The Last Tinker: City of Colors introduces fans to a young boy named Koru, who lives in the slums of Color Town on the outside of the Tinkerworld. The setting is a magical world where everything is created from construction paper, glue and imagination, but a malevolent force known simply as the Bleakness has changed the realm. There are now four different districts that include the Red, Green and Blue colors that have separated themselves from the other colors and reverted back to emotions that the colors typically represent including anger for Red, distrust with Green and sadness for Blue. Color Town is the only district that accepts all colors, and Koru attempts to reunite each district throughout the game with the help of a special ability that allows him to use powers learned from each of the different colors in the world. The narrative touches on issues of racism and deep rooted emotions that truly makes the storyline unique and one of the strongest qualities of the new game.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors is a very simple game. Players that enjoy a little masochism with their games won't have a good time with the game to be sure. The game harkens back to classic platformers that were fun times just to relax and explore the open world at leisure. Where this type of game used to be overdone, fans of the genre can hardly find a game of this type anymore, and there is even more rarely a new game of this type that is this high of quality. The Last Tinker: City of Colors looks good, runs smoothly, and introduces some unique ideas that makes it a memorable experience for players.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors uses elements of free-running that allow Koru to easily parkour through the world while requiring players only need to hold the run button down while moving in a certain direction to make it happen. Koru never really gets thrown out of place or falls to his death without it being the player's fault, and the only difficulty in this part of the platforming is based on timed events with one example coming from the tutorial where players much quickly jump from one octopus tentacle to the next before the large beast heads back underwater. The game also uses on-rails events that have the main protagonist zipping down lines automatically, though players need to pay close attention to avoid obstacles with well timed jumps.
Combat is another large portion of gameplay in The Last Tinker: City of Colors. Fans will also find defeating enemies in the game is much easier than it really needs to be. During the early parts of the game, players can easily get through fights by mashing on the attack button and occasionally rolling out of the way when an exclamation point appears above the head of an enemy. Most players will find it difficult to take any damage at all while paying attention to the game, and Koru can take four hits before being defeated on the Normal difficulty setting, so deaths are rare. The game gets a bit tougher later on when color powers are introduced that are needed to defeat some enemies, but the fights are still pretty easy with the exception of a couple of boss battles throughout the entire campaign.
Color powers are also used in puzzle solving in the game that helps add a bit more depth to gameplay. The majority of puzzles in the game involve a couple of mushroom bros that will earn players some additional gems and help players progress through the game. Color powers can be used on the mushroom characters for a variety of different effects that will eventually help them to navigate around obstacles and reach a desired area for players. Currency isn't used for much in the game, but completing these puzzles typically allow players to nab some additional gems anyhow.
The world of The Last Tinker: City of Colors is both colorful and expertly crafted. Each character in the game has a unique look and feel that makes the world feel more alive than what players will find in many other modern games. If there is one complaint to be made with the graphics featured in The Last Tinker: City of Colors, it's that Koru features far more animations that make the character sway and move realistically while running, while other characters in the game are a lot stiffer and don't feature nearly as many animations to look as nice. There is still a lot of detail in the world though, whether its the cardboard textures on the cut out text boxes on each character or the way the world pieces together different colors to create a truly beautiful world for players to explore.
The great presentation of The Last Tinker: City of Colors extends to several other key areas of the game as well. The game's soundtrack is very impressive and features some varied tunes that match the current setting very well. The game's graphics are complimented by a camera that follows the action very closely and rarely presents any problems for players. The game offers controls should problems arise though, but the simple controller layout makes it easy to perform all of the different actions available to players in the game.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors is a fun game and one of the best 3D platformers of the last decade. Fans have recently had to pick up rushed, lower quality releases in the genre that are typically tied to some new animated film or television show to get their fix, but The Last Tinker: City of Colors is a first-class title that makes the genre fun again. The simple gameplay and easy difficulty doesn't offer much for gamers that enjoy their games with a lot of deaths, but there is something nice about playing a game that is so simple but works so well while allowing players to access their inner child to explore a colorful world made of paper creations. Check out The Last Tinker: City of Colors on Steam today!
The Last Tinker: City of Colors is now available for PlayStation 4, PC, Mac and Linux and can be purchased for $21.99. The Last Tinker: City of Colors is not rated. For more information on the game, check out the official The Last Tinker: City of Colors website.
Game Features:
- Single Player
- Colorful, Handcrafted World
- Free-Running Platforming Gameplay
- Steam Trading Card Support
- Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer: Mimimi Productions
Publisher: Unity Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC (reviewed), Mac & Linux
Release Date: May 12, 2014