Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - Nitro Rad

[Music] I draw ty the Tasmanian Tiger it was a platformer game for the Gamecube ps2 and Xbox coming in hot at the tail end of the era of cool platformer mascots after sonic broke that speed barrier it seemed like many others were following suit attempting to capture a similar spirit with characters of their very own this was a golden age for platformers and while many of them have aged unfavorably it was still an exciting time for kids who loved jumping around a lot of people like to clown on these types of characters but as a massive platforming fan that grew up in the early 2000s I've always had a huge soft spot for a lot of them my boy blinks for example he's often remembered as Microsoft's failed attempt at capitalizing on the mascot craze which is true but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love his design and the game itself I still quite like despite its issues but at the center of that chaotic mascot war was a little Tasmanian tiger named ty and this wasn't just any old mascot either despite being from a smaller studio with a vastly smaller budget and they tried to take a bite out of the big guys like the arrogant Icarus flying too close to the Sun ty slammed other popular mascots at the time with this infamous commercial depicting sonic spiraling crash as busted up hospital patients quivering in fear at the sight of the new kid in town it comes off as silly and arrogant today but back then it was rather exciting seeing another mascot take a stab at crash after he spent years doing that - Mario the war raged on and when I was a kid it made me excited to see what this little Tiger could do this is one of the very first games I ever covered on this channel way back in the day when I had no idea what I was doing and I thought the road to YouTube's success was paved by pessimism like ty did to his fellow mascots back in the day I made fun of the game and I made his problems seem wait worse than they really were all for the sake of I don't know comedy painfully mediocre right that's what I called it I was trying to spin this bogus narrative of revisiting the game I grew up with as a kid just I'll find out it sucks I just thought that was a cool and trendy idea so that's what I went with but by the end of that first year doing YouTube I began to realize I was much more interested in exploring what positives and interesting ideas I could pull from games even if the games I'm Sal aren't all that amazing I decided I didn't want to be just another YouTube funny man I want to be somebody that just talks about the things I find interesting I really don't think I was too fair with this little tiger back then and now that I've been doing this a little bit longer I really want to give this one a second look and there's no better time than now fairly recently the game had an HD remaster on switch giving the game a clean graphical uplift while making minor tweaks and adjustments to the gameplay so let's do this I'm gonna re review this game from absolute scratch while also taking note of the handful of differences between this version and the original I'm gonna see how this little Tigers improved and I guess you guys can see how I've improved Chrome Studios and they're the bad boys behind this one being a medium sized studio from Australia they've dabbled in a lot of work for other companies making some licensed games and even making two of The Legend of Spyro games but before they were put on deck to craft an adventure for a little purple dragon they were best known for a little slice of home a boomerang sling and platformer about a tasmanian tiger named ty it's one of those things that plays into the country stereotypes while also being made by the people who are actually from there so while it is all exaggerated and cartoon affined it is a caricature of the people behind the game just like how Trailer Park Boys is an exaggeration but everyone I know here in Nova Scotia can relate to the show in one way or another damn you know what I don't think I ever gave this title screen enough credit there's enough going on here to be visually interesting but it also keeps it simple enough to avoid being cluttered and I love the logo it is ingenious I get the simple two letter word makes for a large attention-grabbing logo that preface is the rest of the title like most platformers from around its time ty begins with a pre-rendered cutscene at inés friends are playing tag in the woods when he falls into a dark cave he meets with an ancient spirit who explains to him that years ago the Tasmanian Tigers fought with the evil boss cast to protect the five talismans casts use the talismans to open a portal sucking in all the Tigers into a different dimension called The Dreaming amongst those Tasmanian Tigers were Ty's parents who scattered the talismans as a last-ditch effort to keep them out of chaos so it's now up to tie to gather the talismans before Cass can bring his family back to the outback and put a stop to cast his evil plans pause Cass is a really goofy and fun villain I really like him his design is as kooky as it is sinister I love how over the top his voice acting is and they get some solid physical comedy out of the animation ty presents us with that familiar clash of warm and cold-blooded creatures that we've seen before in Donkey Kong Country but it doesn't fully commit to the idea by making the big bad a bird instead the bad guys are all lizards but the guy in charge is an ostrich I think this is an interesting decision as it helped to avoid obvious comparisons to K rool a decently unique spin on a familiar concept ty works really well as an obvious foil to Cass being more kind spirited he may be a result of the cool mascot era but I find he's much more polite and less arrogant than similar characters like Sonic he doesn't always have a quick and snarky comeback and that results in some fun moments where a befuddled ty doesn't really know how to react to something stupid somebody said I'm allergic to gas yeah okay no worries you know what that's something else I really didn't give this game enough credit for the character interactions are really goofy and charming and while the jokes don't always land there's plenty of great moments on your mic did it it's still good it's still good it's still good the portal just boom just throws them right out he eats dirt immediately the gameplay is quite similar to other collectathon from before and during its time most notably banjo kazooie you'll access a number of open-ended stages each one riddled about with objectives that are rewards you with a Thunder egg which is Ty's equivalent of jiggies in order to track down those talismans Ty's scientist friend Julius has built a teleporter that can warp them right to us but to power it he needs Thunder eggs conveniently giving us an excuse to collect as many of an object as we possibly can so like with any collectathon you'll complete various objectives to find them you might find them by navigating obstacles completing tasks for NPCs or collecting every one of the 300 opals in the stage Ty's got a variety of moves he can use to navigate his environment he's standard jumping can glide in the air for short time by sticking out his boomerangs while it is a silly idea and does look kind of goofy I do at least like it when games try to make this central object have as many uses as possible for example he'll also use them to extend his grip ever so slightly to hang on ledges and of course you can also actually throw them like you're supposed to do with boomerangs you can do this to knock out enemies ty wields two of them so we can throw up to two at any given time which I do really like a lot I feel like if there's just one boomerang it takes slightly too long before you get attack again but having the two gives them a really nice flow some enemies you'll have to first break their defenses with a fierce bite adding an extra layer to an effectively simple combat system this bite can also be used as a sort of homing attack equivalent stringing together a series of lunges to make your way across a path of spy eggs it's pretty much identical to how you use the homing attack in Sonic to hop across enemies though it doesn't have that satisfying bounce that Sonic did it feels a lot stiffer like you've got less control over it but it is used very sparingly so it comes off as a brief refreshing change of pace when it shows up instead of being a central mechanic like in Sonic you can also aim the boomerangs in first-person for any of those situations where you want a more accurate shot like hitting a button on a wall or taking out a crocodile or something the aiming in the original version I found really oversensitive it was kind of hard to land on where you're trying to hit but it feels a lot smoother in the HD version I have a much easier time aiming here if how the lack of gyro aim was a little bit disappointing and it's weird because like the game does have gyro controls but did they introduce gyro assist like many other switch titles did no they made it so you can rotate the controller to zoom in and out with the zoomerang they didn't like think to attach it to the only thing it's really good for like no they made it so you can tilt the controller left and right to steer ty as he glides like why it's not really a big deal or anything especially since ty doesn't really have that much focus on the aiming but I don't know with how much smoother titles like Tarak or strangers wrath play with the gyro aim in their respective switch versions it's a little bit weird to see a game like this use it in the most arbitrary of ways when other titles kind of already figured this out but anyway on top of having those two trusty boomerangs ty can unlock even more boomerang types these range from flaming boomerangs that can melt ice and deal extra damage to ice rangs I can freeze water creating platforms or the zoomerang that can scope out enemies from a long distance some of these are definitely more useful than others I like the ones that have practical gameplay purposes like lighting stuff on fire freezing stuff and stuff like that you know instead of the ones that are just another way to damage an enemy but even if the game doesn't make the most out of every rang it is a fun little way to add a bit of variety and I love the way that certain boomerangs will change the lighting on ty while some of these are mandatory you can't unlock some optional ones by collecting these big yellow cogs you'll bring these to Julius and he'll make you a new rang my favorite one is definitely the cub boomerang if not just for that brilliant pun and the way they collide to make the explosion after throwing both at once it's so freaking cool one nifty little thing they added into the HD version is the rang wheel from the second game it's a much faster way of switching boomerangs and using a d-pad so I'm glad they put that in here rainbow cliff serves as the hub world it's a little reservoir surrounded by rocky mountains with a tall and slender mountain in the center with a bridge extending from the top now don't that sound familiar gee oh I wonder where they got that from the inspiration here is pretty obvious but unlike spiral mountain I feel like rainbow cliffs somewhat misses the point a while spiral mountain was an effective and iconic set piece that has simply introduced the greater hub world that was grunty's lair ty makes its version of a set-piece the hub itself and I don't know there just isn't really anything interesting here it's just cliffs and water Julius has lab is kind of cool I guess but that's all there really is here I think it's fine visually it works well as a little slice of Australia but I don't know I feel like it falls a little bit short of working well as an interesting hub area but I guess it's the levels themselves that really make a difference in the platformer games so let's see how they hold up Ty's level design is pretty similar to other open-ended collectathon being a sandbox full of objectives to meet but unlike Mario or banjo or other popular ones Ty's levels often have a linear trail to sort of give you a tour before getting to an end point each levels gonna have one story goal which you'll be explained and then guided to with a series of pathways and collectables which effectively familiarizes the player with their environment while having them stumble upon other Thunder eggs along the way now other platformers like banjo usually have more scattered designs where the player is incentivized to walk in whichever direction looks most interesting to them and they do that so note action is the wrong direction it gives the player a lot of freedom and I understand that ty is trying to guide the player along an initial path to try and teach them the layout before giving them that freedom but the problem is once those collectibles are all gone after the first run you're then retreading the level again searching for those remaining Thunder eggs and the now item list level is difficult to navigate this is not a problem in a lot of the levels but the larger levels they can be a bit too large some of these areas have so much empty space that just doesn't have any good reason to be there and paired with a maze like somewhat confusing nature of some of these levels it can make searching for the remaining Thunder eggs a little bit annoying what you no longer have a path to follow some levels are certainly better than others so why don't we talk about one of those levels I really really love this nighttime one its structured really interestingly the first half is linear but then it opens up into a large lake area full of Thunder eggs scattered everywhere this level actually really nails that a linear stage becoming open stage type of design because rather than retreading the same ground in a nonlinear fashion it offers an entirely new section and a level with instead it's also just a really chill level overall I love the choice in color in the music it's so good it's the water and snow levels where I start to have issues with pacing navigation and level sighs a swimming through all these corridors and past all these islands it gets a little bit confusing when much of it looks the same at least the map is really helpful as long as I was cross-referencing with that thing I didn't have that heart of time navigating of stages but I think the fact that I have to rely on a map that says a lot about the games level design I mean banjo and Mario didn't need maps because their levels were well crafted and understandable even if they were really big tyonne Lee gets that right about half the time but I guess even the weakest a level still have their fun moments I found it a little bit annoying searching the snowy mountain for the Lost koalas but damn dude the lumber mill at the end oh that was a really cool part the water levels too I mean the first one has this big mountain at the end that gives you a fantastic view of the whole stage and the second water level it has this really cute quest where you're searching for a treasure each one giving you a little clue as to where to go next geez I remember complaining about this one specific jump in the original game I had no problems landing at this time and I even went back to the original to make sure they didn't tweak it or nothing and no it's still the exact same I have no idea why it's such a hard time with it it's not a difficult jump I think I just really made certain issues out to be way bigger than they were in that original video I guess for a comedic effect or whatever I don't know I do remember having all of these nagging little problems throughout each level and yeah they are still there but they're so insignificant most the time that I was hardly ever bothered by them like yeah there's a turret segment and his dumb and annoying but it's less than two minutes long and you do it one time in the whole game so like it doesn't really matter there's no point in pretending it's a bigger deal than it really is right if it wasn't really easy and went on as long as it did in Haven well then we'd have a problem on our hands but this it's nothing though I do still agree that the levels are definitely at their worst when you only have a handful of opals left and you got to search a massive empty wasteland for them I'd say this is probably Ty's biggest objective flaw and it is a hurdle that I've seen a lot of collectathon run into you know when there's like only two collectibles left and you have to spend way too much time combing the entire level for them bigger isn't always better there's a number of ways you could have fixed this though firstly you could simply just not require getting every single collectible in the level that's what Mario games do by having you collect 100 of the coins instead of every coin it could have also been ironed out by smaller map design with the pickups more carefully placed into areas that better grab the players attention instead of just throwing them in every single negligible corner of the map there's a couple of different ways that could have gone about it but if they really wanted the maps to remain this big and they really wanted you to get all 300 if they're really dead set on keeping those two things they could have still fixed it by adding a sort of oval detector similar to how the Spyro games do that with a sparks pointing you towards the last couple of gems let the info rank detect how close you are to an opal that would have worked this game really needs that too because god I've spent up to a freaking hour and some of these levels looking for like the last two opals it can get pretty freakin tedious but I guess this is only really an issue for the players going for a hundred percent if you don't care about any of that stuff there is a solid amount of wiggle room here you only need so many Thunder eggs to fight each boss and progress so you're able to skip out on a handful of objectives that you don't really feel like completing this is the same structure that Mario banjo both used and I've always phrased the hell out of it for giving players a lot of freedom to to pick and choose what parts of the game they do and don't want to place so that is one thing the game still does very well as for those boss fights they range in quality the shark boss is pretty cool going back and forth between the water and the platforms and trying to figure out how to deal some damage and the fight with the giant Yeti robot isn't too bad either but other fights can be ridiculously easy the first boss is so simple it's almost insulting though it was a really fun idea to have you ride them like a horse in the outback level after you beat them I really like how Mori will give each level a little run down before you get to play it watching them struggle to make up reasons why this iconic Australian setting is such a big deal is pretty funny too what's real earth and rock and some more sand and another Rock and moss yes it's glorious alright god I love this character there's something about watching a little pigeon with a mind of an Australian boomer trying to explain game mechanics that just does not get old to me Julius reckons it's got something to do with the space-time Kanaan drop but if he has asked I think it's a load of bull nost much like the leva quality the writing is pretty hit and miss as some of the jokes do land and there are some great nonverbal exchanges between Thai and the other characters that are really fun to watch but it's when the game tries to get dramatic or have any serious moments that it it kind of just comes off as lame all right sly oh there's that iconic angst of the times and remember the only thing cooler than a cool character is an evil version of the cool character a sly is Ty's evil long-lost brother and it is as cheesy as you could possibly make it now I'm gonna mess with you it's way too easy to make fun of but I kind of really love it in like a campy kind of way because it takes itself so seriously that it is hilariously adorable why is he hiding in the shadows like you're like you're gonna work for the guy you don't have to like it's okay if he sees you you don't have to hide from him I love how they try to give him a character arc returns go to the end but it all happens in such a short amount of time that it makes absolutely no sense for sly to just decide to be good now I also still feel similarly about the game soundtrack it is a very hit and miss any of the more laid-back songs often played in guitar and didgeridoos they work really well it's very easy on the ears and it gives any given level an extra bit of Australian zest to help set the scene it's when a soundtrack dives into that techno pop sound that's where it starts to fall short and the drums they use sounds straight off of a Yamaha keyboard [Music] the song's works used simply as a backing for the lead instruments I don't mind but when it's the focus of the track it just never lands for me it kind of comes off as goofy and amateur the game's theme itself though is quite brilliant there is a reason it stayed with me even after never touching a tie game for years it is a really catchy series of notes and they very effectively worked into the jingles for collecting each item there's some solid attention to detail to the amount of Australian wildlife in any given level is always great to see the developers definitely made sure to populate each area with tons little critters who really brings the environments to life another great detail is the sheer amount of idle animations ty has and Washington play around with his boomerangs and a bunch of different ways was kind of a tree I've always been a really big fan as the choice and sound effects in this game that oh the boomerangs make is a very iconic sound in the dazzling bings and bombs for every opal you collect makes driving them all very satisfying these old spider dudes right here has these Blanco drum sounds or when they walk around and it is amazing the HD remaster brings these little details into a crispy HD resolution with improved textures and a better frame rate that one was the big sell for me the frame rate of playing this game at 60fps like with any game really improves how good the controls feel but even with a graphical uplift don't expect the game to look comparable to anything new it's still a ps2 game and despite the coat of paint it still looks like a ps2 game the models and animations are still of medium budget 2001 quality it's a remaster not a remake after all they didn't do it all from scratch but rather by retooling the existing game so I guess don't go in expecting this sort of thing going expecting this sort of thing but I yeah for all the philosophy has I did find myself having a really good time with it even 100% of the game and plowing through all those more annoying objectives I still got through it fairly comfortably I guess I just really over exaggerated how much these things bothered me back when I first talked about it but you know I guess I hadn't really seen anything yet back then now I'm a seasoned platforming vet I've played many platformers with much greater issues than this I mean I've even beat bubsy 3d for crying out loud I know what a bad platformer looks like now and ty is not one of them I still think it's funny how the 100% reward is a cliffhanger that teases you with a robotic version of ty completely and blatantly ripping off Metal Sonic and then they do not follow up on that in a sequel at all I mean he is in the game but as a minor character with no involvement in the plot whatsoever so why the build up to nothing I still don't know why they did this but yeah going back to what I called this thing back in the day what was again painfully mediocre what a needlessly pessimistic verdict I mean it is on the mediocre side of things for sure but it's still a fun game so I do think it is worth playing if you're huge into platformers you know sometimes I still get people tagging me on social media when this game comes up in conversation often saying stuff like but didn't I try rat say that game wasn't that good and every time I see that it completely breaks my heart knowing that there's people out there that did not give something a chance because there's something I said god it stings it like completely goes against everything I now value in this a bizarre crazy wonderful world of video games you guys know I'm all about appreciating a little guys the lesser polished experiences that can offer ideas a a charming Nisour an appeal that you don't always get from the big guys in a world or people are so hesitant to play anything that does not have triple-a degrees of quality I want more than anything for people just to try things out and that cannot happen when people don't give things a chance because of me so I hope I've corrected that ty the Tasmanian Tiger is not a fantastic game honestly I still think it's rather middle-of-the-road but while I do still have a number of problems with it I would say the majority of the game is rather fun I think I use a phrase I hit and miss throughout this video so sure there's my new verdict this game is hit and miss it is a flawed experience but that doesn't mean it's not a fun experience when ty does things right it can be a super fun game and it does fumble over a lot of things but it's easy to forgive because of how solid most of the game is ty is a rather special series because despite being a b-grade game trying to capitalize on triple-a market he was one of the few little guys that actually saw some serious sales there's a reason a lot of people remember this character because unlike scalar or dr. Muto or whiplash or voodoo Vince a lot of people played this game I mean this version of the game was kick-started I remember the meeting their goal very quickly and it makes me really happy knowing that a mascot that most people write off as a forgotten piece of time but they you only bring up to make fun of is still a character that some people can get excited about ty the tasmanian tiger is the b grade' platformer that could unlike many others he actually got a pretty good slice of that pie I think it's a good reminder that no matter how dominated certain genres can be there will always be those little guys that will come in to take a stab at it I definitely recommend the game to anybody who's a big banjo kazooie fan as it's certainly a take on that kind of game it's obviously not nearly as good as banjo but it will scratch your platforming itch in a similar manner if you want to play the remaster it is available on the switch shop and will also be available on PlayStation and Xbox down the road my only real gripe with it is that I think the asking price is a bit too high thirty u.s. man I don't know I think a 15 would have been a more appropriate price point especially when the steam version has been out for years and is way cheaper but hey with that said they also pour to the second two games the steam as well a while back so I expect them to do the same on switch if they ever get around to it I'll definitely revisit the sequels as well but for now I'm content with just revisiting the first one it was really cool given this little tiger a second look it's really interesting noticing like what sort of things I paid attention to this time while before I was mostly prioritizing just picking out things that I could make fun of the game hasn't really changed much but what I was able to pull from it most certainly has it is still a rather average game but hey Everage games can absolutely be worth playing it just depends on what you're looking for and all it took was a little Australian tiger to help me realize that thanks ty [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Nitro Rad

Views: 458,942

Keywords: nitro rad, review, krome studios, b grade, b-grade, platformer, platformers, ty the tasmanian tiger, ty, boomerangs, australian, ps2, xbox, gamecube, remaster, nintendo switch, mascots, blinx, croc, vexx, scaler, 2000s, revisit, rereview, HD, b game, the legend of zelda and mario's missing bionicle

Id: ENx7d0DRc80

Length: 24min 44sec (1484 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020