Short, simple but satisfying.
The story is that Ty was playing with his friends one day in the jubgle when he stumbled into a pit only to be told by the bunyip elder that long ago all of the other Tasmanian Tigers had been banished to world known as The Dreamtime by a cassowary called Boss Cass using five ancient talismans. It turns out that Cass is seeking the talismans once again to send all mammals to the Dreamtime. And so it's up to our Aussie hero Ty to recover the Talismans before Cass does.
The best game to compare Ty to is Banjo Kazooi on the N64. You run around through the levels doing missions to get Thunder Eggs, which are needed to power the Talisman machine so Ty can find Talismans. The worlds can be quite large and provide many hidden treasures. Ty runs, jumps and swims through jungles, beaches, mountains, billabongs ect, his weapons are boomerangs and his teeth. Some Thunder Eggs will be found just lying around, but a lot of them will require you to do missions for people in order to get them. For example in one level you have to explore snowy mountains to find lost Koala children. You can also obtain Thunder Eggs by finding all of the 300 opals within a level and rescuing five Bilbies trapped in cages within the level.
Also dotted around the level are golden cogs. If you collect 15 of them and bring them to Julius' lab in Rainbow Cliffs you'll be awarded with a new pair of boomerangs. Most of the boomerangs are there just for the novelty really. The only ones you'll need will be provided to you in the story. There is one boomerang which will let you thrown multi boomerangs at the same time, one that explodes on impact, a totally useless one which slows down enemies the list goes on.
One issue I do have with the game is that some of the levels are just too big for their own good. As a result if you are attempting a 100% run it is very easy to miss a little nook containing some collectibles. Also there is a glitch with Opal counting, the game counts Opals one by one, if you pick up a load quickly the counter will not count every single one you picked up and you can be running around the level looking forbthe Opals you supposedly missed, when really the game counter lost count. The only way to "fix" this glitch is to pick up a magnet when you can't find any more Opals and the few you "missed" will be added to the counter.
Once you have collected enough Thunder Eggs it's boss battle time! The bosses are actually very easy, figuring out how to damage them is the hard part. But once you know how to damage them the fights are easy. If you die mid battle you'll re-spawn and the boss will not regain his health back, it will be the same as it was before you died.
And once you complete a boss it's on the next set of levels. But the game is set up in a way which will require you to do something on each level. In other games like this, for example Fur Fighters. If you are struggling in the world you are currently in, you can go back to a previous world collecting any babies you missed, if you get enough from previous worlds, you don't have to do anything in the second last level and you can jump straight t the boss. Ty's different level sets have different Thunder Egg types. For example the second set of levels have icy Thunder Eggs, and only these ice eggs can be used to power the talisman machine. You can't go back the first set of levels and get any thunder eggs you missed to try and advance the plot because fire Thunder Eggs are found in these levels, and will no longer power the Talisman machine. But since Ty is so easy there's no reason for you to ever need to do this even if the game would allow you.
Graphically the game looks very natural and the textures and colours create a very natural looking environment which is pleasing to look at. The music is pretty funkey for the most part using Australian instruments such as the didgerydoo. (S'cuse my atrocious spelling)
I have played both the GameCube and PS2 versions of this game. My verdict is they're pretty much equal. The PS2 appears to have more graphical enhancements for example I don't remember the tide coming in and out on the beach levels in the GameCube version. However there seems to be a problem with spoken dialogue in this version. There were a few instances (about 3 or 4) where the dialogue cut out midsentance. And also the dialogue didn't automatically skip itself in a few lines, so I had to push X to skip it manually. Also one the cut scenes towards the end had the sound go all quiet - though that may all be because the disc is scratched. The bonus worlds are also differant - whilst the actually level is the sme the PS2 version has it set at day tine and the GameCube has a far superior night version, which is 1,000,000 times more pleasing to look at. The Xbox apparently has both versions. However this is only a minor gripe against the PS2 version. There is no definitive differences between the two versions, but I prefer the GameCube controller.
This game, though very short and painfully easy, is a worthwhile ride which provides a lot of room for exploration, fun game play and a lot of collectables, a funky sound track and it is a nice game to play. If you see it pick it up.