Having recently dedicated a modest three hundred hours into Toby’s Jar Adventure, I believe that I’ve finally reached a point where I can leave an accurate review of the game.
As someone who has grown up with a crippling fear of glass jars, being officially diagnosed with Virtumhydriphobia (which annually affects 7% of the world's population), it took a lot of effort to get into this game. However, I believe that in the end it was worth it. Toby’s Jar Adventure changed my life.
There are many significant and meaningful symbolic metaphors scattered throughout the game. The most obvious being that the character is dressed like the iconic Dorathy Márquez, a true American hero and anthropological scholar. This particular way of dressing the character represents both the naivety and curiosity of the human species; we strive towards progress but often lack the foresight to recognize the corresponding consequences. Watching Toby struggle through the game reminds me of a profound quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, in which he declares that “to live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”.
I like to believe that the jars represent the moments in our memories which we regret; they swirl around us like a cloud of angry insects, crashing into our psyche and shattering around us. The titular Toby, whom we play as in the game, bravely chooses to face his inner demons.
We all have a little Toby inside of us.
Toby’s mighty weapon, the quintessential ‘Tobedo’, is an unlikely tool - though, perhaps it helps to remind the player that goals can be achieved with even the most bizarre of means. Toby’s Jar Adventure reminds us that we are all heroes - no matter how small we may feel.
As someone who personally owns a military grade CAE Tropos 7000XR flight simulator, I found the controls and handling of Toby’s Jar Adventure to be nearly indistinguishable from real life. Despite having a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, I found that I was unable to run the next-gen graphics at 300fps on my 8K monitor.
I cannot put enough emphasis on the fact that Toby’s Jar Adventure goes beyond simple programming; Toby’s Jar Adventure transcends the title of 'art' and walks among the sublime. Buy this game and see for yourself; see for yourself how much better your life will be.