A terrible evil threatens the City of Colours and only by working together, shrugging off years of gentrification and bridging the gulf created by the have and the have-nots (not to mention the different colors), do the residents have any hope of dealing with the threat. It's the kind of thing one would expect to come across in a children's picture book.
Playing The Last Tinker, I couldn't quite put my finger on who the game is actually aimed at. The sharp brightness and cartoon/cardboard cutout style, seem to aim this at the 6 – 10 year old crowd but some of the content – one sprightly character shouts, “Screw this!” – is clearly for “older” players who would probably shrug off a platformer this colorful (and mostly easy).
I should clarify one point from the preceding paragraph: characters don't actually talk. They emit a bunch of gibberish along the lines of The Sims or the previously mentioned Banjo-Kazooie games. Speech bubbles – cardboard cutouts – appear and players need to read the text. A lot of six and seven year olds are only just learning to read so wouldn't it make sense to include some spoken dialogue especially when mission instructions are delivered wholly by text?
Fortunately, the protagonist, Koru can ignore the instructions and just send out his very mobile sidekick to show the way to the next section of the game. That doesn't mean that a young player can rely on this to navigate the game. They'll still come up against sections where reading is essential as puzzles often have some cute character telling Koru what to do to overcome some obstacle.
You might be saying at this point, “Well, if your kids are playing while you watch – afterall, you should be involved in your kids life – then you can read the text.”
And you'd probably be right and I'd feel guilty for using the game to buy myself some time to make dinner.
It's not all about puzzles, there's plenty of combat. It's simplistic and easy to grasp, which may grow tiresome for older players because button mashing is a-okay. If the player in question has yet to grow tired of the combat found in the likes of the LEGO games, then they're probably going to be able to maintain an interest for longer stretches.
As a title put together by a small team to showcase of Unity development tools, it manages to impress with the use of the tech. I'm not sure that's a ringing endorsement of the game, but The Last Tinker does manage to offer some challenge and fun for younger players, aside from some “stealth” and at least one puzzle that I needed to turn to the Internet to solve.
- Aaron Simmer
Follow @EmpireArmchair
The Good:
- Big, bright and filled with color
- Combat that small children should have little problem with
- Tells a story and has a message
The Bad:
- Characters that don't talk
- A handful of the puzzles might force you to the Internet for answers
