The past has been one of the more surprising competitions; being the winner of the 3D platforming craze Mario started up with Crash and Sonic joining in on the madness back in the 90’s. While the three were plenty strong and had their competitors like Spyro, most of the time these wannabe mainstays didn’t last a single game, like Glover. Some games tried to become true 3D platforming greats, like Croc, Blinx, and even Pac-Man trying his hand with the Pac-Man World series, but it was hard to dethrone the top three.
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger was one of these fighters, mostly well known for his audacious ad of him scaring Crash, Sonic, and Spyro after putting them in the hospital. It was a bold move, to say the least, even more so considering how the games were yet another victim to the passage of time. However, Krome Studios has been letting Ty back into the land down under for modern audiences to experience. Now, all the games can easily be bought and played on modern hardware. With this game getting the remaster treatment for the Switch, now the only missing game is the third one in the series. So how is the game? Simply put, it’s okay; nothing that big or fancy, but also nothing that bad or annoying.
Ty is back with his friends, relocating to Coolarangah to keep the Bush Rescue team going strong. The goal of this organization is to go around the Southern Rivers and help out all the residents with their problems. From rescuing castaways to delivering lunches, there is nothing they won’t do to help others. During the game, a couple of the team members are reported to be missing, and their robotic counterparts pop up to cause chaos and mayhem. It’s up to Ty to look into these robotic counterparts popping up all the while helping out all the other residents. Meanwhile, the evil Boss Cass is planning something sinister for Ty’s homeland, and he is interested in trying to keep those robots going.
In comparison to the other games in the series, this is a 2D platformer, just like the Ty games on the Gameboy Advance. The levels require you to do one significant main objective to complete the level while having several side objectives. These side tasks range from bringing something back to a certain area, hitting all the switches in an area to unlock something, or even being placed under a timer to finish a goal. Two bonus objectives also follow you throughout the same level and all the stages within them; one is collecting 9 pieces of fruit, and the other is saving 6 koala tourists. Whenever you complete an objective, be it the level-specific objective, or the tourists and fruit tasks, you get a thunderstone. However, there is one big problem here; they don’t serve any purpose other than a 100% ending cutscene. You can progress from level to level by only doing the main objective. This heavily handicaps the game’s main playtime, and makes the Thunderstones useless unless you’re going 100%. This makes the game heavily bank on you loving the gameplay enough to 100% it to see everything. So, how is the gameplay itself? Well, it’s fine, but nothing that noteworthy.
It’s a 2D platforming affair. You run and jump around the levels to complete your goal for the stage. You attack by throwing your trusty boomerang around. Some enemies require you to charge your attack with 10 opal stones, which come to you easily with them being all over the levels. Some enemies will require you to either bite them or use a different type of boomerang to beat them. Bite attacks can only be performed up close. They’re capable of being able to home in on enemies and are used to bite floating rows of blue orbs to reach higher places. In the end, these obstacles aren’t that involved and can easily be dispatched. Combine that with infinite lives and checkpoints being all over the place, and the worst that these obstacles can do is just delay you for a bit.
In terms of level design, they are all pretty basic. They’re not as bland as the levels in Enchanted Portals, but they are still pretty standard affairs. Some levels will just task you with going from point A to point B, beating any enemies in your way. Others will have you use a certain boomerang type to hit and activate different things within the stage, like using the fire boomerang to light torches, the electric boomerang to turn on generators, and so on. Other times they will be forcing you to take down a certain enemy type. There are also parts where you will be forced to take something from one part of the level to the level and get him to drop it, forcing you to get it back. These objectives seem like they have a lot of variety, but they are all tackled in the same way; go through the level linearly, attack anyone trying to attack you, and reach the end. It quickly gets tiring very fast. It’s not poorly designed or anything, it’s just something that doesn’t change the way you play the game for the time it takes to clear it, which isn’t that long; being about 4 hours.
You can get new boomerangs in two ways. The first way is to go through the story and beat the bosses, getting the plot important boomerangs you need. The second way is to go to the shop to do so. The shop is located on the main menu, where you will always be taken after the end of each level. It feels extremely jarring and like it was just slapped together in the afternoon. A level map where there’s an option for the shop, or even the shop being accessible from the checkpoints within the levels would feel a lot more organic, and less confusing, constantly getting kicked back to the main menu every time you beat a level. The problem is that the boomerangs you can buy aren’t necessary unless you are getting 100%. The only one that could be bought for advancing how you approach levels is the cryptorang. Thankfully, this isn’t used to invest in cryptocoin or NFTs but rather lets you see invisible platforms when you equip it. It’s a decent enough boomerang that can be bought cheaply enough that it’s worth a try.
You can also buy cosmetics for Ty to wear while out on the job. These outfits can range from original designs for the game, clothing referencing past titles and even concept art, or even as other characters. It’s a pretty decent lineup with a lot of potential choices to buy, and it does reward fans of the series who stuck around with it for so long for them to know who’s who. Yet, it remains open and accessible to newcomers with them being given a wide option of cosmetics to choose from. It’s a pretty good costume shop overall.
Graphic-wise, it’s decent; the backgrounds and enemies all fit what you would find in the great outback. The areas are jungles, savannahs, beachside sections, basically places one could expect to find in Australia. The character design is equally as fun, with the cast all consisting of animals and looking consistent with one another while still standing out with their differences, letting them feel like they’re part of the same world. Animation-wise, however, is a different story. You can practically see just where the limbs are attached with how choppy they move, and it very easily takes you out of the experience. They feel less like actual characters and more like ragdolls.
The sound design is solid as well. The music is nice to listen to, and it captures the feeling of an upbeat adventure in Australia rather well. The songs aren’t anything that one would want to go out of their way to listen to, but they do add to the vibe of the world. They use their instruments to make it feel like you’re walking through Australian landscapes, from the deep and dark jungles to the serene beaches. The sound effects are solid, with them being noticeable and loud. However, sound mixing is another problem in general. It is very easy to just have the sound effects drown out the music. None of them are bad, and at least this game actually has sound effects; Enchanted Portals certainly can’t say that. However, the sound mixing drowning out other sounds is a legit problem.
Overall, the game is serviceable. There’s nothing here that sinks the experience, but it isn’t making an effort to go above and beyond, which is a huge shame because it’s a remake and that’s what a good remake should do. The only things this remake did was replace the old comic book panel cutscenes with more traditional 2D cutscenes and add new voiceover work for the text. The gameplay and all the faults from the past are still with it, like only being able to carry one item at a time and the enemies being more like obstacles you have to spam a button at than actual challenges.
If you bought this game back when it was new in 2015, then you’re pretty much going to be playing the same game now. It’s certainly a fine game, but there isn’t anything here to warrant you sticking around for more unless you’re ready to dedicate a weekend to 100% the game. If you’re a fan of 2D platforming games, there certainly are worse games out there to play for more. Otherwise, there are still better 2D platformers you could play for around the same price.
