, some folks somewhere did, and the answer is: not too badly, though a little frustratingly.

I’m probably oversimplifying Togges and overlooking other obvious influences, but the gist of the game is that you’re a Roomba – sorry, a “Toomba” – working on behalf of the King of All Cosmos President to save the universe from falling into the void. You do that by collecting blocks that are also called Togges (hence the title), and you use the Togges to connect wherever you’re starting to various points of interest.

The good news is that you have quite a few of those blocks to begin with in Togges, and the further in you get, the more abilities and blocks you gain. Different Togges can do different things, whether it’s indestructible black Togges or bigger yellow Togges, and all play a role in helping you solve the game’s many – many, many, many – puzzles.

And that’s both the good and bad thing about Togges: there are a ridiculous number of things to do in each level, and you’re rarely given a lot of direction. It all feels overwhelming, since Togges is content to plop your Toomba down at the starting point, and leave you to figure out everything else from there. While it’s interesting to see a game that’s so willing to leave it up to players to decide how they want to tackle everything, it can also feel a little daunting, and it means that you’ll frequently end up brute-forcing your way through puzzles by throwing blocks every which way. I don’t necessarily disapprove of brute-forcing puzzles, but in this case, it feels like that’s kind of the default method of solving everything.

Still, if you’re looking for inventiveness, Toggles has that in spades – as you’d expect from a game that’s influenced by Katamari. There are definitely worse issues to have than giving players too much freedom, so if that’s the biggest complaint to be leveled here, it means that Togges might just be worth checking out.

Thunderful provided us with a Togges Switch code for review purposes.