Tokyo Jungle Devs Talk Where The Game Concept Came From and Reception

Tokyo Jungle is out for PSN and word on the street is that you should play it: it's wacky, quirky, but good! The PlayStation blog has a post on the game–which, for those who aren't up to date, is about a post-apocalyptic Japan (of course) where humanity is extinct and, you guessed it, animals have taken over. Probably what will actually end up happening sooner of later, really.

So the game has you duke it out between all sorts of animals: we're talking like, velocirapters versus baby chicks type crazy. Insert "oh Japan" comment here. Why would someone make a game like this? First: why the fuck not? But really, the game's director gives us the more intellectual answer:

Yohei Kataoka: In Japan it’s always been a universal concept of having a world without humans. And animals are also kind of a universal concept. So both of these concepts are quite popular, but I felt that if we could combine these two ideas it could result in something very catchy, very new and very exciting.

To me this concept sounds amazeballs, but the people he pitched it to, well…it didn't go over so well. Perhaps unsurprisingly. Still, people have taken well to the game–perhaps because it sounds so eccentric, but hey! The Yohei isn't complaining. He likes that people get hooked this way only to discover that yes, there's a worthwhile game underneath the weird concept!

Make sure to read the full interview here.