Another
Talking Tom app?! It appears that this app is the official sequel to My Talking
Tom, the generation of the cool cat that was released in very late 2013 [7] [8]
[14]. In all honesty, I do not think that My Talking Tom 2 is highly necessary.
I believe that Talking Tom 2, the interpretation of Tom that debuted in 2011 was
more necessary for the sake the presenting him with a more appealing design and
a few more features, such as the beginning of his comedic rivalry with Talking
Ben [25] [26]. Nevertheless, witnessing a sequel that seems very unnecessary
does not always mean declaring that it will be a completely terrible sequel. As
someone who used to upload footage of the original Talking Tom and Talking Tom
2 onto YouTube back in high school, I am a little sad that My Talking Tom and
My Talking Angela eventually had the option to record footage of gameplay and save
it as a video file removed [3] [5] [15]. Despite that, I shall take a look into
the high-pitched kitty’s newest home in My Talking Tom 2.
 |
| The app’s logo. [6] |
The app
basically follows the same premise of looking after Tom [5] [6]. Once again, like
a responsible carer, the player can:
- Pet
Tom to make him purr
- Put
Tom to bed (or let him drink energy potion) when he is sleepy
- Give
Tom food bought from the market when he is hungry
- Let
Tom do his business on the toilet
- Wash
Tom with soap when he is filthy
- Dress
Tom in new clothing items
- Watch
Tom grow
And of
course, the player can also talk into the device’s microphone and listen to Tom
repeat what has been said in a high-pitched voice, which is the very thing that
made Tom popular since 2010 [24]. The quality of the player’s words being
repeated by Tom is brilliant, but I am sad to say that the option to record
footage of Tom is not available as I cannot see a button for doing so. Oh, and
he can still be beaten up with pokes. The app’s gameplay is pretty faithful to
its predecessor [5] [6]. In addition to the goal of fulfilling Tom’s needs, there
are also some new aspects of the casual gameplay to show the app’s purpose of
being quite a refreshing sequel.
 |
| Hey little guy. Ready to demonstrate some toilet humour later? [6] |
Tom is now
living in a home that consists of the new main gameplay features [6]. Tom can
now be dragged across the screen, which could be especially fun to do for
plenty of young tablet users. The player can put him down gently, slam him onto
the ground or stick him onto the ceiling. He can also receive motivation whilst
doing a few activates, such as boxing with a punching bag and bouncing on a
trampoline. In the new medicine cabinet in the bathroom, there are six methods
of making Tom feel better. For example, when he catches a cold, he can be given
a spoonful of medical honey. I quite like how the methods of curing Tom’s
illnesses enhance the realism of taking good care of a pet or small child. And
speaking of the bathroom, I like how there are now seven different soaps to
wash Tom with, even though four of them will cost ten coins to use and one will
be free to use after an advert plays. With the same solid controls and a small
variety of new features for the primary gameplay, I suppose many fans of My
Talking Tom were quite impressed.
 |
| Before and after little Tommy Wommy eats a spoonful of medical honey. [6] |
 |
| Aside from the solid controls, I recommended only stroking Tom’s belly when it comes to petting him as stroking his head could result in Tom being dragged in the air. [6] |
Tom now has
a new friend who is an orange…blob thing with mouse ears named “Squeak” [6].
Squeak can also be dragged across the screen and even squashed by the player’s
fingertip. Additionally, he can eat any of Tom’s food and change colours, thus
expanding on his character development. I could say that the design of the
thing seems slightly unfitting within the current state of the Talking Friends
IP, even though there was a menacing antagonist who was named “Jeremy the Germ”
and had a similar body shape in two of the Talking Tom And Friends episodes [16]
[17]. Even though Talking Hank, another dog was introduced in the first episode
of the webisode series [18], I personally felt like he should have had his own
app before the release of the episode to make his debut slightly more
legitimate. Nonetheless, at least he eventually got his own app in early 2017 [4].
Perhaps there could be an establishment of Tom’s new pets in their own
application or web series that may expand on their character developments in
the future. Could Tom’s new friend be a sign of an upcoming new era of Talking
Friends?
 |
| Squeak about to knock Tom’s basketball off his wardrobe in the app’s first trailer. [14] |
 |
| Squeak turned red after I gave him a chili pepper in the app. [6] |
Interestingly,
Tom can hop into his plane to fly to a few islands that are based on the themes
of the home’s unlockable interior and exterior designs that cost coins and
stars [6]. The themes are:
- A
casual home on a street
- An
adventure beach
- A
magic forest from a fairy tale
- A
cyber city with futuristic aspects
- A
candy kingdom
Tom can
firstly travel to a tropical island and bring back any one of three bamboo
boxes, containing cards for earning food, coins, stars, clothing items
household items. The way certain cards can unlock the items as another way to
get new furniture and clothing items for the house can prevent the player from
losing a bit of patience when it comes to saving coins for a new item. However,
the results seem quite random, something results in duplicates of clothing
items and the random household items a starter can only receive are adventure
beach items. The other three islands will be unlocked as the game progresses,
which can also make the player feel rewarded for playing the app daily.
 |
| For starters, Tom can only fly to the tropical islands. [6] |
 |
| An example of a uncompleted card collection. in the app [6] |
Wait! There
are four other pets to unlock for Tom to be friends with [6]! The player can
simply tap the dens in the garden to see Squeak in a selection with a parrot
named “Flip” who wears glasses, a purple beast named “Gus”, a robot named “Dot”
and a pink blob with a rainbow mane and a unicorn horn and horn named “Sugar”.
Looking at the icons next to their names and scrolling through the lists of
cards to collect, the player will see that:
- Flip
is from Adventure Beach
- Gus
is from Magic Forest
- Dot
is from Cyber City
- Sugar
is from Candy Kingdom
Despite the
pets’ shape, at least Squeak aimed to heal little Tom’s injured paw in the
app’s second trailer, unlike Jeremy the Germ who made the fully-grown Tom,
Angela, Ginger and Hank ill [12] [16] [17]. And yes, the other four pets can
change colour when they eat food. Flip turned orange when I gave him a carrot. It
would take some patience, determination and a daily routine to save enough
stars for a new pet for Tom.
 |
| A yellow Squeak, a green Flip and a pink Sugar. All of the pets seem to have the same character development in the app. [6] |
And of
course, there is a whole new section of minigames to play as a way to increase
Tom’s happiness. These new minigames in My Talking Tom 2 are:
- Cupid
Tom
- Space
Trails
- Pet
Connect
- Easy
Squeezy
- Ice
Smash
- Super
Balloons
- Totem
Blast
After
playing them all, I would say that each minigame consists of fairly simple
gameplay, yet elements that make them stand out as parts of a small variety. And
yes, there are icons that link the player directly to other Talking Friends
apps, just like in the original My Talking Tom and My Talking Angela. Recording
footage of Tom talking and getting injured for YouTube and Facebook may not be
available, but providing a variety of minigames that can relieve stress and
have a decent amount of challenge for younger mobile gamers once again makes
the sequel faithful to what increased the appeal of Talking Tom.
 |
| Some of the minigames and links to other Talking Friends apps. [6] |
Let us
slightly expand on the minigames, starting with Cupid Tom. Trying to shoot a
wheel with a loved one’s face on it with cupid arrows might be a more thrilling
challenge in real life. Space Trails brings out a competitive vibe as it
requires an internet connection for grabbing the most colourful orbs in the
galaxy without bumping into other trails. I feel like Pet Connect is only a
rehash of Balloon Splash from My Talking Angela and Rainbows from the original
My Talking Tom. Do you wish that you had the power to shrink in order to easily
squeeze through narrow spaces like one of Tom’s pet would in Easy Squeezy? I
can see that the gameplay of Ice Smash requires a pinch of three-dimensional
thinking for eliminating differently coloured blocks by launching blue balls
from a canon in the best directions. Inflating balloons and trapping bees
between them makes me feel quite…satisfied. Totem Blast is not bad, but it
seems too similar to Toy Blast and Toon Blast [2] [20]. I would say that the
different gameplay styles are a clear sign of a decent variety of minigames,
despite how some of them are not very original.
 |
| Well, at least Cupid Tom is not a knife throwing act with Angela as the target. [6] |
 |
| And at least the way one of the minigames from My Taking Tom that has been recycled is yet another sign of My Talking Tom 2 trying to be a true sequel. [6] |
My Talking
Tom 2 could be a sign of a new era for Outfit7, despite how rather unnecessary
it seems. Little Tommy Wommy looks very cutesy wutesy in a tweaked appearance
indeed [6]. Let us compare the kitten in My Talking Tom to the kitten in My
Talking Tom 2. Tom in the sequel has brighter irises, a straighter nose, and smoother
eyebrows [6]. I can also see that the little Tom in the sequel has a bigger
head and a slightly smaller belly. I supposed the graphic designers aimed to
make baby Tom cuter for a new crowd of Talking Tom players. I will also admit
that the app on my iPad Air tends to be rather laggy at times, which made me speculate
that the app could be a little more compatible with newer iOS devices [6]. In
addition to my speculation, Sonic Dash would have low frame rate and sometimes
crash on my fourth generation iPod Touch, but flow smoothly and refrain from
crashing on my iPad Air [10] [11]. With altered features and possibly stronger
compatibility with newer mobile devices, Tom seems ready to rock the rest of
the late 2010s, along with the early 2020s.
 |
| A comparison between the Tom from My Taking Tom and the Tom from My Talking Tom 2. [5] [6] |
Looks like
the grey cat’s legacy is here to last, possibly for another whole decade. The
new gameplay features for the not highly needed, but at least refreshing sequel
to My Talking Tom can keep possibly a new line of young Tom fans on their toes.
If any of the older fans of Talking Friends prefer sticking to the previous
installments of the cool cat for the sake of making videos of him for YouTube,
then that is absolutely fine. The Talking Friends universe sure has changed a
lot, compared to how it was from 2010 to 2012. As many of us focus on the
current era of Talking Friend, I believe that there will be a My Talking Angela
2 next year or two [3]. I would be up for celebrating the high-pitched kitty’s
10th anniversary in 2020. It is crazy to see how he and his life
have evolved since the days when he was just standing there in the corner of a
street with long black whiskers and dull eyes. Still, it is quite a shame that
we do not hear from Roby the Robot, Lila the Fairy, the Johns and the other
forgotten Talking Friends anymore [19] [21] [22] [23].
 |
| Zzzzzzzzz… [6] |
References:
3. Outfit7.
(2014). My Talking Angela. iOS.
Pissouri. Cyprus.
4. Outfit7.
(2017). My Talking Hank. iOS.
Pissouri. Cyprus.
5. Outfit7.
(2013). My Talking Tom. iOS.
Pissouri. Cyprus.
6. Outfit7.
(2018). My Talking Tom 2. iOS.
Pissouri. Cyprus.
10. SEGA.
(2013). Sonic Dash. iOS. Tokyo,
Japan.
