TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD Review

Since I’ve been on a bit of a 3D platformer kick lately, I decided to check out TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD, a remaster of the 2002 game. I never played it back in the day, so I had an open mind coming into it, especially since I’ve recently been playing games actually from the 2000s. It’s a 3D mascot platformer, which sees you wielding boomerangs and taking on lizards to gather crystals.

Honestly, it’s little more than a graphical update, plus a couple of additions, such as skins and to one of the boomerangs. But if it takes about 11 hours to complete, does it need tons of extra content?

The story follows the titular Ty as he discovers that years ago his family were sucked into The Dreaming while foiling a plot by Boss Cass (who is a cassowary, get it?). Unfortunately, they only delayed Boss Cass’ plans, and now he’s back at it! So, it’s up to Ty to put a stop to the blighter, and perhaps free his family in the process?

From the hub world of Rainbow Cliffs, you’re given access to portals which will take you to places across the Outback, where you need to find Thunder Eggs. The energy from these mysterious, rare crystals can power a machine that will grab the Talismans which Boss Cass is after, without you having to dig them up personally. After you’ve managed to grab one Talisman, it’s on to the next batch of three levels — it takes several Thunder Eggs from three levels to power up the machine enough.

The gameplay loop of TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD is pretty standard for 3D platformers, and that’s not a bad thing. Enter a level, do things in whichever order you like to get the Macguffin, fight the odd boss, then fight the villain. The various levels across the Outback are varied, with some icy, others on fire, and of course, an underwater one. Don’t worry, while Ty can only doggy paddle at first, he quickly becomes a proficient swimmer.

I mentioned them earlier, but Ty uses boomerangs as weapons, which lock onto enemies surprisingly well. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than I’ve experienced from a certain blue hedgehog’s homing attacks. You will unlock new types of boomerang, such as a freezing one, through the story — but you can also find cogs to power up a machine which will produce even more! The Zoomerang will zoom in and fly further than any other type, for instance, which definitely comes in use when you don’t want to get too close to a band of enemies.

The enemy types vary from the ordinary foot soldiers, through brutish large ones, and even some of them holding shields to protect from boomerangs! So you bite those ones, with a big old “crunch” sound effect.

The music in TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD is decent and never feels repetitive, the sound effects have a nice variety, and the voice acting is ripper! That means great. Ty, Boss Cass, Maurice (a mentor figure), and everyone else carry out the ridiculous (in a nice way) dialogue as you explore each level and try to stop the villain from ridding the planet of all mammals.

As well as the Thunder Eggs and cogs, each level has 300 gemstones to collect — these were really the only issues I came across. There’s no way to locate them without physically searching each level for them. Some games will give you a locator or something to help finish things off when you complete the game, so it’s a bit of a letdown. Some of the levels, such as the snowy mountain, are expansive so take ages to explore thoroughly. At least the collectable paintings in each level can be located by one of the boomerangs, which pings like sonar the closer you are to them.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD is a really fun game and a well-made one at that. I'm genuinely glad that it was successfully crowdfunded, so that I had an excuse to check it out, and even more glad that I picked up the whole series at a decent (to me) price when I did.