Tinykin is out next month, so here’s your little reminder to give the demo a try.
Tinykin was one of the many, many, many games announced over the Keigh-3 period, as part of the GamesRadar Future Games Show showcase. Purely from the trailer alone, it was clear as day that this game was going to be an absolute bundle of joy, similarly to a baby but without all the negative sides of a baby like soiled diapers and crying a lot. Here’s the trailer to jog your memory.
Since then, Tinykin‘s demo became available on Steam and many eagerly awaited the August 30th release date. Personally, I loved the look of it, labelling it as the conglomeration of a Paper Mario-like and a Pikmin-like.
While it was one of the demos I planned to play on Xbox when it was available, it wasn’t one that I ended up having the time for. Thankfully, I set aside some time today to play it after being reminded of it, and I’m glad I did because baby, it’s a winner.
The demo takes you through the first room, as every level is set in a different room. Because you are very small, these rooms are big enough to act as different cities. Also because you are very small, the NPCs are all bugs. This is very good.
I stand by what I said in regards to its Paper Mario and Pikmin influences as it very much gives the paper-like vibe with the 2d characters in a 3D world graphics, with both being just so very smooth. Then there’s the Pikmin link.
Tinykin is a little guy game. The Tinykin are little guys that can carry things for you, and blow stuff up. That’s all we see from the demo, but later you meet ladder guys, and electricity guys, and I want to collect them all. They all look like different iterations of Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. This is very good.
So it’s got a bit from Paper Mario, a bit from Pikmin, but what else? It’s also a little bit of a collect-a-thon, with cities being packed with pollen that you must collect. Sometimes it’s for quests within the city you’re in, but you do this for the ant in the hub world that wants to make some sweet sweet nectar.
There are also ‘artifacts’ to collect around the house, and they’re required for the hub world’s museum. They are literally just regular objects, but they are big because you are small. The main task, however, is to make a very silly-looking contraption out of larger objects found in each city.
Also, you’re a skater! Kinda. To move around a bit faster, you can slide along on a bar of soap. Using this bar of soap, you can also grind along edges and across strings to get across large areas. These strings are woven by little baby moths, who are the assistants of one bigger (but still small) moth that acts as your guide. This is very good.
While I only had the demo to go off, I can say with confidence that Tinykin is probably going to be one of the many indie games coming out this year that ticks all the boxes for a damn good time. I really can’t wait to see the full picture! What a joy that it’s coming out on pretty much everything!
Tinykin will be released on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch on August 30th, and you can try the demo out now on Steam.
Leave a Reply