Toy Pop (Arcade/PS1) - ALL Clear - 106,340

This run is outdated. My current score PB of 163,550 can be found here:    • Toy Pop (Arcade/PS1) - ALL Clear - 163,550  

Toy Pop
©1986 Namco

A game about cute little toys in a toy box, with candy and hearts and all that fun stuff. Sounds like an innocent little game, right? Well, that's certainly what Namco wanted you to think.

Toy Pop is an interesting mix of a shooter and a puzzle game. You control Pinocchio... er, Pino, and a 2nd player can join as Little Red Riding Hood--I mean, Acha. Your goal on each floor is to find four hearts to open the door and move on to the next level, of which there are 44 (5 of which are bonus rounds, which occur every 8th round).

There are seven unique kinds of regular enemies throughout the game. They are:
1. Heitai, toy soldiers that just walk around and don't do much. They can be killed with anything except Bolts.
2. Cars, which act exactly like Heitai and require Wheels to kill.
3. Tanks, which move slow, fire slow bullets, and require Bombs (which are OP in clearing out boxes).
4. Domdoms, balloons that can fly over walls (as well as across the borders of the screen, they can even wrap around!) and require Pins to kill.
5. Trumps, cards that shoot arrows, move fast vertically, and require Flames.
6. Robots, which fire electricity and require Bolts (which stuns every other enemy)
7. Osaru, monkeys that fire pellets, can recoil, and require Springs.

Up to all 7 types can be included on a single floor. The number of enemies and the order in which they appear in is the same every time, as well as what weapons are provided on each floor. The problem is that WHERE the weapons spawn are random each game. There seems to be some consistency to it, but most of the time you'll find yourself scrambling for power-ups that you just can't find, leaving you defenseless against 3-4 enemy types that are hot on your tail. That and the random heart locations in some levels make planning routes nearly impossible without a great deal of luck. To make matters worse, some floors have enemies but NOT the weapon required to kill them (this is especially prominent with Domdoms), so either you need said weapon from the previous floor or some insane dodging skills. Taking hits and/or deaths when you have no choice is not uncommon in this game; luckily you do have one spare hit before death (and some levels have shirts for you to gain that hit back).

Each box also randomly contains a 7 or Star card. Collect three 7s or three Stars and you unlock a temporary special ability that allows for killing all the monsters (including Mahou, the witch that spawns on every pre-bonus stage and is impervious to your regular weapons). These can provide some leeway against the enemies but are a massive pain to work with, and sometimes you have to rely on one of them spawning. There are also items such as forks, hourglasses, lanterns, and speed boots that spawn randomly on each box. Supposedly this can be manipulated, but I have no idea how, so I just take what I get and hope for the best. I got a lot of forks in the early game, funnily enough.

The strategy for levels varies. If you clear all the enemies and hearts before exiting, you get a bonus, but this is really only worth it a) in earlier levels where the enemies aren't as aggressive, and/or b) if you have a triad or enough weapons to switch off when needed. Other levels you just want to get in and get out. Memorizing layouts is extremely important, as are obstacles such as the boxing gloves and claws that can really knock you down. If you can formulate at least a basic strategy for each box, taking into account the RNG factors, that's great.

Extends are weird in this game. A Rally-X Special Flag appears every 15k points, but only on the NEXT box after achieving said score value, AND you have to collect it for the extra life, meaning you can still get cheated out on an extra life when you need it. It doesn't help that scoring in this game is difficult unless you get lucky with forks or you get a LOT of perfect clears, so lives are kinda sparse and need to be used sparingly. I lucked out hard in this run, especially in the latter half.

This game is annoying with its luck and difficulty, but it's also addicting at the same time. I'm honestly surprised I got a 1CC of it this quickly, and now that I have done it on video I don't think I want to try for it again. I still think this is a great game, and it's very underrated for its time. Oh, and need I mention that the music slaps? It's a bit worse on the PS1 version, but it's still enjoyable.

Played on my Playstation using Namco Museum Vol. 1. The "Level Select" code was on in case I wanted to use it after this attempt for practice, but that ended up not being necessary.