So I Tried… TY the Tasmanian Tiger

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time, I went for the PC version of TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD.

What I thought it was

A remaster of a 3D mascot platformer from the early 2000s. I wasn’t really playing the genre more than Ratchet & Clank at the time, so I missed out on a number of them. This one has boomerangs instead of spin or jump attacks and is probably set in Australia (there’s literally no other reason to choose those weapons otherwise).

What it actually is

A fun and funny 3D platformer set in Australia. After playing, I did check out how the original version was received, and I’ve no idea why it scored so middling. The boomerang mechanic works better than Sonic’s homing attack ever has, with the weapons rarely missing unless you’re way off of the mark or in first-person aiming mode.

The characters are fun, with a cassowary named Boss Cass trying to gather objects and you having to get them first. He has an army of lizards ready to defend each level, but Ty is aided by a koala professor who creates boomerangs for him and a knowledgeable cockatoo ready to explain game mechanics. Also, the checkpoints are outhouses. I just love how they are introduced to the player, with the cockatoo saying they “used the dunny” one day, then shortly afterwards, they were beaten up and woke up back on said convenience.

Will I keep playing

The main enemies in TY the Tasmanian Tiger are frilled lizards, and I have an unusual phobia which is tied directly to a specific dinosaur — the one with the frill. You might expect that is going to be my reason to not play this game anymore, but you’d be wrong! I’m definitely going to play the rest of this, as it’s a well-made 3D platformer. There are a number of collectibles, so plenty of reasons to replay levels once you’ve unlocked more ‘rangs, as well as giving you an excuse to explore. And finding 300 stones in each level isn’t an insurmountable challenge, unlike contemporary titles in which I’ve rarely managed to get the floating items, I’ve actually managed it a few times.