| Platform(s) | Steam (reviewed), Xbox One/Series X, Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | 3D puzzle-platformer, collect-a-thon |
| Players | 1 |
| Developer | Splashteam |
| Publisher | tinyBuild |
| Released | 2022 |
| Playtime | Around 7h normal playthrough, 12h completionist |
So, what do you get if you take equal parts "Pikmin," "Paper Mario," and "Banjo-Kazooie" and add a dash of French animation? Well, if you answered "a Frankenstein’s monster of game concepts," then you’d be right. However, the point being that "Tinykin" is a marvelous game that takes a little inspiration from each of these mentioned titles, culminating in its own thing.
In "Tinykin," you play as Milodane, an archaeologist from the planet Aegis, who is determined to find the origins of the human race by following a signal emanating from a nearby galaxy. Unfortunately, something went wrong during the bubble teleportation, and he wound up the size of a dust bunny inside a gigantic house! Now, it’s up to you to assist Milodane in exploring the house and unraveling the mystery of the intergalactic human migration. And, of course, to help him regain his proper size.
You soon run into these small, round creatures – tinykin, if you will – that are helpful in several ways. Sure, you can pick them up and throw them around to your heart’s content, but they actually possess special abilities which are determined by their colors. Pink tinykin help you haul small and large household items around, while red ones explode upon impact and can light stuff up. Green ones stack together and are used as vertical ladders, whereas yellow ones can bridge large gaps (where applicable). Blue tinykin are electrically conductive, which is quite useful when you need to turn on appliances. Don’t worry, they actually enjoy the pain.
The house consists of five different levels, with two areas acting as connecting hubs between them. The levels are actually rooms in the house, while one of the connecting hubs is the foyer and a level in itself, all of which are open to explore as you please once you have unlocked them all. Each room is inhabited by an assortment of people, or rather, insects such as ants, praying mantises, and shield bugs. For each level, you are tasked with completing a list of objectives requested by these insectoid citizens, and successfully doing so will reward you with one of the machine pieces necessary for Milodane to return home. Each objective is a quirky little happening in the world of these insects, for example, starting up a CD player so that a group of religious dragonflies can sing the canticle of their deity, Arwin, or helping resolve a dispute between anxious dung beetles and partying silverfishes.
Besides completing these chores, one of the main objectives of the game is to gather pollen. A challenging but fun task as there are about a total of 1200 pieces scattered around each level. Pocketing around 900 of these rewards you with bubbles which let you float through the air. In your aid in finding and reaching every pollen, you have the tinykin, the aforementioned bubble floater, as well as a soap bar that is unlocked early on in the game. The soap bar acts as a sort of hovercraft/skateboard, which lets you travel fast and grind upon furniture edges like a miniature Tony Hawk. Who would have thought that cleaning the floors would be such fun?
One of the great aspects of the game is that there are no enemies to encounter. It’s just you, the insects, and a buttload of pollen to collect. The lack of enemies means that this is a game you can play at your own pace and leisure without worrying about being killed. Although there are a couple of environmental hazards such as water, spikes, and carnivorous plants (which I guess could count as an enemy), meaning there are times you’ll see Milodane pop as a balloon more than once, if that indeed is your sort of thing.
The game is otherwise an excellent platformer, which despite being in 3D, has the characters rendered as high-resolution 2D sprites. Their animations and designs are of such high quality, though, that soon enough you’ll accept them as being as fully fleshed out as the objects around them. The music is also top-notch, with each level having its atmospheric composition. Very enjoyable, but alas, there unfortunately weren’t any tunes that got stuck in my head, and I could barely hum them after turning off the game. But still, I very much liked the soundtrack.
The main takeaway from the experience I’ve had is that "Tinykin" is a wonderful indie gem that will be a great addition to my favorite collect-a-thons of all time. This is because it’s fun and approachable, has an imaginative level design, and the fact that the actual collecting didn’t feel like a necessary chore to forward the plot. There’s also a new time trial update to the game where you can zoom around the levels and clear courses in a race against the clock. This was quite an endeavor which I soon gave up on upon collecting my first platinum medal. The stress these races invoked wasn’t quite worth it as it only awards you with different outfits in the end. Fortunately, being an add-on bonus, the time trials won’t affect the achievements so you can still complete the game 100% without grabbing all the medals.
I award this game with 4 out of 5 tinykins.
