The Last Tinker: City of Colors Preview

The Last Tinker: City of Colors, previously known as Tink, is the new, upcoming platform game from Mimimi Productions. It sees you as Koru, trying to obtain and use the power of colour to defeat the Bleakness, and straight off the bat the visuals are striking – an absolutely stunning looking game, extremely colourful and very vivid.

Add the lovely animations to that, and small, unique aspects like characters having a speech bubble made out of cardboard instead of having a bar at the bottom of the screen for text, which is something small, but it makes a huge difference. Even when night falls, it still manages to maintain a sense of liveliness. As you start the game, you are greeted by some delightful music that is as consistent as it is sensational – it complements the artwork in the game exceptionally well.

There is a strong odour of Zelda when exploring the map of the game. When in conversation, characters will mumble while text comes up on the screen. Speaking of which, some of the dialogue in this game is very tongue-in-cheek and contains some smart jokes that can take a second to process, but it is all light-hearted in spirit, and makes The Last Tinker a joy to play. Hopefully those exchanges between characters remain steady throughout the game, as it adds a nice charm to an already engrossing experience.

You will meet an array of colourful characters as you progress through the game. In the small part of the game I got to experience, there were plenty of bright characters to get involved with – characters like Muddy, Brik, and Biggs, that help you get the hang of the controls and mechanics of the game, and then there is what seems to be your antagonist: Bolzo. Each character has a nice introduction and their personality is vibrant and splashy from the get go. If this was anything to go by, and Mimimi Productions keep it up throughout the game, then you will run into plenty of wild, outgoing characters in the districts of Colortown that are sure to make this a great adventure.

The gameplay is tremendous and with that being the most important aspect of the game, it elevates it to new heights. When it comes down to battling enemies, you have the ability to dodge and attack. Pressing the attack button multiple times will perform combos on your unfortunate foes,and you can include dodging into the combos. If an enemy manages to get close enough to attack you, an exclamation mark will appear above their head for a warning. It all sounds a bit like that system the Batman: Arkham series made popular, but it doesn’t come across like it is a rip-off in any way. That system has become extremely popular for a reason: it works incredibly well for battles like these, and The Last Tinker has taken its own approach on it; a more simpler one, if you will. There is no counter attack button and you can’t throw Batarangs. It works, and more importantly, it works very well.

You will have plenty to do in this game and it doesn’t appear to be repetitive. With a wide range of characters, for the short time I had with this game, it looks like there will be a good deal of substance for players to get stuck into. The platforming in The Last Tinker: City of Colors is dazzling – there seems to be a wide range of objectives to do, with none looking linear and with plenty of potential for more. If it does live up to that potential, it could end up in the top tier of 3D platform games with the likes of the Super Mario Galaxy series and Super Mario 3D World.