In theory, making a spiritual successor to Jet Force Gemini is a novel idea. It's a really interesting game for its time that while good, does have its fair share of messiness, especially when it comes to controls. The idea of making a semi followup while keeping the idea of modern game design philosophy in mind could end up making a game like this a modern day hidden gem. Unfortunately Tamarin is not this game. It's a very clunky and frustrating experience that's a step back in almost every way possible. A game that refuses to play by the rules of modern game design philosophy and suffers heavily for it. Run n Gun controls feel practically unchanged from JFG, giving the game a really big stiffness and awkwardness to shooting and moving, and that goes for all of the controls. There's also a very obvious delay upon pressing any button. Not enough to actually impact gameplay, but just enough to notice that there is one. Collectibles are scattered throughout the game, but have seemingly no consistency to how many of a certain collectible will be in that area, making some areas feel too bloated with items, while leaving others feeling awkwardly empty. The world's themselves look fine enough, but very much give off pre made Unity map vibes, and because of that causes a big clash with with the character and their style and designs, making for 2 different art styles that really clash poorly. There are a couple of good things however, and I do mean a couple as in 2. First, the character designs. The Tamarin family are cute and they do have some pretty nice emotions and animations at times, despite the fact that they clash with the environment around them. The second is the absolute banger Soundtrack. Somehow they got David Wise to compose this game along with Graeme Noegate for an additional ambient track and its the biggest highlight of the game hands down. The saddest thing about Tamarin is just how much potential it had to be a really cool game, but somehow misses every single opportunity it got to be that game. It's a shame that this is still Chameleon Games only outing so far, as I'd have liked to see them potentially take the these criticisms into account for a potential sequel or just next game, but I've got a feeling that they quietly disappeared into the aether as nobody mentions this game despite its almost 3 year existence. It even hurts more that despite wanting to see this developer improve, I can't in good conscience recommend this game at all. It's just so boring, bland, and forgettable. Not worth your money or time in the slightest.