Toni Island Adventure

*Note that all achievements are broken at this time of writing (8 Oct 2025). [b]My Playtime:[/b] 13.4h (100% achievement, finished the game) [b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (~6 achievements). [b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (13 achievements, 1 missable). [b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (~4 achievements). [h1]Intro[/h1] [i]Toni Island Adventure[/i] is an action-adventure game made in [i]GB Studio[/i], consisting of 5 short dungeons. [b]Pros:[/b] - 5 dungeons with unique boss fights [b]Cons:[/b] - Stiff combat - Slow walking speed [b]Specs[/b] Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1] [i]Dungeons are too short and simple, combat is too stiff, bosses are too easy, and then there are the grindy achievements that take like double of your playtime to get...[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h3]Visuals[/h3] As a game made in [i]GB Studio[/i], [i]Toni Island Adventure[/i] visuals look similar to Game Boy visuals. Sprites are made without too much detail with limited colors, although it was still designed to make each region look unique. [h3]Story[/h3] The story was told in a few words. Toni is a sailor who was shipwrecked on an island, where he has to do chores to return to the mainland. It tells the lore on how the island came to be and the discord it entails. Despite having a bunch of premises at the beginning, the ending was made too simple; the conflict was solved right away without dragging it out, and all plot points were just revealed right away. I still didn't catch on to what actually happened, though. [h3]The Game[/h3] [b]Gameplay[/b] [i]Toni Island Adventure[/i] is an action-adventure game. You need to explore between cities and dungeons to finish the game. Progression is linear—despite the numerous locations, there aren't any optional areas to explore, and the available areas can be navigated quickly. The same goes for dungeons. They consist of several puzzles that are exclusive to that area, with a boss fight at the end of it. The puzzles can be easily solved without thinking too hard, and despite the lack of instructions, you should be able to understand the mechanics quickly since they are often encountered in other games. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3533444129 The walking speed is very slow. This is more apparent in the desert and underwater areas since your speed will be reduced even further. I found this to be a cheap attempt to increase your playtime, especially since there is no way to increase your movement speed. [b]Combat[/b] Combat is stiff. The hitbox is the square tile of your character—meaning that you'll take damage even if your hat touches the enemy. You can only walk a full tile or a half-tile to the other direction, and if enemies or obstacles are close by, you'll either have to walk back or risk getting hit since you can only attack in front of you, and you can't change your position without moving. Taking damage becomes easy because of this, although luckily, it's easy to avoid taking damage if you are careful as well, especially since enemies are very slow. Bosses are very simple. Two of them feel similar, with them using the same attacks and having a similar attack pattern. Moreover, all but one bosses are located in places that is out of your reach until you can attack them, so you'll mostly handle the boss's projectile attacks. That being said, the game made it clear that they only have 4 attack bars, meaning that you only need to handle the same pattern at least 4 times before finishing the fight. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3533432583 [b]Length and Difficulty[/b] I finished the game in 13.4h. Note that I spent like 5h to grind for the grindy achievements, and spent a couple more hours to get some other optional achievements. The main game itself is very short—it should only take you 3-5 hours to beat. As for the difficulty, the game is very easy to beat. You can even recklessly take damage from the bosses and still beat them. However, if you are aiming for 100% achievements, there is an annoying surfing minigame where you have to avoid obstacles to reach the goal. Jumping to avoid the obstacles can be difficult since it is done slowly, and you need to remember where the obstacles are, since some of them can appear very quickly and kill you. [b]Issues[/b] The game has a lot of bugs. I didn't find any game-breaking ones anymore, but when I played the game for the first time, I was softlocked and had to restart the game from scratch after the update. Yes, the game's save isn't backward compatible, meaning that your save will be wiped out after each update. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Games with Game Boy-like visuals always caught my interest, and [i]Toni Island Adventure[/i] is no exception. Considering that it was made in [i]GB Studio[/i], the amount of work being done on the game is quite impressive, although sadly, if you think of it as a full game, it's lacking too much. Dungeons and explorable areas are very short, combat is stiff, bosses are not challenging—the list keeps growing. The game ends up being mediocre, and with other issues like the intermittent bugs, slow walking speed, and the grindy collectibles, it becomes something that wasn't enjoyable. I'm afraid that I couldn't recommend the game because of those issues. [quote]This game was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free through Curator Connect.[/quote] [quote]Follow our curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Eu conheci o jogo na timeline do bluesky, algum amigo deu repost na publicação de divulgação que tinha sido lançado no mesmo dia e o visual do jogo já despertou uma certa curiosidade em mim. Eu amo pixel art e esse jeitinho de jogo retrô me fisgou. Que jogo lindo! É muito relaxante e agradável de se jogar, simplesmente amei como é recheado de trocadilhos desde nomes até nos diálogos de personagem, a maneira como eles se expressam fazendo referência ao jeitinho de animais, com uma pitadinha de humor. Dá para ver que teve inspiração em jogos antigos, como alguns zeldas e pokémon, tanto em puzzle, jeitinho da história, paisagens, diálogos, e isso foi me ganhando ainda mais. Quem gosta desses jogos deveria dar uma chance a Toni Island Adventure porque traz esse carinho e criatividade, misturando referências brasileiras o que dá ainda mais um charme a ele. E nossa, como esse jogo me deu vontade de comer pizza! Enfim, recomendo!

Um resgate adorável do que fazia os jogos tão interessantes na época do GameBoy.

Before v.2.0.0, I wouldn't have recommended this game as it was filled with bugs. Fortunately, the update fixes almost all the bugs I noticed on my first playthrough. As it stands, it's cute, it's funny and it's heartwarming. I was legitimately kind of moved by the ending. Glad the small dev team took the time to fix the bugs, as this game deserves to be finished.

Esse é aquele tipo de jogo que te faz sorrir já nos primeiros minutos. Muito charmoso com os gráficos pixelados, os diálogos fofos e os puzzles criativos. Dá pra sentir que os desenvolvedores colocaram muito amor no projeto. Recomendo.

This lil game has so much heart! A nostalgic adventure through a dog filled island awaits you! All the npcs had silly little things to say like the old Pokemon games. It had the classic push puzzles, simon says puzzles, and some boss fights. You can go surfing or fishing or collect treasures. The story moves along at a nice fast pace and I liked the different biomes. There were a bunch of fun 8 bit songs. It really captured the essence of the Gameboy era games. I did run into some bugs but it's a small dev team and none of them stopped me from finishing the game.

Dá pra sentir quando um jogo tem alma, e esse tem muita. Já tinha jogado a demo e sabia que ia gostar ainda mais do jogo completo. A narrativa tá fluindo super bem e é tudo muito charmoso. Apesar de todas as limitações do Game Boy, a equipe (minúscula) conseguiu criar um mundinho vivo e cheio de personalidade. O texto todo em dialeto de cachorro, tanto em português quanto em inglês, é um grande exemplo da atenção que foi colocada em cada detalhe. Ainda não terminei o jogo, mas adoro saber que ainda tem muito da ilha Salamino a explorar!

Do you like The Legend of Zelda, dogs, puzzles, and pizza? Toni Island Adventure is for you. With fun humor, charismatic characters, and challenging puzzles, this game is a love letter to those who grew up with the GameBoy classics

O jogo é simples mas é muito divertido e agradável de jogar. É importante julgar ele pelo que ele é e não por padrões inalcançáveis da industria AAA. Toni é divertido e leve, dei vários sorrisos lendo os diálogos, tem um humor simples e eficaz. O jogo também não é muito difícil, para alguns pode ser um ponto positivo ou negativo. A trilha sonora também é muito boa, para o que a estrutura do Game Boy pode entregar. Toni com certeza merece destaque dentro do mundo Indie BR. Dê uma chance e tente curtir o jogo pelo que ele é, vale a pena na biblioteca de quem curte jogos indies, jogos br ou gameboylike.

Dá pra ver que o jogo foi feito com muito amor e dedicação. Possui algumas limitações técnicas da época, já esperado porque é um jogo feito para rodar num gameboy, mas isso não tira o brilho - muito pelo contrário: leva a nostalgia lá em cima.