Game Info
GAME NAME: Toro
DEVELOPER(S): Reco Technology
PUBLISHER(S): Reco Technology
PLATFORM(S): PS4
GENRE(S): Action
RELEASE DATE(S): July 7th, 2015
It seems that lately people have been making every kind of game you could possibly think of and now someone has made a game about bullfighting. This game is called Toro and was created using the Unity engine. I was actually interested in the game to try a game by Reco Technology and see exactly what it was all about. I quickly found that it is nothing more than waving a cape around while a bull charges at you all while avoiding getting hit.
The gameplay here is really basic with the left analog stick to move you around, but moving is unnecessary since you’re main focus is to achieve the highest score possible by performing cape flailing combos. You are tasked with whistling at the bull (R1) and that will make him charge, at that point you are to hold L2 and use a series of buttons to perform cape moves. It vaguely reminded me of Tony Hawk Pro Skater in how you are to press buttons in sequences to do simple or more advanced moves. Mind you, this is nowhere near as fun as Tony Hawk and in fact it is quite boring and it feels like you have to force yourself to play it.
When you are flailing your cape around and performing back to back moves, which will in turn create combos, this angers the bull and makes the meter in the bottom left go up. Once it gets full the screen spins around like a bad Woodstock trip and you are required to perform a QTE (quick time event) in dodging the bulls anger charges. I don’t know what more I was expecting from this game, but it definitely didn’t have much to it that can hold your attention.
There are two mini games that are at the main menu if you choose to not do the career mode. The first one is the best and it has you behind the bulls horns and rapidly tapping Square and Circle to fill a speed meter, then pressing R1 to choose trajectory of what angle you will hit the bullfighter. Basically, you are ramming the bullfighter as hard as you can to see how much distance he will go. The second mini game is possibly the worst and I had to immediately quit the game to stop or I was going to have to run to the trash can. You once again are behind the horns, but this time charging towards doors to ram through them by pressing the button that pops on the screen. The bouncing that the screen does as your bull auto runs to each door is a bit much and makes me nauseous just thinking about it.
The music is basically non existent, aside from the main menu and that isn’t even much to listen to. The sound is so generic and won’t stand out as anything spectacular, but accomplishes what is needed. Visually this game is reminiscent of lower quality PlayStation 2 graphics, but with way worse animations and extremely blurry images.
The Recommendation
I seriously can’t recommend this game to anyone, unless you are hardcore into bullfighting then this might be your bag. There is nothing memorable about this title and I couldn’t bare to think of anyone paying for it at the $19.99 price tag that is has. I hate to give games a low review score, but if it indeed deserves it then I must do my part and this game is definitely horri-BULL.
