Ty the Tasmanian Tiger Preview
EA's Australian action adventure game for the PS2 will have colorful settings and good-natured charm.
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, a new multiplatform console game from Australian developer Krome Studios, aims to be a good-natured action adventure title geared mostly toward younger audiences, though it also endeavors to have enough depth and creativity for all. The game consists mostly of accepted action adventure elements, like exploring, combat, minigames, puzzles, and the everlasting quest to collect various items. But that's not to say that Ty is completely traditional, as the game has a unique Australian inspiration that yields a fun setting and style, plenty of humor, and levels that are full of interesting things to see and do.
First, let's get this out of the way: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger has nothing at all to do with the famous Warner Bros. character Taz the Tasmanian Devil. At least, not officially. But Ty actually has a lot in common with his fellow Tasmanian--they both have similar names, hail from Down Under, and appear in cartoony settings. However, Ty has his own style, and his world features different characters and a different story. Besides, unlike its cousin, the Tasmanian devil isn't extinct.
The game picks up when Ty learns that several members of his family--once believed dead--are in fact alive but trapped in a parallel realm called "dreamtime." Ty learns that there is a portal to dreamtime that can be opened if he finds five talismans. These talismans were dispersed throughout the land when the evil Boss Cass, the game's antagonist, sent the family of tigers through the portal after nearly losing to them in battle. Think your mission is to find the talismans? It's not--at least not directly. Luckily for you, there's a wacky Koala Bear inventor by the name of Julius who happened to be working on a machine that teleports the talismans to one convenient location. But unluckily for you, it's not finished yet, and Julius needs a number of thunder eggs to complete it. So your mission, really, is to find enough thunder eggs to allow Julius to complete the machine so the talismans that open to the portal to dreamtime can be reassembled.
And how do you find thunder eggs? By exploring, of course! Adventuring through the levels consists mostly of engaging in combat and searching for collectable items. In combat, Ty uses boomerangs, and a constant goal throughout the game will be upgrading your boomerangs and acquiring new ones. For example, you will be unable to use your normal boomerangs when you arrive at the first water level, but you will quickly be able to find a new pair of boomerangs to use when swimming. Additionally, once you collect 15 "golden cogs," Julius will upgrade your boomerangs to fancy "techno-rangs."
In addition to the golden cogs and thunder eggs, there are two other main collectable items. The most common item are opals, which are much like the coins found in a Mario game. Opals are usually placed along the most common paths through the level, but they can also be found elsewhere, like in boxes and secret stashes. In effect, opals will actually lead you through the levels, as you can quickly find unexplored areas merely by searching for new strings of opals. The fourth main collectable, and the most unusual, are "bilbies," which are the creatures that raised Ty after his parents were trapped in dreamtime. Bilbies are little blue dancing creatures, and they have been imprisoned by Boss Cass. If you're a good Tasmanian Tiger, you'll free them. But, of course, there are also other incentives for you to rescue them. Five bilbies are trapped per level, and if you find them all you'll receive a bonus thunder egg. You're rewarded for collecting the other items, too. If you find all 300 of the opals in each level, you can visit special opal machines at the end of the level to get another thunder egg. If you're looking for still more ways to find thunder eggs, know that, like opals, they can also be found in hidden stashes, earned from NPCs for completing quests or minigames, and won by completing certain puzzles.
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- GameSpot Score7.5good
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- ESRB: Everyone
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