Tokyo Scramble review

Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase for February 2026 gave Switch 2 owners updates on all kinds of previously revealed third-party games in development for the console, and it also had its fair share of surprise announcements. One of the biggest surprises at the event was the unveiling of Tokyo Scramblea Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive dinosaur horror game confirmed for release just a week after the Direct. With Tokyo Scramble released so quickly after the announcement and launched a day before other Switch 2 exclusives Mario tennis feverI was skeptical about the game. The way it was rolled out made me feel like it was sent out to die, and now that I've completed it, I'm not surprised they went that route.

Tokyo Scramble is the most bizarre Switch 2 exclusive released to date. In it, players take control of a teenage girl named Anne who finds herself trapped in a strange underground world full of ruined buildings and other ruins that also happens to be plagued by deadly dinosaur-like creatures called Zinos. Unlike other protagonists in the horror game, Anne has no guns or other weapons she can use to fight back against these beasts, but instead has to sneak around them.

Tokyo Scramble's Zinos come in a few different flavors. There are the usual oversized raptors that are the balanced enemies, and then there are bats that are blind but have super hearing, and huge mantis-like beasts that are deaf but have great vision. There are even more powerful variants encountered in the game, and each requires players to use different strategies if they hope to get Anne out of the level safely.

Stealth games are difficult to pull off. The best ones offer nail-biting thrills and thrilling moments, but many of them feel like tedious exercises in trial and error. Tokyo Scramble is the latter. Each level is like a puzzle that requires specific steps to complete safely. It's all about memorizing what to do when, with little room to think on the fly. There are times when this approach is cheap, like in a mission when Anne has to follow a monster through a building. There's a moment during the chase where the monster spins around unexpectedly, and there's no way to know it's coming unless you've already seen it happen. Still, there are a handful of levels that are admittedly satisfying to solve and conquer.

Tokyo Scramble's Stealth is anti-fun

Most Tokyo Scramble levels are relatively boring and simple matters of trial and error, with extreme difficulty spikes later in the game. Tokyo Scramble uses a generous control system to keep frustration down and ensure players don't lose for much progress when they get caught by one of the game's weird dinosaur monsters, which is appreciated. The game would be borderline unplayable without its checkpoints.

Anne dies in one blow from every monster in Tokyo Scrambleand they all run faster than her, so being spotted is almost always a death sentence. If they're close enough for cover or an exit, players can try to run for it, but Anne has limited stamina making that a dangerous proposition. Early in the game, Anne gains access to a flash on her phone that stuns the creatures temporarily and makes it easier to escape – a trick that can be abused to bypass certain episodes.

Anne's phone gains other abilities as the game progresses, but nothing is as useful as lightning, and resources are limited. Anne's phone needs to be charged at stations scattered throughout the levels if she wants to use the flash, and it's such a powerful ability that it doesn't make sense to waste charge on anything else.

Fortunately, there are some tasks that Anne's phone can do without removing the battery. A big focus of the game is activating objects in the environment using Anne's phone. Sometimes these interactions are necessary to solve puzzles, and other times they are optional ways to distract monsters. For example, there could be a popcorn machine that Anne can turn on with her phone that will keep dinosaurs busy, or there could be a fan that can temporarily knock over enemies with its blades.

These environmental interactions are neat, but they're spoiled by the bonus objectives listed at the start of each level. It would have been fun to discover a popcorn machine that sits inside Tokyo Scrambles underground world for myself, but when one of the level's challenges is using a popcorn machine to distract the monsters, I already know what to expect.

Still, I like the concept, and using these items to overcome the game's challenges can be fun at times. The game also does a good job of ensuring that almost every level has something new, whether it's a new monster to fight or a unique puzzle to solve. Unfortunately, that's pretty much it Tokyo Scramble have gone for it.

The game is simply not fun to play. The difficulty levels are annoying, and most levels are a bit too easy. Tokyo Scramble fails to find a middle ground, and it fails to make its core stealth gameplay exciting. It's a chore for the vast majority of its runtime with other serious issues dragging it down even further.

Tokyo Scramble doesn't look like a Switch 2 game

One of the first things players will notice Tokyo Scramble is that it is ugly. Despite being exclusive to the Switch 2, Tokyo Scramble looks like something that should have been released on PS3, and even then there are many PS3 games with significantly better visuals. The textures are blurry, there are many instances where objects awkwardly clip through each other, and the animations are some of the worst I've seen in years.

When Anne is caught by one of the Tokyo Scrambles monsters, they often swipe at her with their claws. Instead of Anne being tossed like a rag doll, the claws slash through her body, and then she sinks awkwardly to the ground. When Anne sprints too fast and the players decide to stop, instead of her naturally slowing down, she glides forward as if she had wheels. In some episodes, when Anne is challenged to balance over beams, instead of animating her steps around corners, she floats awkwardly in place.

And so there is the story. Tokyo ScrambleThe story is nonsensical and weird (almost in a so-bad-it's-good way, but not quite), with most of the human characters reduced to color-coded text message bubbles. Anne's emotional connection to these people we never see is meant to fuel the drama leading up to the big finale, but it's impossible to care about any of them. I have a stronger emotional connection to the pre-recorded voice at McDonald's asking if I ordered with the app when I go through the drive-thru.

Anne is one of the only human characters that players ever see Tokyo Scramblewhere the other is a guy named Ray who looks and sounds absolutely ridiculous. I don't blame the voice actors, but the material they had to work with in this game is atrocious to say the least.

The voice actors have to say a lot of silly nonsense, and the monsters in the game aren't much better. There are certain levels where monsters and other repetitive, annoying sound effects play endlessly, and it's enough to make you want to tear your hair out, as these often happen in the harder levels where you'll die a lot.

Tokyo Scramble has GameShare Multiplayer, but I don't know why you would ever do that against anyone

One of the more convenient Switch 2 features is GameShare, a callback to Nintendo DS Download Play. With GameShare, Switch 2 players can share multiplayer experiences with friends who have their own Switch 2 consoles (and in some cases Switch 1 consoles), only one copy of the game is required. Tokyo Scramble takes advantage of GameShare to allow up to four players to play simultaneously, and while the multiplayer co-op is good for a few laughs, most people will try it once and never touch it again.

Instead of everyone getting their own character, Tokyo Scramble multiplayer instead shares control of Anne between players. So player 1 can control the movement, while player 2 controls the camera. Player 3 runs the apps, and Player 4 can be responsible for actions like crouching and sprinting. This bizarre version of co-op can definitely lead to some fun moments, but it's a novelty that gets old quickly.

Iron Tokyo Scrambles 22 levels took around 5.5 hours, but there's a harder difficulty to tackle and co-op mode for extra replay value.

Tokyo Scramble is strangely entertaining at times, and it's technically playable from start to finish, but there's so little joy to be had that I don't recommend it. It's the worst Switch 2 exclusive yet, and with a lineup that includes games like the Boring Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour and wildly overpriced Survival childthat says something.