The Last Tinker: City of Colors

Like my previous review of ScaryGirl, The Last Tinker: City of Colors is an awesome idea of what a fun Saturday morning cartoon should be. Vibrant levels, interesting enough characters, and a plethora of adventures for the main character. I wish, however, that the gameplay matched the idea because it certainly does fall short. While I did have fun during my time with this game, there was more problems than I liked to contend with that made the entire adventure fall short of the mark I'm sure the developers were hoping to hit.

I have to start with the world of Last Tinker. You play as Koru, a boy on an epic adventure to save Tinkerworld. It's quite a mighty task and it almost seems insurmountable if it wasn't for the fact that our friend Koru is a Tinker, which means he's able to manipulate the world to achieve his goals. The entire world is giant! There is so much to explore and you're encouraged to do so freely. Every level has hidden coves, hills, and other assorted hiding spots to find collectibles. All of the levels have varying degrees of verticality that give you different degrees of freedom in terms of exploration. I really enjoyed running through every level because they were all different enough to keep things fresh. Visually the world is marvelous! Every place you visit is vibrant and the levels look like cardboard cut-outs that were colored by crayon that really gives it a cartoonish look that I couldn't get enough of.

Like I stated previously, Koru is a Tinker. His gift allows him to manipulate the world but there is absolutely no freedom to do so. There is no 'real' platforming to speak of. Using a controller (preferred method) or a keyboard, you basically run at objects that look like you could jump on them and Koru does it automatically. It might seem like a detractor, but I think it's no problem since the world itself is the biggest attraction to the actual platforming per level. Unfortunately there were moments when the automated platforming stopped working and I'd plunge to my death during a very simple jumping portion in the game and that kind of sucks.

Combat plays a major role in this game as well. Light and heavy punches make up the majority of your moves. You're able to upgrade damage, but that's about it. Fairly basic to be honest, and I wish there wasn't so much of it since it doesn't really add anything to the game. To be honest, it's mostly a chore to fight enemies. I prefer to avoid them whenever possible, even though most of the time you're forced into arena style combat with your opponents.

You do get 3 different abilities that you're able to use to manipulate combat and they do add a nice touch to an otherwise dull experience. You're able to freeze enemies, cause double damage with another ability and the final one let's you make enemies run in fear, usually falling off a cliff or running into something sharp and pointy that kills them instantly. I do wish the enemies weren't so dull, but I suppose they are just generic components to give more variety to the game.

All that aside, now I can get onto the biggest problem with this game that kind of is a giant bummer to me. You're explicitly told multiple times that as a Tinker you can create, destroy, and manipulate the world you're in. Sadly, that isn't fully realized at all and it sucks. There are very specific moments in the game where you're forced into an action to change some part of the landscape to progress in the world but besides those moments you can't do so freely and it's a shame because the idea of it would have propelled this game to another level. I believe that the developers fell short of their mark and it's disappointing because it would have alleviated the other problems easily if I had the freedom to change the world to my liking to progress. This game seemed to be geared towards children and it's easily showcased so be aware of that.

Overall, The Last Tinker: City of Colors isn't a bad game necessarily. It's clunky for sure, and some of the gameplay is dull and uninspired but the world is superbly designed and the level design is just as fantastic. During my 13 hour playthrough I had very few frustrating moments, but that doesn't mean I wasn't bored sometimes. I played the game on the Instant Death difficulty because I felt like it would be too boring on an easier difficulty. Playing it on the hardest difficulty didn't necessarily make the game any better or worse. The check pointing is generous enough to not make the game frustrating, but we warned that playing the game on Instant Death means getting hit by a single enemy kills you and that means restarting the combat over (most of the time). Give this game a try, but don't take it too seriously or judge it too harshly. It definitely wasn't designed for someone like me, but I still found some fun in it.