The Last Tinker: City of Colors is a third-person platforming adventure game from Munich-based Mimimi Productions and Unity Games. The preview build of the game left us impressed and eager to get our hands on the final build.
The game follows protagonist Koru, a young street kid who lives in the slums of Colortown. Your job is to use the power of colour to defeat a force known as the Bleakness in order to save Tinkerworld.
Koru appears to be a mix of boy and monkey and through his movement reminds us of Monkey from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. He can be controlled via mouse and keyboard or game controller and both methods work equally well.
Koru moves with ease and as well as standard walking and sprinting you can also press a free-run button to allow him to traverse obstacles with ease. Doing so is a bit like Assassin’s Creed where you just need to push in the general direction and the game does the rest. This gets rid of tricky platforming and makes things much easier for younger players too.
Accompanying Koru is his friend Tap, a cute floating goat-like creature. Tap helps teach you the basics and is always on-hand to help you out. Should you get lost a quick ‘tap’ of a button summons Tap to show you the way to your next objective. It’s usually obvious where you need to go next but this feature is a welcome addition.
As well as free-running skills Koru is also a skilled fighter. He’s able to take on groups of foes at a time. Hitting the attack button allows him to perform combos and he also has a neat dodge-roll that can be combined with an attack to counter enemies. His fighting skills also allow him to break open the many crates and barrels littered around the environment to obtain life gems and crystals.
Once you’ve mastered the basics Koru is sent to enter a race. When he gets there he discovers that he needs a large number of crystals to pay his registration fee. This sends him off on a couple of quests – one to train his fighting skills and another to help a farmer.
Getting around is done via grind rails which is as simple as running up to them and then watching Koru slide along them. At the fighting area you learn how to perform combo moves, dodge-rolls and attack multiple opponents before taking to the ring to put what you’ve learnt into practice. As you progress through the game you can spend crystals to upgrade your abilities.
When you visit the farmer to offer your help he tasks you with activating mushroom patches. This is done with the help of a giant mushroom creature called Biggs. By whistling at him you can get him to come to you in order to activate each mushroom patch.
At times you need to activate switches and even shrink him down to enable him to access certain areas. When shrunken he’s known as bomber and shooting at him makes him explode which has many uses. The puzzles start off simple but gradually get more complex.
The city is divided up into three districts – red, green and blue. The game uses these to deal with real world issues such as racism and bullying from a child friendly perspective. Each district features a spirit of the same colour and as the game progresses you’ll learn to use their powers. The colours represent anger (red), depression (blue) and fear (green) and they translate into abilities for Koru.
In addition to the standard platforming and combat the game tries hard to vary the gameplay. There’s a whole mix of genre’s thrown in to keep you entertained including hidden items, stealth, musical and even an opportunity to play detective. The game also features some entertaining mini-bosses as well as big boss fights.
Graphically the game looks gorgeous with bright cartoony visuals. The various characters you meet are full of life and plenty of charm. We found ourselves smiling often during our time with the game. The music is also wonderful and fits the game perfectly.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors is very polished title with solid mechanics and wonderful art direction. It’s a lot of fun and a great choice for gamers of any age and therefore perfect to play together as a family. Fans of platforming and puzzles should definitely check it out.
