I disagree.
I loved the open world concept and how you could isolate yourself to solve certain puzzles (like the first one basicaclly) but know all puzzles could be solved using a small amount of tools.
It gave the impression of making me not look for the obvious solution - like forgetting how a blueberry could walk on a ceiling if I made it and having the frog go down the water would cause no issue (solution to a very spesific puzzle). It left me puzzled looking at the three creatures I had, knowing where I needed to go and left me wondering how the hell I'd get there.

Apart from a minor bug allowing me to sing the transport song without revealing it and causing me to be stuck for quite some time (until some nice soul gave me the song), traveling between puzzles is really easy while not giving away the impression of being an open and somehwat dynamic world (seeing how all the creatures are isolated within puzzles - I know they can be left there and not "run away").

What I do dislike - where we may disagree - are timed puzzles. I hate having to be forced to run to place A hit button B before action C happens, which I felt caused me frustration in Toki Tori, but no so much in Toki Tori 2+. If anything, I could just fly away frustrated and have the back of my mind solve the puzzle for me while progressing someplace else.

I feel the charm of the wisthle overcome the annoyance of it. There has been time I've whistled the reset song when I ment to whistle another song due to habit, but it didn't reset me to far because the solution has been rather easy to solve so far once you've solved the puzzle once.
I mean, having a reset-button easily accesible wouldn't hurt, but the choice of a short song hasn't caused any problems for me personally - and I am afterall reflecting my opinion.

Seeing what the year has brough me of games, Toki Tori 2+ has been a good contestant for my personal Game of the Year. One can discuss up and down what qualify a game for this title or if my opinion is worth something or not. But the amount of joy, the happiness I've gotten and the respect I have for the developer will make me vote for Toki Tori 2+ if it's possible in a contest.
To be fair, I got to mention I haven't really bough much new games this years, so the subjective opinion from me is easy to get.

Not to mention the fitting sound track which and the artstyle of the games makes it all feel like a great experience for anyone looking for a casual puzzle game to enjoy the heck of and get their worth of value.

And I have to mention their twitter-account. I have not seen a more fitting "twitter-style" to go with the "naive" bird from Two Tribes. In my head I just imagine the bird act all naive twittering (it's even more suiting because it's a frigging bird) their tweets and answer questions and spread information.

hmmm i dont have many playing hours, but both are quite different games to me. They are both great nevertheless!

I think Toki Tori 2 is an amazing game, much better than the first. Shame that it's probably getting less sales than it deserves. Almost no gaming sites have featured it since release, (which strikes me as strange) and as a result most people are probably assuming this is a simple puzzle game like the original and thus not quite worth the asking price. It certainly took me by surprise.

It's probably GOTY for me so far, easily as good as FEZ in my books.

I agree with the op. I had plenty of fun with the first part, I think mainly because I like the kind of puzzles where you see goal but only have limited resources to achieve it, like "man if i only would have one more InstantRock(TM) it would be easy ...."

toki tori 2 is completly different game more like Spiky Harold, you get lost, get punished for mistakes ....