In fact, it is my favourite genre. Games like Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper and the 3D Mario games are among my fondest gaming memoreis. I am not sure why the genre has declined but I'm glad to see games like the Last Tinker try to revive it.
You play as the Last Tinker in a world where the colours are like races and are no longer getting along. The bleakness has arrived to take all the colours away and you must figure out what happened and get the aid of the various colour spirits along the way in order to do so. Once you gain their trust and confidence, they provide you with their powers (conveniently mapped to the D-Pad) and you can progress further in the game.
Like many third-person action adventure games there are many different types of gameplay elements that you will uncover as you go. A staple in the game is of course combat and although you really don't have any weapons per se you will use various powers to scare enemies away, stun them, or just plain beat on them. Some enemies are a little tricky to defeat, requiring you to use specific attacks that change as you go in order to stun them, then take them down. It definitely makes the game a little more challenging without becoming frustrating.
The frustrations I had while playing, revolve around the controls, which I found rather loose and a bit strange to "jump" or "hop" from special points. On the PlayStation 4 you hold down the R2 button to automatically jump but at times there are different direction choices and I found myself fighting against the game to get the right ones. I also found that while all the colours in the game are lovely it can leave you lost at times as to where to go. Fortunately you have "Tap" with you to give you direction as to where to go to next.
There are puzzles in the game as well, nothing too difficult to figure out and while the game is likely targeted towards kids I found that as a veteran platform gamer I wanted to play this game and enjoy it.
At the end of the day, I did enjoy it. It's a little short but then again it's a downloadable game. There are very few voice overs but hey, Zelda didn't need them so I guess this one doesn't either. I end up just having a mixed bag of emotions overall but when I look back at it, I had a good time and I suppose that is what is most important.
Having beaten the game I am not likely to go back and play it again but I encourage you to, because the more people that pick this up mean there is a better chance for a sequel or at the very least, a voice to support the creation of these types of games. If they are your favourite too, then you are going to feel right at home in the Last Tinker: City of Colors.
- Syd Bolton
Follow @sydbolton
The Good:
- Has elements from old-school platforming games like Ratchet & Clank, Mario, and Zelda
- Colorful graphics and a unique world to explore
The Bad:
- Loose controls and a strange leaping system that will kill you many times
- You can sometimes feel lost in the sea of colours without a clear direction of where to go
Syd Bolton surrounds himself in thousands of classic video games as Canada's top video game collector playing his games on a 80 inch Sharp Quattron Plus TV. He is also the founder of the Personal Computer Museum (http://www.pcmuseum.ca) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
