REVIEW: ‘Tiny Troopers: Global Ops’ Executes As Expected (XSX)

Tiny Troopers: Global Ops is a twin-stick third-person shooter from publisher Wired Productions and developer Epiphany Games. Take control of some chibi troopers with up to four friends in short, globe-trotting missions on behalf of an international military-like group.

It’s a pretty straightforward game you’ve probably seen a dozen times before, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying. Tiny Troopers: Global Ops thrives the most in its simplicity. The levels are short, taking fewer than 10 minutes apiece, but the levels are also aplenty, with several dozen to complete. The objectives are always simple, like freeing prisoners, collecting intel, or defeating waves of enemies. And while some levels may have optional secondary objectives, and you’re scored for your accuracy, pickups you’ve found, times you’ve been revived, and enemies you’ve killed, none of those aspects of the game are a requisite for progression. They’re just there to add extra value if you’re seeking it.

Gameplay is also as simple as it can be. One stick has you move; the other stick has you aim. One trigger fires your primary weapon, and the other switches you to your secondary. You have a dodge roll with a cooldown period and can find various secondary weapons like grenades and rocket launchers across levels. There are few other gameplay mechanics beyond that. As you play through the game, you collect experience points based on your level scores, which can be spent at the armory in the game’s hub on upgrading weapons, unlocking new ones to equip before a level begin, and increasing your squad from two members to four.

The one intriguing aspect of progression is that it’s locked behind a leveling system that you increase by paying experience points into. So before you can shop for specific weapons or support items, you must increase your level first. It’s basically a way of showing you what you could unlock if you level up further while encouraging you to split your experience between upgrades and level-ups. It’s not revolutionary, but it did motivate me to keep playing to keep unlocking more. There’s a lot to buy in the armory, and even if much of it makes only a negligible difference in gameplay, it’s still a good incentive.

The game offers five difficulty levels if you’re looking for even more motivation; the only benefit for playing on higher levels besides a more significant challenge is adding a multiplier to your experience gained at every level. But it’s nice that it’s there, as an option for folks who want more challenge or need less.

The game’s biggest sin is in its presentation. The chibi style is perfectly fine, and the art style in the backgrounds works just fine. But the vast majority of the game’s enemies are rather racist caricatures. It’s frustrating to have to spend the whole game looking at that. Also, on the audio-visual front, the audio for character voices is often drowned out by the game’s background music. It’s poorly balanced upon bootup.

Tiny Troopers: Global Ops is a classic twin-stick third-person shooter that, while not offering anything unique, does offer plenty of entertainment for executing its genre completely spot on.

Tiny Troopers: Global Ops is available now on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Jason Flatt

Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He’s usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.