Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD review

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger is a 3D platformer that was first released during the sixth generation of gaming consoles in 2002. The game averaged 69,5% on Metacritic. It also spawned three sequels before being initially remastered for PC in 2016. The remastered version released on Xbox One on October 14th, 2020.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD is set in Australia, where the main antagonist, Boss Cass, invades the Outback in order to steal the 5 mystical talismans in order to become the country’s ruler. While executing his plans, he’s confronted by a family of boomerang-wielding Tasmanian tigers who try to stop him from achieving his objective. Fast forward to a few years later, our protagonist, Ty, encounters the Bunyip elder Nandu Gilli who tells him about Cass’ evil plans. Upon hearing this, Ty takes it upon himself to find the missing talisman and save his family.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD is a 3D action platformer where, as the titular character, players are tasked to find thunder eggs for professor Julius, a koala, who needs the eggs to power up a device that will help them find the Talismans. Along with the eggs, players need to find additional items such as red jewels and golden ship’s wheels in order to 100% a level. Each level is designed differently and offers a unique challenge whilst collecting your goodies.

Ty also has a few ways to get around and defend himself. You’ll first start off with your trusty boomerang. Obviously, the biggest issue at this point is that you have to wait until the weapon returns to be able to attack… or do you? While waiting for your boomerang, you can use your chompers to bite through the opposition. It can also serve to release a few caged friends across the various levels. Shortly after you begin, you’ll be given a second boomerang for “increased” firepower.

While levels will have you mostly run around to find thunder eggs, you’ll also be called upon to participate in various activities. One of the levels as racing a buddy on a surfboard while a different level will have you protect a friend, by going into first-person mode, as she wants to refill her water bottle. These diversities, while very much simplistic, bring an additional layer of diversified gameplay ensuring players just don’t mindlessly run around. Levels don’t have many enemies, so it’s mostly a peaceful run.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD looks fine; it’s clearly a PS2 game with a basic paint of HD. The game’s visuals are cutesy and colorful; quite appealing to the eye. But the problem here is that we’ve had much better sixth-generation games remastered onto current consoles such as SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated. Levels are well designed and thought-out; they don’t feel overly complicated to frustrating. The soundtrack is a cutesy score that could easily apply to a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s ok but nothing noteworthy as it becomes more background noise than actually a complementary aspect to the game.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD is a pretty simple and straightforward 3D platformer. Fans of the genre will enjoy it, although might find that some mechanics haven’t aged all that well and also a bit too simplistic. It’s a nice diversity from the upcoming waves of AAA games and it’s perfect for gamers of all ages.