REVIEW: ‘Tinykin’ is a Tiny Wonderland (Switch)

I’m always happy when a game blows all my expectations out of the water. I mean, who isn’t? However, very few have reached the level of how much Tinykin, by Splashteam and tinyBuild, blew me away. Through its advertising, I was worried Tinykin would be a Pikmin clone, what with its use of tiny creatures that seem to do your bidding. While that is an element, I didn’t expect how it was way more of a classic platformer collectathon. In other words, it checked every box of one of my favorite genres that I believed to be a thing of the past.

Tinykin puts you in control of Milo, a human who returns to Earth to find it much larger than expected. In fact, it’s stuck in time too. The entire world you play in is a 1991 household, void of life except for a couple of intelligent bug species. With the help of Tinykin, even smaller creatures who seem to love doing everything you command, you must find parts of a makeshift ship so you may return home safely.

These little Tinykin are some of the most adorable creatures I’ve seen in a game in a long time. Starting with an intro video when you meet one of the five types, they make it clear that these are peaceful creatures who only want to help. Thank goodness too. Unlike Kena Bridge of Spirits or Pikmin, these creatures arent’ some sacrificial offering so that you may survive. They’re only to help you.

Plus, there isn’t really a management of who to use and when. The game automatically selects the right Tinykin based on what the situation calls for. Need to blow something up? The red Tinykin are selected. What about the need to connect electricity? The blue Tinykins are right there for you. And this simplification is what made it click that this is a platformer collecathon at heart.

Think back to playing Banjo-Kazooie or Jak & Daxter. In each level, you’d more-or-less start from scratch beyond some powerups you’ve unlocked. This is the same for Tinykin. There is no carrying over collected Tinykins between levels, and they serve more as a powerup than a little army at your control. And the game treats them like a power-up, regardless of there not really being a risk.

Tinykin aren’t the only adorable creatures either. In a 3D world, every creature is drawn in a 2D art style. Everything is cute, including the ants. The art direction is on point, making this game its own. Even if every character is 2D, they really fit in their world. I was on edge at first when starting Tinykin, and it wasn’t until the first major area where it clicked that this art style was to disarm me—to make me not fearful but welcome to this world, to explore it without the fear of repercussions. And that’s exactly what I did.

The biggest negative I had with the 2D character art style really came into play when platforming. In the expansive levels, I had numerous times when I just fell because I didn’t judge a jump properly. Then there were even more times when I did, but because I was trying to control a 2D character on a narrow ledge, I just stepped off. Because this was a regular occurrence of the depth just not clicking, it made major platforming segments feel clunky and frustrating.

Thankfully, there are many catch-up mechanics or “checkpoints” throughout the vertical maps that are such sighs of relief. Like ropes that drop down below to give you a way back up or zip lines that let you get around the map faster. All fun little unlocks that make each level feel more connected and approachable. A large map is nothing though without secrets.

Boy there are secrets and lots of optional things to do. This is how I know my brain is wired for platformer collecathons. Throughout each level are lint balls, which serve as this game’s Jiggies, Precursor Orbs, or Bottles. There are literally thousands throughout each level and once you get enough you get a little upgrade to your float. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help myself from exploring every nook and cranny because they’re all rewarding. Whether full of Tinykin, lint, or pieces of a side quest, each area feels like a treasure trove I had to clean out before moving on.

Finally, the writing is superb. Like the rest of Tinykin, it encapsulates the late 90s to early 2000s platformer games perfectly. Not because the story is great. It’s pretty bare bones. But the pop culture references are chefs kiss. Especially in the off-the-beaten-path dialogues, there are some great references to video game and movie lines that just fit in the world and the theming of each level. Even for major mission stuff, like in the kitchen level, there are characters that are just so well named, like Remy. Remy is a little chef you deal with to make the greatest cake ever. Of course a little chef was named Remy, even if it was an ant instead of a rat. The dialogue just adds more cuteness to an already adorable and fun game.

My final gripe, though, comes with the control scheme. On the Switch, A is the jump button. Why is A the jump button when you also have to do stuff with Y? This is very much a nitpicky complaint, but I did not understand the control scheme when B could’ve worked even better as a critical control like Jump. Particularly in some side areas where I had to grind rails down an obstacle course, I claw-handed my joy-cons badly just to make it through. Beyond some occasional noticeable stuttering, the control scheme was by far my biggest issue.

Tinykin encapsulates all that is great and not-so-great about classic platformer collecathons. It’s charming, it’s witty, and it’s full of adorable creatures. Plus, the level design is superb, with each of the 6 areas feeling unique not in just design but in storytelling and exploitability. There is a lot offered here in such a small, low-stress package.

Tinykin is available on August 30th, 2022, on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.