Tookie's Song

by Jessica Knoch

Alien Visitation
2002

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Cats & Dogs, January 16, 2024
by Rovarsson (Belgium)

Alien Cat Beings from Extra-Terrestrial Outer Space have dognapped your dearest Tookie! And they have a remarkable propensity for subjecting dog-rescuing humans (point in case: you) to riddles, math problems, and other tests of wit.

Tookie's Song starts off with a brilliant first puzzle. (Spoiler - click to show)A simple and elegant bit of misdirection. Most of the other puzzles are more standard adventure fare, several having alternate solutions, and some requiring a bit of thinking around the corner. An algebra calculation can be solved independently by the player, but in-game resources are available to make the calculation for you. There's a riddle, but its solution is so obviously clued that those who don't know it can easily deduce the answer so it doesn't lead to an annoying out-of-game web-search.

A mostly symmetrical hub-and-spokes map offers four areas of puzzle solving. They're not completely self-contained, so if an obstacle stumps you, just explore a bit more and the answer will be obvious when you find the requisite item. The descriptions of the rooms are short but evocative, appealing to different senses.
The seasonal theme of the spokes seems to be completely arbitrary, but it lends atmosphere and a bit more depth to the different puzzle-areas.
The implementation is on the shallow side, but everything important is well-described. Trying to manipulate irrelevant objects quickly sets the player straight with a funny slap on the wrist.

The cat-aliens you meet have distinct personalities. Especially Gus the Bartending Cat is a pleasure to chat with for a while. And when you have to bend your personal ethics a bit to get past an NPC, it helps if he’s clearly described as a smug bastard (in this instance: Eddie).

The writing is snappy, funny, upbeat. I often got a smile out of some entertaining turn of phrase or an amusing remark by one of the cats.

A fun bit of entertainment, good for an hour or so of lighthearted puzzle-solving. I liked it.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A fun and silly 4-area puzzlefest with cat aliens and a lost dog, February 3, 2016

This game is just a silly puzzle adventure with four separate areas, each with their own solution, which sometimes combine.

The puzzles are fun. As discussed on IFwiki, the first puzzle (which was too hard for me, but cool) is taken from a D&D module. There is also a classic math puzzle, and a riddle taken from The Hobbit.

There are also some other clever features. I enjoyed the bowling game, where you bowl 20 times (it can get tedious, but it's also fun). The descriptions were beautiful. Some of the capabilities of the game and its NPCs weren't made clear, but if you ask everyone about each other, it should help.

There are three endings, depending on how many optional quests you did.

Fun for puzzle fans.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Quirky and Fun, July 31, 2009

Tookie's Song is a lighthearted and enjoyable piece of work. It is mainly a puzzle piece; there isn't much at all in the way of story development except the beginning premise (you must rescue your dog that was kidnapped by cat-like aliens) and the endgame. While I normally don't like games like this, the funny writing, amusing characterization of the NPCs and interesting world kept me with this one.
The puzzles are of varying difficulty, some quite easy and others rather difficult IMO (but then again, puzzles are not my strong suite). If you do have trouble, there is a well-done set of hints for each puzzle that progresses from gentle nudges to explicit solutions.
One of my favorite things about the game was the quirky modifications of Inform's standard messages. Several had me laughing out loud. However, a couple of these responses were a mixed bag; while they were funny, they also lessened the feeling of immersion in the game world (for example, (Spoiler - click to show) asking one of the aliens about the game responds with something like "Yup, this world was created just for you.").
I was slightly disappointed with the ending. (Spoiler - click to show)After spending so much time trying to rescue my pet and worrying about his safety, I am essentially double-crossed by said pet.
On the whole, Tookie's Song is excellent if you're looking for an amusing diversion and interesting puzzles, but probably not what you want if you're looking for an intensive story or "literary" work.

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2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
I'm Afraid Not, July 23, 2009
by AmberShards (The Gothic South)

The game starts off cutely and then right after that smacks you with a puzzle that defines unfair. It's not clued and there is no way to get anywhere in the game without pulling the good old "examine everything" bit.

Then you have a parser that doesn't know common verbs (like knock), and a lot of purple prose. Seriously, there are very few objects in the four-doored vault area and there's purple prose? Not only that, but there are bugs.

Once you make it past a door, you'll find puzzles that are just as annoying, and perverted NPCS to boot. One of the puzzles is a riddle. Another puzzle (get this) is a mathematical word problem. It was at this point that I gave up. I thought games were supposed to be entertaining.

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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
An ambiguous opinion, January 21, 2009
by Andromache (Hawaii)

This game turns humans into lab rats, which doesn't really sit well with me, which is why I gave it an average rating. Also, there's a minor bug that makes the game somewhat choppy to play during that section, but it's quite cleaned up for a first release. Puzzles are super easy and the hint system was nicely implemented, broken up into bite-sized pieces so as not to spoil the game outright. The game is entertaining, if a bit condescending. Worth playing at least once, but the cuteness doesn't really mesh with something as serious as respecting the dignity of experimentees.

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