Tinykin is Pikmin… isn’t it? I mean, what else could it be? You’re a little guy in a big world building an army of even littler guys to perform tasks for you. It seems very cut and dry. That’s what the trailers may have led you to believe, but Tinykin’s similarities with Pikmin are only skin-deep. In Tinykin, there is no time limit, combat, resource management, or tactics of any kind. It has none of the things that make Pikmin… Pikmin. In actuality, this is Tinykin’s great strength. The two games sprout from the same idea, but Tinykin reimagines it in the context of a 3D exploration platformer, to great success.

The player character is Milo, an explorer from a donut-shaped planet seeking to learn more about humanity’s past. When he learns that humans actually originated from a place called “Earth,” he ends up shrunken down and stranded there. Luckily, he befriends a species called Tinykin that can help him collect parts to the machine that will get him home. Each part is in a different room of the house, which has turned into cities for a society of bugs.

Once you enter a room, you’re pretty much set loose. You’ll need to collect a number of items and solve puzzles to get the machine part, but these can be done in any order. How you approach exploring is up to you. The level design is quietly the best aspect of Tinykin. Fundamentally, every level is four walls with a bunch of stuff around them. With such an open-ended structure, this could easily lead to an aimless experience. However, the opposite is true. No matter where you are at any moment, the game organically leads you on. This is thanks in part to the bright yellow pollen everywhere begging to be collected. You’re also opening shortcuts constantly, allowing you to easily return to any place. Tinykin is built for players who love wiggling into every nook and cranny of an environment. I never paid any heed to my actual objectives when starting a room, I just set about exploring, and things usually took care of themselves. 3D platformers rarely pull off open levels of this style, but Tinykin makes it look effortless.

Traversing the rooms is a joy due to Milo’s own tools and the Tinykin themselves. Early in the game, Milo gets a “soapboard” that speeds him up. He can even do kickflips with it! He also has a bubble that lets him float across gaps. Collecting enough pollen in every room upgrades the length of time the bubble lasts, so by the end, you can cover vast distances without touching the ground. As with their inspiration, there are several varieties of Tinykin with their own specialties. Purple ones move objects, reds blow things up, blues conduct electricity, and so on. My favorite, though, is the green species, which forms a ladder. You can simply hold the button and they stack up beneath Milo. Once enough are in your crew, this gives you an edge in reaching higher platforms. Tinykin cocoons are scattered around the environment, and popping them to grow your squad is good fun – even if they give you more than you need. I played the whole thing with a mouse and keyboard and still felt remarkable control over every aspect of the game.

Beyond the main objectives, each room has side missions to complete, extending the fun. The reward is purely collectible, but I still enjoyed completing the ones I came across for their own sake. You can also find lost letters and hidden NPCs if you really love picking things over. In that time, you can really appreciate the game’s presentation. The placement of real-world objects is inspired, the art style is expressive if familiar, and the music and sound effects are delightful. The game is only between five and eight hours, and that’s perfect for what Tinykin is. I was engaged the whole time, my only frustration coming from a cutscene that erroneously would not give me control back. I just kept quitting, trying again, and mashing keys until it finally worked. Also, there are bugs everywhere with things to say, and I just couldn’t care about whatever bug society/religion they had going on. Fortunately, you don’t have to engage in conversation 99 percent of the time.

Because Tinykin is not Pikmin, it is free to pursue different goals and succeeds on nearly every front. I was not expecting it to be so much of a platformer, but I very much enjoyed the results. And with the surprise announcement of Pikmin 4 coming next year, Tinykin can exist in its own space without being upstaged. I would like some DLC with an extra room or two to push the level design even more. Right now, though, Tinykin is a brief but memorable experience to satisfy the collector’s itch. It’s a true Game Pass Gem.