The Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for less than a year and has already amassed an impressive lineup of excellent game releases from first and third-party developers. Tokyo Scramble ($29.99) is not one of them. Debuting at Nintendo's February 2026 Partner Direct, Tokyo Scramble is a puzzle-action game in which you navigate a sunken Tokyo while sneaking past prehistoric beasts. It's a novel premise and, dare I say, an interesting setup, but the game fumbles nearly every aspect. Tokyo Scramble is a mess with its unattractive environments, lackluster stealth gameplay, inconsistent in-game systems, and laughably bad narrative beats. I've reviewed more than a few bad titles for PCMag, and I can safely say that Tokyo Scramble easily joins the ranks of infamous stinkers like Crime Boss: Rockay City and Redfall as some of the worst I've played this console generation.

Janky Graphics and Annoying Gameplay

Tokyo Scramble opens simply enough. You're introduced to a girl, Anne, who's on her way to meet with friends in Tokyo when a massive sinkhole opens, sending her plummeting into the Earth's depths. When she emerges from the wreckage, she discovers that primordial beasts, called Zinos, have been living beneath the Earth's crust. To make it back to the surface, she must evade the ancient creatures without getting spotted.

(Credit: Binary Haze Interactive/PCMag)

I found the absurdity of Anne's circumstances intriguing, but the game's many flaws became apparent almost immediately. Right away, you're smacked with basic environments that range from the painfully generic to downright ugly. It's particularly jarring because Anne's decently designed character model stands out against the blurry browns and grays that make up the world. 

Worse, the ugly environments also hinder gameplay. Modern games overly rely on yellow paint and other markers to guide you in the right direction, but I found myself begging for those indicators while playing Tokyo Scramble. I frequently ran toward objects I thought I could interact with, only to realize they were part of the background. This led to more than a few deaths after I bolted toward an exit, just to discover it was a dead end. Additionally, Tokyo Scramble lacks a map, so you rarely have a sense of enemy positioning.

Good Controls, Weak Game Mechanics

But looks aren't everything. Less-than-stellar graphics can be forgiven if the gameplay holds up. Tokyo Scramble falls short in this department, too. The gameplay consists of Anne navigating small, maze-like environments while avoiding monsters. Anne has all the power of a normal girl; she can run, climb, and crawl, as long as her stamina (represented by her heartbeat) allows. If it climbs too high, Anne is unable to run for a short while. Maneuvering Anne isn't an issue, and if I could pay the game one complement, it's that the game controls perfectly fine.

(Credit: Binary Haze Interactive/PCMag)

There are stealth mechanics, too: Anne can accidentally alert enemies by making too much noise while running or by entering their line of sight. However, Metal Gear Solid this is not. The enemy AI is unreliable and downright confusing, ruining stealth gameplay. Sometimes Zinos roam back and forth along predetermined routes; at other times, they flat-out deviate from the path or beeline straight to your position. On one occasion, I was stuck at the end of a level because a Zino spotted me through the wall I hid behind. It's inconsistent behavior, especially when dealing with Zinos with heightened senses.

Anne is largely defenseless, armed only with a smartwatch she names Diana. It's no ordinary smartwatch, as it can magically download apps that Anne uses to manipulate the world. Since a large portion of Tokyo sank beneath the surface along with Anne, she can use vending machines, speakers, escalators, elevators, and other objects to distract enemies. Early on, I caused a coffee machine to leak, distracting the Zinos so I could sneak past undetected.

My problem with this is that the magic smartwatch's apps are so wide-ranging and random that I never had a good grasp of what they could do. Some functions made sense, like triggering an escalator or opening a door. But there were plenty of out-there, single-use apps, like one that dropped motorcycles from the ceiling. If the game had simplified this mechanic and built levels around clever uses for specific functionality, the puzzles would be a lot stronger for it.

(Credit: Binary Haze Interactive/PCMag)

In addition to the magic watch, Anne also has a few abilities she can pull off at any time. For example, there's a flash that stuns enemies and a music chime that helps lower Anne's heartbeat after she sprints. The problem is that these abilities are extremely limited and can only be used when Anne finds a charging station, which are few and far between, making the abilities mostly useless. You can upgrade them by finding satellites hidden in each level, but the upgrades are largely unfelt. Once a Zino spots you, you're as good as dead.

At the end of each level, you're graded on your performance and whether you completed the challenges given to you on your way to the exit. These challenges are often simple tasks, such as avoiding being spotted or using a certain app. Grading doesn't matter much, as it doesn't unlock gear or give Anne a boost leading into the next level. There's no leaderboard either, so chasing a top grade is a chore for masochists.

Unintentional Laughs

Each level opens with a text chain between Anne and her friends. Here's where some unintentional hilarity ensues, as it seems that no one takes Anne's situation seriously. Her narcissistic friends constantly change the subject back to their petty arguments whenever Anne complains about her circumstances. In an exchange early in the game, as Anne laments her situation (i.e., being stuck underground with dinosaurs that want to kill her), her friend Haru complains about Anne wanting to leave Japan for America. Read the room!

(Credit: Binary Haze Interactive/PCMag)

Eventually, Anne's brother Ray appears to help, but there's literally zero chemistry between them, and the game doesn't really give a good reason for why their circumstances keep them separated. In one cutscene, they’re only separated by a gate they could easily climb. In another, Ray literally saves Anne, but when the gameplay resumes, they're separated again. What?

The tonal shifts continue throughout the game to hilarious results. When Anne is attacked by a monster, for example, she sometimes lets out a soft "ouch" before rolling over and dying. The Zino leader is a dinosaur with long, flowing white hair. At one point, the Zinos inexplicably speak English. The music that Anne fawns over sounds like a Nokia ringtone. There's camp, and then there’s this.

(Credit: Binary Haze Interactive/PCMag)

A Surprisingly Inspired Multiplayer Mode

Tokyo Scramble's saving grace is its co-op mode. Using GameShare, you can invite up to four players to control Anne. It's actually a pretty incredible idea to have multiple people control one character, and for the few minutes I tried it with a friend, we had a good laugh at its bizarreness.

Doing so also highlights other issues. Having one person control the camera, another control movement, and another control actions is an inspired addition, but it's better suited to Mario Party than to this. It felt as if I were patting my head and rubbing my stomach while running from a dinosaur. Tokyo Scramble is a pain to play with one person and full controls, but it's borderline unplayable when shared between multiple people. If you’re looking for a good time over GameShare, Super Bomberman Collection is a much better multiplayer experience.