Developer: Mimimi Productions
Publisher: Unity Games
Platforms: PC, Linux, Mac, PS4 (soon)
The Last Tinker City of Colors – Review
The Last Tinker City of Colors is a new 3D platform based adventure game developed by the German based game development studio Mimimi Productions.
Story
You play as Koru, an ape-like character that happens to be the last Tinker in Colortown. As a Tinker, Koru has the ability to shape the world by taking over the powers of the spirits that look over Colortown. Koru will start a chain of events that leaves the city of colors in bleakness. It is your duty to travel across the city, helping those in need while gathering the spirits together for an ultimate battle. From the start of the game, you will notice that the tower is the central-piece of it all as this is where it truly begins but it is also where it must end. While the story is quite mainstream as you have a hero that needs to prove himself and an evil boss which you will need the face, it’s the smaller things to the story that makes it great. You will stand face-to-face with several emotions that hit close to home such as fear, depression and anger. Each of these emotions need to be overcome and it is these small details that make the storyline perfect for all ages to enjoy.
Graphics
The graphics are not realistic by any means but it does not take away the fact that they’re simply outstanding. You will be facing an extraordinarily handcrafted paper mache world where literally everything is crafted from paper, glue and colors. From the landscapes to the windmill, even the food and cardboard text bubbles are made of paper.
Sound
The game is not voice acted which is something you need to get used to at the beginning. Characters in the game will have plenty to say but the murmur and muttering is inaudible and requires you to read the text bubbles. However, each character will have their own tone of muttering which makes it less dull to listen to. The combat noises are prominent and certainly have a nice tune to them and will remind you of the typical kung-fu sounds when you punch or kick an enemy or crate. The overall soundtrack of the game is amazing and changes depending on the environment you’re in.
Gameplay
Overall the game has that typical platform-feel that has lend several features from other great platformers such as Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter and possibly even Crash Bandicoot. A core feature in the gameplay are the automated actions such as jumping over platforms and climbing on vines, which is similar to the mechanics used in Assassin’s Creed. Although this feature is well implemented, it is hard to tell when it is activated as you may find yourself plunging to your death when you’re running towards a tiny platform. The rail-sliding in The Last Tinker remind me of the Grind Rails that can be found in the Sonic the Hedgehog series which makes it an even more fun experience. A downside to the rail-sliding in The Last Tinker is that you aren’t able to move your camera around for better angles, causing you to be a tad late for jumping on some occasions. If you do end up dying, you will restart from the latest checkpoint, better known as the Tinker Seeds.
As I said earlier, as a Tinker you have the ability to gain the powers of the spirits. Each spirit represents a color and an emotion and will give you special fighting abilities against the bleak liquid and monsters that are roaming Colortown. Red will cause anger, blue will sort of freeze your enemies and green will make them flea from you. Each color will also have their very own special ability with a short duration which will help you throughout the game. Red will give you more strength, green will slow down time and blue will give you the ability to run through the bleakness. If you’re not happy with the abilities you are given, you can always buy special combat moves from the vending machines that are scattered around with the gems you have been picking up from the beginning. You can also buy these combat moves in the Dojo from the main menu if you can’t find any vending machines.
The overall gameplay is a nice mixture of exploration, puzzle solving, combat and questing. The puzzles in the game are not incredibly hard but some may take a little while to figure out. It is the combat however that will make you scratch your head as you need to figure out what exactly you need to do in order to defeat the bosses you will come across. Possibly there will be a few times where you will need to lower the difficulty to defeat these but you can always change it back later. As far as replayability goes, there are about 40 saves where you can go back but the storyline doesn’t changes. So you wonder why you would replay the game? Every level, or at least almost every level, has golden paint brushes which you need to find. The more golden paint brushes you have, the more concept art you will unlock. You can consider this a sideline quest as the concept art is something you should really want to see.
Conclusion
The Last Tinker City of Colors is an excellent game with a storyline that doesn’t hit far from home. Thanks to the vibrant graphics and the non-violent nature of the game, the game can be enjoyed by all ages. The gameplay itself has a nice mixture of exploration, combat, questing and puzzle-solving which makes the game significantly less dull than most platformers. All-in-all, those that enjoyed series such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot will find themselves loving The Last Tinker City of Colors as the game can be easily placed next to these bigger titles.
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