Tonic Trouble

Tonic Trouble
PC cover art
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Ubi Soft
Director(s)Sandrine Polegato
Producer(s)Grégoire Gobbi
Designer(s)
  • Michel Ancel
  • Frédéric Houde
  • Serge Hascoët
  • Gunther Galipot
  • Benoît Maçon
Programmer(s)
  • Julien Merceron
  • François Mahieu
Artist(s)Stéphane Desmeules
Writer(s)
  • Stéphane Beauverger
  • Olivier Rigaud
  • David Neiss
Composer(s)Eric Chevalier
Platform(s)
Release
  • Nintendo 64
  • 31 August 1999
  • Windows
  • 7 December 1999
  • Game Boy Color
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Tonic Trouble is a 1999 action-adventure game developed by Ubi Soft Montreal and published by Ubi Soft. The game follows janitor Ed, who drops a container of unidentified fluid from his spaceship to Earth, transforming the planet into a mutated version of itself. Drunkard Grögh drinks from the container and is granted powers that lead him to conquer Earth. Assuming the role of Ed, the player is tasked with solving puzzles and defeating enemies to acquire the tools to conquer Grögh and repossess the container to create an antidote.

Tonic Trouble was conceptualized by Michel Ancel and developed by a team of around 120 people, starting pre-production in June 1996. After multiple delays, the game was released for Nintendo 64 in August 1999, with a Windows version following that December. A Game Boy Color adaptation was made by RFX Interactive and released in Europe in 2000. Tonic Trouble received a mixed response from critics, who approved of the controls, score, level design, and graphics, but criticized the camera system, gameplay, visuals, and its derivative nature. The game sold 1.1 million copies.