Toho Academy
Parser: AGT (AGT-1.18, ME-1.0)
Author: Simon Leo Barber 
Availability: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/agt/toho.zip
Supports: DOS or AGiliTy interpreter

"For a sheep you look pretty well hard."

In Toho Academy you are an ewe. A half-sheep to be precise, wearing body armour and packing a rocket launcher by the end of the game, but still I would've chosen to play an animal with a little more of a cool image. Having said that, the coolness factor runs high in this game, if you are a fan of giant monsters, anime animals (furries/animorphs), mecha, and/or Lovecraftian humour.

Your mission is to get from your vacated dormitory to the Operations Room on the north side of the island, dealing out death to various invading monsters as you go.

I resorted to AGiliTy to finish this game and AGiliTy's AGTOUT to get all the flavor text. There are many interesting deaths in this game but they are yours to explore if you have the map to keep you sane.

Pros: 
Breakthrough (for 1993) was including the VIEW command and illustrations. Simon did his own illustrations.
I liked the clothing system, I felt I was being smart with my encumbrance by putting things in pockets and rucksacks.
I don't like puzzle IF so the simple puzzles of "what weapon to use/take everything" were a plus.
F-key shortcuts for commands.

Cons:
Most common to the AGT system & other games of this era.
'X' not supported for 'Examine'. 'EX' is. 
'dead-ends of sudden death' not well forwarned, so stay out of salt water and spilled peroxide.
Combat is to the death, yours if you haven't found the choice weapon yet.
Randomness in monsters and beavers mean the walkthrough won't always work quite as written.
Frequent demands for food limit exploration time. (Also nightfall.)

Bugs:
Nouns sometimes reversed in combat ('the monster bounces off the fruit')
Putting the respirator in the rucksack -> game thought I was wearing the respirator.
No indication in description what noun to use for Smurfs, and no synonyms.
SAVE & meta-commands take game time to execute: ">RESTORE You're in no shape to do that!"
EXIT (OUT) sometimes required for directions when ENTER wasn't.

----------
More Toho drawings (with colour, even!) at http://vcl.ctrl-c.liu.se/vcl/Artists/Simon-Barber/index18.html, adult content warning.
http://velar.ctrl-c.liu/se/vcl/Authors/Simon-Barber for stories

----------
Attached:
Map in PDF (spoilers)
3 walkthroughs - cheat, normal, and adult (furvert)
Extra text from game
Actions not included in walkthroughs (loadsa spoilers)

Reviewed Jan 2002
- Kaari Koehn kkoehn3[at]yahoo.ca