The game follows a young chick, Toki Tori, and his quest to rescue his younger siblings, still in their eggs.

[2][3] A DRM-free version of the game was released in January 2012 as part of the Humble Bundle for Android.

In the beginning cinematic, Toki Tori is on a cliff overlooking a castle and surrounded by a forest.

In this castle, Toki Tori learns that he has special abilities that help him locate the eggs such as telewarp and bridge builder from a book he finds.

Upon finishing the castle world, Toki Tori falls through a trap door where he lands in the sewers, infested with slugs.

When he is done collecting his brethren from this world, a strong torrent of water sweeps him up and sends him to Bubble Barrage, the last area of the game.

After traversing this underwater world, Toki Tori returns home with his brothers and sisters.

Gameplay in Toki Tori consists of using a limited number of tools to gather up all the eggs in the level in a single run through it in a certain amount of time.

If they touch Toki Tori, he instantly dies, forcing the player to restart the level.

Forest Falls is the only level above water with the Freeze-o-matic, which used incorrectly can create obstacles as it freezes enemies in place.

The game claims ten different tools, as they count Freeze-o-matic a second time when used underwater.

Navigational tools help Toki Tori move around obstacles and get to higher and lower floors that would be otherwise inaccessible.

It allows Toki Tori to travel one half his width/height in any of the four directions, to cross pits, climb up floors or avoid enemies.

These are especially useful as Toki Tori has no life bar so a single hit will end the current attempt.

The Freeze-o-matic freezes an opponent in a block of ice which will either fall to the ground or float up to the ceiling depending on whether the level is underwater or not.

This game later served as the basis for Toki Tori when some staff from Fony went on to found Two Tribes.

Eggbert is given a limited amount of up to three tools which must be used conservatively and intelligently to gather eggs while avoiding enemies which lurk about the stages.

[8] The major difference between story plots is a strong wind sweeping away Toki Tori's siblings, whereas they ran away from Eggbert.

An example of a tool unique to the successor is an Eye which allows Toki Tori to peer around the entire level, an ability unnecessary in Eggbert.

AIM Productions published a port of the game for Windows Mobile with improved graphics and slight changes to certain levels in 2003.

Also, a new rewind/fast forward feature was released exclusive for the PC version that allows the player to undo a mistake without having to redo the level all over again.

Despite the classic Game Boy Color version being re-released for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2012, Two Tribes developed a new version of Toki Tori specifically for the Nintendo 3DS, alongside fellow indie developer Engine Software, whose staff is composed of people that originally worked on Eggbert, the game that inspired Toki Tori.

Some critics have attributed the interest surrounding the newly released Game Boy Advance, coupled with the fact that Toki Tori was a new name in the industry as the reason it was ignored by the public at large.

[10] Reviews were generally positive from the critics, being viewed as an intelligent addition to the dying Game Boy Color system.

[32] N-Europe highly praised the title, giving it a 9/10 and commenting that it was 'oozing with charm and held together with love'.