Tiny Bang blends hidden object and puzzle gaming into a charming package -- but I would've liked more story.
The gameplay is pretty standard, but with a sprinkle of light adventure-game style exploration. You'll play the game in 5 "chapters" of sorts. In each chapter will be a half-dozen locations to explore -- each location is basically a full screen, each connected with doorways, stairs, etc. To complete the chapter, you solve series of puzzles, but to begin each puzzle, you must go to the locations in that chapter and find the objects needed for the puzzle. The puzzles, themselves, are pretty standard -- sliding tile, rotating pipes, unscrambling pictures, figuring out patterns, solving simple codes.
Where TBS stands out is the general presentation -- it's completely filled with wonderfully detailed hand-drawn artwork that is exceptionally well done. It's intentionally a whimsical, colorful, "folksy" look, mixed with terrific, light hearted music. The world is so charming, you forget that you're playing something you've played 54 times before. I had no issues with any of the puzzling -- although easy, it was relaxing and fun to explore the game world.
The only place it fell down for me is the story... There is a pretty interesting story there, but it's subtle. You'll need to pick up on a range of small clues -- this game has no intention of explaining the story to you. The game starts with the charming little world being shattered into jigsaw puzzle pieces, and you spend the game putting the puzzle back together. But at no time are you really told what's going on. Maybe that's the point -- the story is in the mind of the player, however you choose to interpret the little visual cues. But for a game with "Story" as part of the title, I expected at least a bit more of a narrative?
At any rate, for folks that like light puzzle games -- even if you think you've played more than enough hidden object games -- Tiny Bang Story is well worth your time.