- Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers is set in a land where common physics apply, but everything else looks different. You are Tiny, a nerdy inventor with a ray cutter, a gripping-device, a ton of rockets, and a fine attitude towards the world.
- Tiny & Big, a comic styled jump and slice platformer, gives you the unique ability to shape a whole world at your will!You are Tiny, a nerdy inventor who tries to reclaim his most beloved possession: Grandpa's white, fine rib underpants! On his journey through a forsaken desert he will meet mysterious creatures, no clowns, a taxi robot and his arch enemy: Big!
Tiny & Big in Grandpa's Leftovers does so many things well, but ultimately it fails to overcome shoddy mechanics and a buggy engine that is still being put through its paces.
Tiny And Big: Grandpa's Leftovers Cracker
Tiny & Big in Grandpa’s Leftovers
Well here’s one other game I got to play during the Steam summer sale. Tiny & Big in Grandpa’s Leftovers is about 2 brothers fighting over their grandpa’s underpants. You play as Tiny as you chase your brother down with the help of your gadgets and wits to retrieve what’s rightfully yours. Big is your older brother who has stolen your grandpa’s underpants that grants him telekinetic abilities.
Gameplay
Primarily a platformer, T&B adds elements of puzzles within the game as well. You of course play a small tutorial type level in the beginning. Which is pretty neat because they use a Game Boy look alike called the Reality Boy. The training simulations take place in what looks like the original Game Boy version of Tetris.
After that, it jumps you right in without holding your hand. You’re free to explore and do as you please. I was stuck in the beginning until. I was surrounded by 3 pillars thinking I had to cut them down when all I had to do was walk through a very dark doorway that never caught my attention. Felt dumb indeed. Though I was hoping to start off with a difficult puzzle right away.
Throughout the game, you will encounter your evil brother and the fights don’t really change. He just stands on platforms throwing objects at you. You cut both objects and platforms until you get close enough and he runs away. That’s it.
That doesn’t go without saying the controls play fluently. Never had any real issues with running and/or jumping. You can use either a mouse & keyboard or a game pad if you prefer. Pretty solid controls all around.
Presentation
I really enjoyed the visuals of this game. Having a comic book-like design to the characters and world. The colors of each level complemented the plot as you progressed. The menu was very creative too. Tiny is having a conversation with his radio which is basically explaining the plot of the game. This will keep looping as you navigate through the menu selection. Pretty neat and convenient way of giving the game an intro without a timer reset like most games. For example, you stay at the main menu long enough when idle and sometimes the screen will reset by playing the intro cut-scene or some game play footage. Then you’d have to hit start to skip it just to get back to the menu. With T&B, you don’t have to worry about that.
Features
The mechanics of this game lie within Tiny’s gadget known simply as, the “Tool”. The Tool has 3 main functions:
- The Laser – You can pretty much cut through anything from walls, to pillars, to flying boulders.
- The Rope – Give you the ability to latch onto any object (heavy or light) and pull it where ever you need it.
- Rockets – Shoot little rockets (no more than one at a time) onto any object to push them out of the way.
The laser was pretty spot on. I like being able to cut giant objects at specific angles so I could reach higher platforms. I like the rope, but I was really hoping I could use it to propel myself up to higher places and/or swing around similar to a grappling hook. Maybe even pull myself towards objects rather than just being a rope to lug things around. That would have a brought a new dimension to the puzzles. The rockets were definitely a great asset to the game. You can’t shoot multiple rockets in a row, so you have to be a bit more precise on where they land. I was really hoping to possibly learn some advanced techniques with the Tool. Perhaps in a possible sequel. One can dream.
Music
Believe it or not, this was the one thing that bothered me the most about this game. I blame most of it on advertising. Between visiting the store page on Steam and then going to the main website followed by playing the game, I couldn’t help but notice how much promoting of the game’s soundtrack there is.
Yes, advertising helps. Maybe you think they deserve just as much spotlight as your game. I cannot disagree with those ideals. I can, and rightfully will, disagree with how you’re advertising it. I know normally Steam games have a soundtrack edition, but you can also access most of these soundtracks by either going into the steamapps folder or simply go on youtube to listen to it all. I guess that kinda goes for anything if we were to go that route.
If you want us to hear this “great” music so badly, how about just letting us hear the songs as they play in the background instead having us go searching for each one? I had no interest in finding all of these tracks because I felt mislead from the music video on the Steam page. I guess that’s my fault, but I assumed the rest of the songs would be some sort of indie-rock underground music. It more so just ambiance.
I understand this is an indie game and limitations ensue like a budget. You have a small dedicated team who loves and appreciates art in all forms. I love that too, but regardless of budget, regardless of whether it’s a game, tv show, movie, band, comic, etc., I get nervous when I see too much advertising and paid reviews for a product. More than half the time, I’m only seeing what they want to show me and not what it’s really about. Which is of course followed by the inevitable feeling of being ripped off because you fell for all the excessive advertising. I notice most products do this probably because they need to rake in as much money as they can before they fade away all while knowing that what they’re selling is terrible.
In this case, you were selling the wrong part of the game. If you wanna sell something, keep it simple. Take a tip from Hotline Miami for example. The way they advertised their music was only when you were quitting the game. They let the game do most of the talking and it worked.
Replayability
Tiny And Big: Grandpa's Leftovers Crackers
I completed this game within half an hour. The game itself still leaves an impact on me, but not enough to go back and replay it.
Overall, Tiny & Big is a simple and stylish game. Definitely a “snack before a meal” kind of game. The music/advertising side of it left me disappointed, but the game is still worth playing. Check it out for yourself at the link below.
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