Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers Review
Introduction
Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers from Black Pants Game Studios is not quite the adventure you would expect by watching the trailer. The game promises sandbox style gameplay and an action adventure feel. But the game lacks both.
Story
You are Tiny, a "nerd" like the game tells you. One day you discover that your grandpas underpants is gone. Your mission is to get "Big" whom is the obvious thief. "Radio" will also accompany Tiny on his journey for the underpants. Oh it turns out the underpants gives you powers if you put them on your head, telekinesis powers in fact. That's the story, not entertaining and not funny. Unless you find underpants jokes hilarious then you are in luck, this game is full of them.
GamePlay
What makes this game somewhat interesting is a Rising style of cutting mechanic. You can cut basically any mesh you desire in any way you like. This feature offers some enjoyment for the first 15 minutes of the game. The developers had to restrict this mechanic in someways. You can't cut the ground in most cases and some bigger structures are not possible to cut at all which is understandable. Tiny also got other equipment to help you along the way. A grappling hook that grabs objects (You can't swing yourself with the grappling hook) and a rocket that propels objects.
When you finish the first area of the game you are welcomed to a lot of narrow corridor sequences with extremely poor platforming controls. This game is mostly in corridors offering a poor gaming experience. The majority of the game is you cutting a pillar, using the grappling hook to pull it over a gap, walk over the pillar and repeat. It's easy to mess this up so the game offers you the option of reloading a checkpoint instantly via the 'O' key. However the checkpoints are not that generous, sometimes they are miles apart forcing you to redo an area several times. They also have a tendency to not reload some of the mesh you previously cut. Which totally breaks the game in most cases.
When you're not trying to jump around in tight corridors you are confronted by Big. In these sequences you are avoiding rocks and jumping on platforms. When these parts of the game is over you repeat the cut-grapple-walk part again and again. It's not welcoming either that Tiny seems to be drawn against the center of the screen, regarding of the camera angle you choose. This results in him walking somewhat to the side when you are running which is extremely frustrating.
There are some collectibles to hunt down that is scattered around the map. Boring rocks as they call them. There's also hidden tapes around the world unlocking the best thing about this game, the soundtrack. If you're an achievement hunter you'd be happy to know that this game have both in-game achievements and steam achievements.
Verdict
The game do contain some neat tech but it doesn't make the game enjoyable. This is not a long game either, I finished it in roughly 2 hours. But if you got 9 bucks and can overlook the flawed gameplay then consider this game a purchase. Otherwise I would avoid it.