henke on 21/6/2012 at 18:15
Bought and started playing this last night. The first level was a nice short introduction to the controls and the gameplay, the second level offered a nice deal of not-entirely-linear exploration and problem-solving, but it wasn't until level 3 that I fell in love. I replayed it and recorded a video, check it out.
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Reviews of the game have been scarce so far and user feedback has been varied. Some people take issue with the game's not-as-tight-as-it-could-be platforming, but that's largely a learning-curve thing. It's not a game that's going to appeal to everyone, but I'm sure there will be plenty of you who, like me, know you need to have this game after seeing it in action. If you're still not convinced after the video, download the free prototype "Tiny & Big: Up That Mountain", from (
http://www.tinyandbig.com/) the official website. I tried playing with both gamepad and kb+mouse and found kb+mouse to work better. The gamepad's sensetivity is a bit too high and precise and fast aiming helps a lot when you need to slice up a boulder that's hurtling at you through the air.
The game is very rewarding of exploration, in level 2 I found a bunch of secret areas and collectibles. At one point I sliced down a slab of stone hidden in a dark corner and behind it I found the backstage area for the game's musicians! :D There were posters on the wall, a bunch of instruments, a collectable cassette which adds a song to the soundtrack, but best of all was the old arcademachine standing in the corner. When activated it let me play a GameBoyishly darkgreen-hued bonus level!
The game manages to have a lot of personality despite the story being the kind of quirky indie mumbojumbo that ends up feeling a bit hollow despite all it's attempts at being cute. The first thing that struck me about the leveldesign was the MDK-like vastness of the areas. Overall the game is very reminiscent of Shiny's games, and of course there's something rather Psychonautsy about the characters as well. The fantastic menu-art and cool background music deserve a mention as well.
I've heard the game is quite short, though I think the gameplay is fun enough to warrant several replays. Plus, each level hides several secrets, and you can even try to take on the challenge of completing the levels with as few "cuts" as possible. Anyway, loving this game so far. It's only 10 bucks on Steam. GO BUY :D
WingedKagouti on 21/6/2012 at 20:32
Quote Posted by henke
I've heard the game is quite short, though I think the gameplay is fun enough to warrant several replays. Plus, each level hides several secrets, and you can even try to take on the challenge of completing the levels with as few "cuts" as possible. Anyway, loving this game so far. It's only 10 bucks on Steam. GO BUY :D
GoG has it for $10 which includes the sound track, on Steam that is €14 (€10 for just the game).
van HellSing on 21/6/2012 at 21:24
Quote Posted by WingedKagouti
GoG has it for $10 which includes the sound track, on Steam that is €14 (€10 for just the game).
It DOESN'T include the soundtrack. Just one track. The music is easy to extract from the game though.
Anyway, yeah, it's a fun little game. One niggle is the save system - while there are checkpoints, you have to finish a level in one sitting, otherwise, progress is lost when you exit the game, and you have to start the level over.
Angel Dust on 21/6/2012 at 21:43
It sounds good but the RPS 'wot i think', specifically the part about how the checkpointing means you'll have to replay everything including re-fiinding all the secrets etc whenever you die, has put me off for now. Hopefully they patch in some better checkpointing or have it do the usual thing where any secrets you had found are preseved upon death.
henke on 22/6/2012 at 09:44
Oh yes that's true. I haven't really been trying to get 100% on the secrets so no biggie for me, but I can see how it would be aggravating.
henke on 22/6/2012 at 11:05
aaaand it's over. 4 hour playtime for the whole thing, though I did replay levels 2 and 3 in that time. The story comes together pretty good in the end and there's a nice setup for a sequel. I for one am looking forward to Tiny & Big's next adventure. :)
Also, managed to find 26 out of 27 Boring Stones on the second to last level! Grrr, will have to really scrounge for the things when I replay it.
henke on 24/6/2012 at 18:16
T&B strikes me as a game that would be good for speedruns with it's physics and gameplay elements that provide the means to improvise shortcuts all over the place. So I played through level 3 a few times and recorded a speedrun video. It's a shame there's no online leaderboard, because seeing how high you could place would add a whole other reason to replay levels.
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/izZBYDepE9w?version=3&hl=sv_SE&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
the RPS 'wot i think'
I gave it a read. I don't think I've disagreed with a (
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/21/wot-i-think-tiny-and-big-grandpas-leftovers/) RPS WIT this much since the one they did for Binary Domain. He's right that the secrets getting reset after checkpoints is aggravating but most of his other points I can't agree with. He says the game starts off good but takes a nosedive at level 3. Ummm...
nooo, level 3 is where it gets
awesome. And I don't agree with his complaints about abysmal checkpointing either. But then I didn't die too much either. Maybe the guy just sucks at the game and got frustrated, but it's a shame to take it out on the game.
edit: oops, I switched on YouTube's videostabilization mode, mostly just to see what it would do, and it messed up the video. Turned it back off, should be fine in a few minutes.
edit2: Destabilizing the stabilized clip didn't seem to work. Had to reupload the video.
Shadowcat on 25/6/2012 at 10:28
With the exception of the one time near the end where you needed to make a smaller ledge to jump onto, I have no idea why you sliced up any of those things? Or why a game about dragging pillars is fun.
Unfortunately, I think speed-running makes most games look dull, unless you're familiar with the usual nature and difficulty of what is being rushed past.
henke on 25/6/2012 at 14:45
I was under the impression that I needed to slice the pillars in the circle to move the guy along, but now that I think about it I guess perhaps that's unnessecary. The slice at 1:44 or so is defenitely not needed though. I was just caught up in the moment when I did that one.
It's the same level as I play in the video at the top of this page btw, if you wanna see a non-speedrun version of it.
