Planetokio (video game)

Planetokio (released in Japan as Tokyo Wakusei Planetokio) is a role-playing action-adventure video game developed by OutSide Directors Company and published by Northwood Interactive (Asmik Ace Entertainment in Japan) for the PlayStation. It was originally released in Japan on August 26, 1999, in North America on December 21, 1999, and in Europe on March 18, 2000. It is the first installment in the Planetokio series, chronicling the creation of the main character Iken at the hands of the antagonists, the Collect Aliens. The game's story follows Iken losing his delivery to a thief. During his adventure, he will meet many interesting characters and will also have to fight alien robots.

Planetokio received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its graphics and visual style but criticized its controls. It was also included in the Sony Greatest Hits line-up. In 2007, it was re-released as a downloadable game on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) and its remastered version was released for the Wii and iOS on November 3, 2009 to coincide with the game's tenth anniversary.

Gameplay
The player controls Iken, who must go around the town talking to the characters and getting new items to advance to other parts of the game. In some places, there are some TVs that explain the invasion that is happening during the adventure. There are places in the game when Iken has to avoid being caught by some robots, and the battle parts are turn based RPG since Iken can choose between his items to use which one wants to use in each turn to attack the opponent.

Characters
The playable protagonist character is Iken, a young delivery boy who works in a ramen restaurant. The main antagonists are the Collect Aliens, a group of alien robots who are trying to invade the world. Iken's love interest is Naomi, a girl who is the father of Dr. Canbell. Helping Iken in his journey is Boro, Iken's artificial, intelligent robot assistant. The scientist is Dr. Hokin, who lives in the bottom of the ramen restaurant and the inventory of the energy ball gun.

Setting
The game takes place in a near future and more specifically in Planetokio, a futuristic city with a number of floating cities full of life like the old Japan. The city is attacked by the Collect Aliens that got a personal shield which allows them to receive no harm.

Story
The story begins during a breaking news about an alien attack at Akihabara island. Iken is talking to Dr. Hokin in his basement laboratory (that can be accessed using the refrigerator that is in the restaurant). Hokin shows him his new invention a gun that fires energy balls. Soon, his boss, Lai Lai tells him to deliver a meal. As soon as Iken arrives at the deliver point, a man collides with him and stole the delivery. The game begins then.

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Voice cast
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Development
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English distribution
During the post-production of Planetokio, Geo G., the creator of Gabriel Garza, said that an English version of the game was in the works. Northwood Interactive, an operating unit of Gingo Animation, is set to publish the game in all countries outside Japan. Gingo offered Universal Interactive Studios the opportunity to co-finance with them, but they declined. Geo has a close relationship with Osamu Sato, though Geo couldn't understand Japanese in the original game during the Japanese dialogue that much so he decided to make his own English dub in scratch, trying to understand the game's theme. Geo was also interested to hire voice actors who previously starred in Geo's show TeenV to provide the voice of the characters in the American version.

The game's English voice actors were cast and directed by Geo and fellow Gingo employees Michael Wildshill, Audel LaRoque and Gary Hall. It features the voices of Jason Marsden as Iken, Lauren Tom as Naomi, George Takei as Dr. Hokin, Maurice LaMarche as Dr. Canbell, and Corey Burton as Boro. Additional characters are voiced in English by Carlos Alazraqui, Jim Cummings, Michael Gough, Hall, Tom Kane, Phil LaMarr, LaRoque, Rob Paulsen, Neil Ross, Kath Soucie, Billy West, and Wildshill respectively.

Planetokio was released in North America on December 21, 1999. This was followed by its European release on March 18, 2000. A Nintendo 64 version was in development and scheduled for release in summer 2000 under the title Planetokio 64, and a Dreamcast version in late 2000. Both were cancelled. A version for the Game Boy Color was also proposed, but never materialized, though it had a virtually similar game released for it under the same name.

Reception
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Legacy

 * Further information: Planetokio (series)

Trivia

 * "Planetokio" means "Planet Tokyo" or "Tokyo Planet." Also, it can be a combination of "Planet" and "Tokyo".