What would you do if you fell into a sinkhole and found a bunch of dinosaurs? I would like to say I would panic, maybe have a mild breakdown, and probably do my best to not die. Only one of those is true for Anne, the protagonist of Tokyo Scramble, though. Tokyo Scramble takes you deep underneath the Neon City, where, somehow, dinosaurs still exist and there’s a ton of untapped gold veins. The goal is simple: escape. An idea that doesn’t sound awful, but the execution, on the other hand… well, it all depends on your patience. Tokyo Scramble is essentially advertised as a modern version of Alien: Isolation, just with the addition of hungry dinos. You can’t fight back, you can only run and hide. How does it stack up?

First off, the character design is surprisingly solid. It’s nice to see a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive that actually looks this good. The environments are more hit or miss, ranging from pretty dull to… honestly, just okay, especially if you turn on the neon lighting that outlines the areas. The dinosaurs you encounter are genuinely eye-catching as well, and Anne refers to them as “Zinos.”

Apparently, when you’re being stalked by these “predators” (I’ll get into that later), you have plenty of time to come up with nicknames. The “Z” part comes from some old name tied to Tokyo or maybe the gold mines. I honestly don’t remember which, and I can’t find anything about it on Google. Either way, it starts with a “Z” and then Dino. Zino. Simple enough, right?

There’s a decent variety of Zinos to deal with. You’ve got the basic raptor-like ones that just patrol back and forth, a bat-like one that relies on hearing but is practically blind, and a praying mantis-type that has great eyesight but can’t hear a thing. Each one is clearly identifiable, which helps a lot.

So how does Tokyo Scramble play? Here’s the thing, the game was sold as: “learn the Zinos patterns”, but I notice that, for the most part, the patterns didn’t exist. They would sometimes just stand in one spot, staring at the only path to continue forward, as if the AI had stopped to work. It wasn’t the biggest problem, because a quick reset, or just trying to run past, it would usually work, but when you’re in a flow of progressing through the game it can be a bit of a pain, as well as completely immersion-breaking.

Another core part of the gameplay is using whatever random mechanics are lying around to distract or mess with the Zinos. The bat has an incredible sense of hearing, so if it’s actively listening, you can trigger some random alarm that somehow still still works and stun it, for example.

So what happens when you get spotted? The Zinos give chase. You’ve got a couple of options here: duck into an area they can’t reach and they’ll lose interest pretty quickly, or recharge your flashlight at stations scattered around the map, which lets you blind most of them. “What happens when they catch you?” I hear you ask. “Do they eat you?” Nope. They just kind of swing their arms around and Anne immediately collapses and dies. There’s nothing gruesome about it, or even particularly scary.

Part of surviving is a puzzle. I will say, Tokyo Scramble does a great job with its sound and UI cues to help you learn when it’s safe to move, when you’ve been spotted, and when certain Zinos, like the bat, are listening extra carefully. One thing I found really funny, the way to get some of the raptor-like Zinos out of the way is to turn on an escalator and they will run on it forever. I like getting my steps in too, but these things LOVE IT.

Each chapter is just dealing with a couple areas with different kinds of puzzles and a range of sizes. All throughout you can find upgrades for your flash to make it so it stuns longer or has a wider range. These come in handy, but only if you also find the recharge stations as well.

Each chapter also has some challenges to complete for a better ranking, alongside number of retries and time taken to complete the chapter. At the start of every chapter there’s a bit of a lore drop with Anne talking to her band mates, the band is called Tokyo Scramble, hence the name of the game, and honestly these are probably my least favourite parts of the game. These are the types of characters you cheer against in horror movies. The ones that you want to run right into the jaws of the Zinos because they’re just so annoying or downright awful. Honestly, Anne is the only sensible character, and that’s saying something considering she seems fairly unfazed by the random dinosaurs that appear.

So, for the final thoughts: Tokyo Scramble isn’t a bad game by any means. It’s very much middle of the road. It does look exciting at times, with some areas standing out more than others, and overall it’s a pretty good-looking game. Anne and the Zinos are well designed, and some of the tactics you use to progress are genuinely interesting. That said, the AI doesn’t always behave the way it should, and once you get the hang of things, the experience can start to feel repetitive. The story is easily the weakest part, unfortunately, but when your premise is basically “sinkhole leads to dinosaurs,” there’s only so much you can expect.

Graphics: 8.0 I stand by the fact Tokyo Scramble looks pretty damn good. Some areas are a little bland, but the character designs are really well done and nicely modelled.	Gameplay: 4.0 Less “run and hide”, and more “just dive under walls and hope for the best.” There’s not a lot of tension to the gameplay the way other games of these style have.
Sound: 7.0 The use of sound and the ambience in Tokyo Scramble is pretty well done. Having a radio play some music would have been a great distraction for Zinos and given a bit more vibe to the game, but that’s about it.	Fun Factor: 5.0 It’s not bad, it’s also not great. Tokyo Scramble just kind of exists somewhere in the middle of it. It can be enjoyable to play, but it can also feel like a chore if you play it for too long. The perfect game to play one chapter at a time.
Final Verdict: 5.5

Tokyo Scramble is available now on Nintendo Switch 2.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

A copy of Tokyo Scramble was provided by the publisher.