Tinykin

[h3]I spent nearly the entire game sat on the floor with my legs crossed and a massive smile on my face.[/h3] Where do I even begin with Tinykin? Okay, I'll start from the emotion it evoked; happiness and childlike wonder. That sense of awe and that sense of curiosity. That desire to explore and wander around. I wanted to make friends, and I wanted to find all the secrets. I wanted to help everyone and everything. I wanted to do everything. I didn't want my time with Tinykin to end. Okay, that's the emotive part of the review. What about it made me feel that way, though? Well, let's start with the creativity. Tinykin starts you out as a small humanoid creature exploring uncharted territory... that territory is... a house. Whoa! Crazy, I know! What an unheard of concept. But wait! That's not all! You're actually as small as a bug (you make friends with bugs along the way, by the way), and the house feels massive because of this. The level design is incredible. From fields and farms made of sponges in the kitchen to a sort of red light district in the bathroom. Solving puzzles like how to make popcorn and bake a cake with your little friends (who are lovingly referred to as Tinykin). These Tinykin sort of act like Pikmin in that you can delegate them to do tasks for you. Need a piece of corn to reach a different part of the room, or need to reach somewhere high up that you can't normally jump up to reach? The Tinykin have got your back! They'll help you carry heavy objects, help you climb to new heights, and even help power your toaster! Everything is so incredibly witty and creative. From bugs making houses out of matchboxes to entire towns and societies forming in each new area. I could not once stop smiling when playing this game. My girlfriend looked at me at one point and said "I love seeing how much fun you're having playing that game" because it was written all over my face. I keep coming back to how creative this dang game is. I fell in love with the game immediately upon exploring the very first level. I instantly knew this one would be a new favorite. (Plot twist: it's now one of my favorite games). The music is cozy and has just as much heart and soul as the level design. The writing has as much soul as the music, and the characters have as much heart as the gameplay. There's something about riding around on a bar of soap and grinding rails with said soap. I didn't know I needed this until I got it in video game form. You can even do a couple tricks with the soap! What do we call a bar of soap? A soap board? A ... soard? Let's not think about it too, too much. Best not hurt our heads with that one. Anyway, I loved going around and talking to all the NPCs and seeing what they had to say. Sometimes it would be a reference, or sometimes it would just be someone making a silly joke. Either way, I always felt like the NPCs were worth talking to. I especially liked the clever usage of names for the NPCs. There was one NPC in the game whose name was Tippsi, and he was constantly going around to every bar in the game and testing their nectar to see who had the best. He was... truly tipsy. The whole time. Seriously. Someone get that guy some help. And while we're at it, someone get some help for Sikaru. That poor ant has been slaving away, trying his best to find the perfect nectar blend all by his lonesome. Share your pollen with him. You'll be glad you did. I could go on forever about this darned game. I'll give it a technical review below, and that'll be it. Otherwise, we'll be here all week. I played on Steam Deck, both docked and in handheld mode. While the game [i]could[/i] hit 60 fps, I found the most enjoyable experience to be with graphics lowered a bit, and when playing in handheld, to lock the frame rate to 40 fps. Battery life is also surprisingly great with the visuals looking as good as they do. I got around 3 hours per charge on my Steam Deck OLED with the charging limit set to 75% battery. The game looked gorgeous on the handheld, and it also looked beautiful when blown up on a 50-inch TV screen. [i]Summary: This is what I live for. If you enjoy 3D platformers or collectathons, then you'll surely love this little gem of a game. Perfect for everyone in the family. Perfect for the busy family. Perfect for a laid back weekend. Perfect for those who love video games. Let yourself have some fun again. You deserve it.[/i]

I can't believe nobody is talking about this. This is a hidden gem among 3D plattformers. It's so satisfying from it's retro visuals, to the music, the controls, the smooth and fast movement to the sound effects. A lot of games try to capture the visuals and sound design of the early 3D plattformers, but this captures the feeling you had playing them. [Looks and works perfectly fine on Steam Deck.] Time to finish: ~5 hours

I bought it without a lot of expectations, but could not stop playing that evening. it is very short but also very fun. It as this inexplainable retro soul.