"Vital signs okay, equipment damaged, origin uncertain and age undefinable." With these cryptic sentence blocks, the puzzle platformer Tinykin welcomes you and gives the starting signal for an insanely sweet adventure.

While narrative has never really been a focus in a platformer, Tinykin has a premise that is interesting enough to get players invested right away. When they take on the role of Milodane, an explorer who comes to earth in search of discoveries, things take a eerie turn when there are no humans left and time hasn't passed since 1991, but the feeling that someone or something is watching his every move remains.

To get home, with the help of the funny creatures known as Tinykin and other colorful characters, you'll have to build a special machine in a sprawling ant-sized metropolis full of bugs and other insects to make things even more fun.

As if this wasn't strange enough, the friendly Ridmi – a strange, white-bearded creature that appears out of nowhere – offers you his help and explains the simple of the game in a short tutorial. Thus, you'll jump over gigantic records, float through the air for a short time thanks to your bubble backpack, and get to know your first little helpers – the droll Tinykin.

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These lively henchmen all have special abilities that you can take advantage of during your adventure. For example, purple Tinykins are extremely strong and can combine forces to move heavy objects or transport them around to open up new paths, while green Tinykins can stack on top of each other and serve as useful ladders. Blue gnomes are excellent conductors of electricity, red bombers blow up obstacles, and yellow acrobats quickly build a staircase out of nothing to reach unimagined heights with ease.

Of course, not all types of Tinykins are available to you at the beginning. However, in the course of your adventure, you'll gradually meet new ones, so your gaming experience will always be motivating, and each new level will bring a breath of fresh air into the game. The music also underlines the whole experience. The melodies in every part of the house never become an annoyance, and the various tunes fit the ambience of the area Milo is currently in.

Nevertheless, the game takes you firmly by the hand at all times and literally "asks" you to use the required Tinykins in explicit places. In addition, all objects that can be interacted with flash in the respective color of the needed Tinykins, so you don't have to experiment wildly to finally make progress. However, even though the objects literally jump out at you, you still need the required number of Tinykins to solve the task or puzzle. For example, a door will only open when enough purple helpers join forces.

If you are still lacking energetic support, you may have to take a different path first. This makes the levels a bit more complex and extensive, but with a bit of patience and perseverance you will inevitably reach your goal. This also forces you to remember the exact path you took because if you can't solve a puzzle, you should know later on where you left off. Furthermore, collected Tinykins are only available in the level in which you collected them – simply taking a whole motley crew with you to the next doesn't work.

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Your main task will be to restore your aircraft, which has been damaged, so that you can leave this strange place. For this, however, you'll need some objects that are hidden in the different rooms of the house. You'll travel through the fragrant kitchen, the untidy children's room or the foaming bathroom and complete various tasks and solve one or the other puzzle.

The Chrysal workshop is your base, from which all future operations start. Here you return the found objects from the levels and start new missions to other rooms. Unfortunately, there is no quick travel function in Tinykin, so if you want to restart a level, to find all the pollen or to finish optional missions, you'll have to take the sometimes tedious path that often leads you back to the workshop – fortunately, a smooth soap board is already at your disposal at the beginning, with which you can slide through the levels quite quickly.

In the varied levels, you'll find countless details and lovely cuteness that will undoubtedly enhance your entertaining adventure. The creative level design is really impressive and offers plenty of space for extensive explorations through the insects' cities inside the house. Everywhere you can uncover exciting secrets, discover hidden passages and solve puzzling tasks.

You'll also encounter chatty cockroaches, buzzing dragonflies and other creepy-crawlies everywhere, which will not only make you smile with humorous pop culture references, but also have optional missions up their sleeves.

For example, in each level, you can find a certain amount of golden pollen, which your friend Sikaru will use to brew delicious concoctions and also reward you with an extra bubble to float in. Thus, meticulous treasure hunters – in this case, eager pollen hunters – will sooner or later have advantages in fun exploring the exciting environments, as each new bubble will allow you to travel longer distances and thus reach new areas.

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With the help of a striking overview via spyglass you can see new and undiscovered missions at any time. If you want to collect every pollen, successfully complete all the main missions and finish all the side quests, you'll certainly be busy for around ten hours plus.

Especially the concise 2D representations of the protagonists, who otherwise cavort in a three-dimensional world, are a nice eye-catcher. In addition, the positively playful melodies will surely animate you to sway along happily once in a while, and thus ensure a good mood.




At first glance, Tinykin may seem overwhelming with its various mechanics and collectibles to find, but somehow the game keeps you moving at a steady, yet entertaining pace. As a bare minimum, you'll still have at least six hours of fun trying to get Milo home. However, opt. to complete in full, and you'll be able to extend the total game time by a few hours, or more, of satisfaction by solving increasingly difficult puzzles. And although it doesn't necessarily have that strategic component of Pikmin, Tinykin makes the most of its interpretation of the genre, while adding its own adorable mascots for one of the best 3D platformers of recent years, especially on Gamepass. This is hands down my personal GOTY 2022 and childhood dream wrapped in a superb collect-a-thon platforming experience.

Acknowledgement

This game was provided for review purposes by the developers. Thank you!

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In Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm, players take control of a knight on an adventure to deliver the three sacred emblems to each nation. The game's intro cutscene begins promisingly: on a rainy night, a baby is placed in Master Mayfair's care. Eighteen years later, the young man will be put to the test that will determine whether or not he will become a Knight of Arcadia. To do so, he must return to the Island of the Outcasts and retrieve a box stolen from Master Mayfair by pirates. After obtaining the box, he discovers that his hometown has been attacked by dark knight invaders who pose a threat to the entire realm of Arcadia. The main goal of the game is therefore to stop evildoer Mesmeroth from attempting to take over the planet with his army of dark knights. Thus begins a quest to unite the peoples of Arcadia, which is also the setting for Oceanhorn: Monsters of the Uncharted Sea (sequel story-wise) a 1000 years later.

Anyone who has played the original Oceanhorn will recognize the universe of Oceanhorn 2. Despite the 3D transformation, enemies and places look familiar, even though you now control your hero in third person. The mostly linear, partially free-roaming game environment provides more options than the previous game. As the journey develops, you'll find yourself in larger locations that you may explore at your leisure without losing focus. The key reason for this is a mini-map that makes it easier to go to interesting spots. Not only will you face diverse foes, but you'll also have to solve interesting puzzles in order to locate the many hidden prizes or to simply advance the plot.

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The hero has a number of abilites at his disposal to do so. Running, climbing, and, of course, the fighting system, which is symbolic of The Legend of Zelda, are all there. Real-time battles allow you to slash your opponent immediately by pressing a button. Holding down the action button allows you to launch a strong series of strikes, but it will take a few seconds to recharge. Not only do the foes differ in appearance and attack style, but they also have unique vulnerabilities. Some foes, for example, take many strikes to show their vulnerability, but others require just one attack from behind to gain the upper hand. You may even sneak up on enemies via the dense grass and deliver a surprise attack that deals more damage than usual.

Aside from fighting, the extremely low stamina is a hassle, especially when traveling long distances. Many pathways are needlessly long in general. It's also sad that the travel system is so restricted, relying on only a few portals. At the very least, there is a useful map function that automatically tracks where treasures may be found when journeying. On the other side, I had to become accustomed to unintended automatic jumping. You can't leap on your own; the hero does it for you on the edges, which was kind of frustrating at times.

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The riddles and trials in the game are undeniably the highlights. The flexible magic gun is used in addition to the standard switches and keys. You can not only use fireballs to destroy enemies, but also certain obstacles. Frost missiles may be used to either freeze a foe or to create a standing surface in the water to help you navigate dangerous shoals. Lightning ammo, on the other hand, may be used to shock opponents and activate electrical devices. You can also use standard ammunition to target opponents, or other things.

As you move through the story, you'll also discover numerous shards that you may attach to your equipment to gain a boost in stats. So, despite the real-time combat, there are tactical parts that are well worth your time. During your mission, you will either find new shards in one of the numerous treasure chests scattered around the game, or you will be able to purchase them in one of the numerous shops or vending machines found in each town. Various in-game challenges are also rewarded with experience points, which grant you extra ranks and rewards; however, there are no conventional RPG leveling increases accessible. Instead, like in The Legend of Zelda, you'll be searching for heart pieces to gain more life points.


Oceanhorn 2 features a few issues, whether it's the absence of manual jumping, checklist or the relatively rough controls/battle system. I certainly encountered a few issues as a result of unintentional jumps, but after I got beyond them, I was rewarded with a world I couldn't help but explore. The narrative is enjoyable, albeit slightly too predictable and the dungeons and riddles in the world are varied and just the right degree of challenging. It also doesn't hurt that the game is visually amazing. Oceanhorn 2's genre-blending gimmicks assist to elevate it beyond its shortcomings. Even if there are some hiccups along the way, this is an adventure worth embarking on and especially supporting.