The Last Tinker: City of Colors
released on May 12, 2014
The Last Tinker is a joyous action adventure and definitely no platformer, as there is no jump button. Koru, a boy from the slums of Colortown, must rise and stand against the Bleakness, a dark force intent on wiping out joy. Koru must use color and emotion to restore life to Colortown!
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I played this when I was small and tiny. It was perfect for a young audience which is why many people who play it later in life don't enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I played up to the point where you obtain the green spirit before I couldn't take it anymore.
The game's pitch sounds great, and it has some good character designs. On the surface, the game had everything it needed to succeed.
Sadly, it ended up feeling unpolished. I can forgive a bit of it since this was only the studios' second game. But things compounded.
The limited controls you get at any given time do not feel responsive enough. Koru is clearly quick and agile when he is doing things automatically, but sluggish when it comes to executing the commands you give him. The camera, especially early on, has a nasty habit of picking bad angles. And with how few abilities Koru starts out, new powers are given way too sparingly.
A bit before I dropped the game there was an encounter that had a nasty habit of spawnkilling you repeatedly if you mess up. The responsible attack even goes through walls. The detection mechanic on that enemy was a mess, and it revealed the inconsistent way the game handles hitpoints and respawning. If you have an attack that forces a respawn, don't also reduce HP for the next attempt. Pick one. Oh, and that is before we consider that the death/respawn animations are way too long.
As for the plot, I get what they were going for, but along the way they broach the issue of bullying, then handle it pretty poorly. In general, expect the protagonist to be mostly adressed with slurs. Not that he really seems to care.
And then there is a "side character" that is an annoying game mechanic at best - you can only call him from a very short distance, the game doesn't tell you that you can keep holding the whistle button, and you spend a lot of time waiting for this character to do things for you instead of doing them yourself. This character actually has a few powers, but will cower in the presence of enemies rather than helping you, because he is not given any agency whatsoever. At the same time, he will willingly run into static hazards that would "kill" him. That's if I'm being generous, because at worst, he is an ableist stereotype as well, one that is treated as completely expendable, too. Which is ironic because a major theme of the game is racism.
It goes without saying that I'm really glad I picked this one up in a 90% sale, because it certainly doesn't feel like a 20€ product.
The game's pitch sounds great, and it has some good character designs. On the surface, the game had everything it needed to succeed.
Sadly, it ended up feeling unpolished. I can forgive a bit of it since this was only the studios' second game. But things compounded.
The limited controls you get at any given time do not feel responsive enough. Koru is clearly quick and agile when he is doing things automatically, but sluggish when it comes to executing the commands you give him. The camera, especially early on, has a nasty habit of picking bad angles. And with how few abilities Koru starts out, new powers are given way too sparingly.
A bit before I dropped the game there was an encounter that had a nasty habit of spawnkilling you repeatedly if you mess up. The responsible attack even goes through walls. The detection mechanic on that enemy was a mess, and it revealed the inconsistent way the game handles hitpoints and respawning. If you have an attack that forces a respawn, don't also reduce HP for the next attempt. Pick one. Oh, and that is before we consider that the death/respawn animations are way too long.
As for the plot, I get what they were going for, but along the way they broach the issue of bullying, then handle it pretty poorly. In general, expect the protagonist to be mostly adressed with slurs. Not that he really seems to care.
And then there is a "side character" that is an annoying game mechanic at best - you can only call him from a very short distance, the game doesn't tell you that you can keep holding the whistle button, and you spend a lot of time waiting for this character to do things for you instead of doing them yourself. This character actually has a few powers, but will cower in the presence of enemies rather than helping you, because he is not given any agency whatsoever. At the same time, he will willingly run into static hazards that would "kill" him. That's if I'm being generous, because at worst, he is an ableist stereotype as well, one that is treated as completely expendable, too. Which is ironic because a major theme of the game is racism.
It goes without saying that I'm really glad I picked this one up in a 90% sale, because it certainly doesn't feel like a 20€ product.
Platformer is a very loose genre to characterize this game in... feels more like an uninteresting walking simulator
How do you make a platformer and forget to add a jump button, even Balan Wonderworld got that right
The color pallet is really quite imaginative but everything else is just a bit bland
This is more or less a 3D runner filled with fetch quests than an actual 3D platformer. You can't even press a button to jump! I would say it's the worst 3D platformer I've ever played, but that would be calling it a 3D platformer, which it is not. So yeah, don't play this game.