The Last Tinker: City of Colors

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8.5 Overall Score
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 7/10

3D Platforming? Yes Please! | Beautifully Crafted Environments

Dull Soundtrack | Boring Characters

Game Info

GAME NAME: The Last Tinker: City of Colors

DEVELOPER(S): Mimimi Productions/Loot Entertainment

PUBLISHER(S): Loot Entertainment

PLATFORM(S): PlayStation 4

GENRE(S): 3D Platformer

RELEASE DATE(S): August 19th, 2014

Ever since Super Mario 64, 3D platformers have easily been high amongst my favorite genres.  Unfortunately they have all but seemingly went extinct in a now testosterone driven industry.  Out are the likes of Mario, Rayman, Jak & Daxter and in are your Maddens and Call of Duties.  Even Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario 3D World are more formulaic and less expansive as the 3D platformers of old.  Loot Entertainment and Mimimi Productions have brought use back to the glory days with their title The Last Tinker: City of Colors.

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In the Last Tinker, you take control of Koru, a young little monkey from the slums of Colortown.  As your embark on your journey to save Tinkerworld from the Bleakness you will learn different move sets from the color spirits.  You will also receive help from characters named Biggs and Bomber to help you solve puzzles and progress through the game.  The characters of each color world are segregated and have a dislike for the other characters from the lands with different colors but Koru, who is a tinker, is trying to bring the land and it’s people back together.

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The controls right away feel smooth and responsive.  The one glaring flaw you will discover shortly is the inability to jump.  You will later learn that this is mainly because holding the R2 down to run will also put you in a parkour type mode where you will be bouncing off obstacles such as octopus tentacles,  boxes, cliffs and posts.  It really really fast and natural and makes you forget that you can’t manually jump at all.

The first two missions of The Last Tinker take you on quests to learn the main control styles.  The first will have you learning combat.  If you have played any of the Batman Arkham series you will immediately notice a similarity.  The combat feels nice with the square button taking the brunt of the mashing.  After hitting combos you will see a slow motion hard attack taking down your opponents.  You will add to the hit list at vending machines where you spend the crystals that you collect to purchase move upgrades.  There is also a counter move that can be used to roll away or counter attack, which is effective but also takes a bit to get used to.

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In the second mission you will learn to use the characters Biggs and Bomber.  They are technically the same character but change form when you bring them to a certain flower.  The mission takes you through the mechanics of how to activate mushroom spores to respawn Biggs and Bomber and also how to make them tag along behind you by using the R1 button.  Later on as you gain your spirit powers you will be able to use these characters in different ways to help you progress through levels.  With the red spirit for instance, you can make Bomber explode like a bomb or make Biggs get angry and jump up and down.  Each spirit will change the abilities of Biggs and Bomber which is a really unique and refreshing element and helps keep you on your toes.

From here, The Last Tinker will take you on a journey through the rest of Tinkerville as you fight off the Bleakness.  Each bleakness encounter usually has you fending off a larger enemy who has consumed all the color.  Upon defeating this boss character, color is restored and you are able to explore and complete menial tasks for the inhabitants.  We have a policy about spoilers, so I will end my talk about the quest here and let you know that it is a fun adventure with great platforming and story elements.

A little gripe I had with the gameplay was the rail-grinding areas.  It felt like the window to make your jump between rails was very narrow and since the camera was all over the place I felt like I had to unnecessarily repeat areas a few times. This isn’t a huge part of the game though and is just a minor flaw that I felt like I should point out.

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The worlds that have been carefully crafted by Mimimi Productions and Loot Entertainment are beyond gorgeous.  The vibrant colors and the overall glow make the game feel closer to a Dreamworks or Pixar movie then a video game. The character designs are okay, but are fitting of the surroundings.  The PS4 is a beast of a machine and The Last Tinker makes sure that it got the most bang for it’s buck in the color and art department.  This is one sexy looking game!  The soundtrack on the other hand has it’s moments but there are a few tracks that are drab and made me feel like I was listening to the Uno music on the Xbox 360.

The Recommendation

I would strongly advise any fan of 3D platformers to go purchase this game right now.  Let’s start a resurgence of the genre by supporting these types of games to show developers and publishers alike that it is economically viable (Yes, I just threw in a Falling Down reference).  The art is beautifully crafted, the gameplay is type and responsive and the story is very enjoyable.  This is one of my favorite PlayStation 4 titles to date!  Go buy this and enjoy your time in Tinkerworld as I did.

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The Last Tinker: City of Colors
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Author: Anthony DeVirgilis View all posts by
Managing Partner / Editor for Sony/Nintendo I prefer Indies to AAA titles... unless it's Nintendo or Sony Google+ Author