Action-puzzle titles are a strange breed: requiring the player to have as much skill manipulating a character and figuring out puzzle design. Sometimes it works out and both types of gamers are happy, while other times the design can upset both parties.
Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers is a game that may not make pure action or puzzle fans completely happy, but they’ll have one hell of a stylish time finding that out.
A Simple Tale:
Tiny and Big’s story involves Tiny: an inventor who catches his nemesis: Big stealing his one remaining possession from his grandfather — his underpants. Giving chase, Tiny finds himself in the forsaken desert and discovers that whomever wears the underpants on their head is granted god-like powers (no, really) and that the underpants corrupt the wearer.
The game is part platformer and part puzzle solving through mostly open ended levels. Tiny comes equipped with three pieces of equipment: a ray gun that can cut things apart, a grapple hook for pulling things, and attachable rockets to launch something forward.
All objects have physics to them as you cut, pull or send them flying with your goal to get Tiny to the end of each level. You’ll be spending the majority of your time cutting off columns and walls for pieces that you can use as a way to get around, either by making make-shift ladders or bridges to aid you.
Creating paths around the levels is the main challenge of the game.
You’ll be doing this in an amazing looking world that has an almost newspaper comic like feel to it. Levels are full of random collectibles, challenges and additional songs for the radio that you can switch to at will.
Tiny only has one life and falling from too far or getting crush will kill him. But the game features a generous checkpoint system to prevent progress lost.
In terms of length, Tiny and Big is on the short end for people who want to blaze through the levels, but the collectibles and side challenges do extend the game duration.
There are a few issues with the game that come from the unique gameplay. First is that while the environments change somewhat between each level, the gameplay doesn’t. The use of the grapple, laser and rocket remain the same across levels and does make the game a bit repetitive.
Given the physics of the world, it can be difficult to angle cut pieces of the environment to where you want them and the wrong timing with pushing and pulling could send a critical piece off a ledge.
Open ended level design was a mixed blessing as it was hard to know sometimes whether you are going the right way or making the level harder for yourself by going in the general direction, but not the path the designers envisioned.
Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers was a short stylized game that lasts long enough to get you involved, but does not overstay its welcome.
