Tinykin

Release: 2022

Developer: Splashteam

Publisher: tinyBuild

Gameplay stats: 9 hours, 43/43 achievements

Holy platforming Pikmin, Batman!

Aesthetics: Our visuals here are definitely reminiscent of Paper Mario. 2d characters that don't rotate with the background moving around in a 3d world. The characters look like they've all been hand drawn and are quite cute. The levels are pretty basic 3d models, but they're a little stylized adding to the cute look of the rest of the game. There are 4 types of Tinykin with different head shapes and colored suits. They look a little like the viruses from Dr Mario, I'm a fan. In this game you are shrunk and need to explore a house for the McGuffins. They do a good job giving different looking levels for different rooms of the house. There are some repeated elements but for the most part even the textures between the different levels are varied, it's nice! The music in this game is really good too. Definitely feels Grant Kirkhope inspired. 

Plot: The plot here is really simple. You venture to a new planet and discover you're a main character in a video game! There are McGuffins that only you can help retrieve because the Tinykin only respond to you, no one else. The house is owned by an important character that the bugs of the house worship like a god. That part was pretty interesting.

Gameplay: This game really is like a combo of Banjo Kazooie and Pikmin. The general gameplay is exploring and collecting items with some pretty tight 3d platforming. You also collect the Tinykin which are needed to solve little puzzles in each of the rooms. They aren't so much puzzles as little gates where you need so many of the little guys to do what you need to do. It doesn't sound that fun when I'm typing this out, but I really had a good time. There are 6 levels, each taking about an hour to do a first run through. I spent some time after cleaning up every room and playing some of the races. I really wish there was a way to see in the game where your missing collectibles in each room, but I followed along with a speed run to make sure I collected everything.

Standouts? I think this game is a lesson in movement being important. I don't know that I will remember that much about this game in a years time, but I really enjoyed the time I spent here. Playing the game was delightful, I really had a lot of fun. The movement here was really the star and made the game very enjoyable.

I'd recommend this game to anyone that's a fan of Collect-a-thons. This one is cute, has nice music, and the movement is really good.