DISCLAIMER: This The Last Tinker: City of Colors review was created using a Steam copy of the game that was provided to us, free-of-charge, by a representative of Mimimi Productions; however, the developer did not retain any say in the content of this article. Where I can, I've tried to avoid publishing spoilers from The Last Tinker: City of Colors' story, but those who don't want to learn anything about the game might want to just skip down to the final score.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors will immediately appeal to anyone longing for a quality PC platformer, with a world as colorful and unique as anything released on dedicated game consoles in recent years, while also offering a fresh take on an increasingly crowded genre.
For years, anyone looking to experience the sort of vibrant worlds and generally pleasant demeanor of modern platforming franchises, like Banjo & Kazooie or Ratchet and Clank, was forced to rely on one or more dedicated game consoles to scratch that itch. Sure, there are plenty of indie developers that are willing to port their PSN/XBLA/eShop releases over to Steam, but I can count the number of existing classic, PC-exclusive platformers on one hand.
I mean, come on. Everyone knows the PC only exists to accommodate those who prefer first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. Sure, those damned Dota 2 and League of Legends players have carved out a little something extra for themselves, but it's not exactly hyperbole to suggest most PC releases fall into just a handful of genres. So, there's obviously no room for something like The Last Tinker: City of Colors in the increasingly-crowded Steam marketplace, right?
Wrong.
Developed by Mimimi Productions, The Last Tinker: City of Colors casts players as Koru, a young man who's spent his entire life as little more than Colortown's resident outcast. His only friend is a fairy named Tag, a spirit with more than a passing resemblance to some of the creatures from Viva Piñata, who uses trails of confetti to lead Koru from one objective to the next. The game never really explores the reason(s) why the two live so far outside of Colortown, but it's certainly implied that the character's starkly different appearance played some role in the decision.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors drops you into the shoes of its hero during a time of great turmoil. After years of increasingly bitter tensions between the city's three factions, Colortown has been split into three unique districts, each full of Red, Blue or Green creatures who want little to do with anyone but their own neighbors. The tensions have also corrupted each district's spirit, turning Strength (Red) to Anger, Charisma (Green) into Anxiety and Hope (Blue) into Depression.
Unfortunately, the growing divide between Colortown's inhabitants has also done a number on the mental state of the Purple sprite, the spirit meant to represent the unity of the other three colors. The stress even pushes Purple to summon the Bleakness; an ancient evil that immediately possesses its summoner and sets about trying to erase Colortown and all those who reside within.
Naturally, it's up to Koru to save the city, and the very same citizens who were apparently more than happy to drive him and Tag out into the forested hills that overlook Colortown. And this is also the point where The Last Tinker: City of Colors becomes strangely self-aware.
In terms of world presentation, The Last Tinker: City of Colors offers something akin to the critically acclaimed PS Vita game Tearaway; dropping players into a world full of people, places and creatures are made entirely of folded paper and other assorted art supplies. Everything in The Last Tinker: City of Colors looks like an arts and crafts project, right down to the cardboard conversation bubbles, and that design decision actually forms the basis for Koru's hero story.
As you may have guessed from the title of the game, Koru is the last of the Tinkers; the only beings who are said to be capable of mending the various paper creations that make up Colortown. It's unclear how the Tinkers are able to wield such magic, or what caused them to disappear, but the immediate threat of the Bleakness also doesn't leave much time for asking questions.
Over the course of the game, Koru must visit the domes where each of Colortown's three guiding spirits currently reside, convincing each to give hope another chance and aid the Tinker in his quest to defeat the Bleakness. The three guardian spirits also imbue Koru with new powers, giving the Tinker a handful of new abilities and slightly increasing the depth of the game's combat system with the addition of each new power pool.
The combat mechanics in The Last Tinker: City of Colors are likely to feel familiar to many gamers, given that fighting with Koru feels quite similar to the group-fight mechanics in the ultra-popular Arkhamverse games, though The Last Tinker does offer a much simpler version of said combat. Koru can quickly alter the focus of his attacks, hopping from minion to minion with a simple flick of the analog stick, but your hero will only have a total of six different attacks to choose from by the end of The Last Tinker.
Fortunately, The Last Tinker: City of Colors isn't an especially long game, which should help keep players from growing too tired of the less-than-challenging combat present within. The game's lack of jump button is also likely to throw more than a few people for a loop, too; considering The Last Tinker: City of Colors is being strongly marketed as a platformer for PC gamers.
Koru has a combat roll, which occasionally pulls double-duty as a fill-in for a proper jump button when players need to cross an uneven chasm. But most of the actual platforming in The Last Tinker: City of Colors combines the one-button parkour of the Assassin's Creed franchise with the sort of timing puzzles that players have come to expected from jumping segments in most any video game.
It's a shockingly non-frustrating take on platforming, for a genre where improper camera placement generally leads to frequent checkpoint visits, and makes it easy to remain focused on the light-hearted tale at the core of The Last Tinker: City of Colors. Similarly, the game offers a variety of difficulty settings for its players, including both an ultra-easy Kids Mode and an Instant Death offering that makes any/all damage fatal to Koru.
On the flip side, The Last Tinker: City of Colors falls into a strange middle-ground, where people may very well expect more content, and/or reasons to revisit what content has been included, than can currently be found in The Last Tinker: City of Colors. Though the game's 7-9 hour campaign is just as long as many $60 releases, Mimimi Productions' latest (and best-looking) Unity game now finds itself competing with hundreds of other similarly-priced games in the Steam store, and $20 is often more than enough to buy a game(s) that will offer dozens (if not hundreds) of hours of entertainment.
Likewise, the childlike nature of the narrative and presentation in The Last Tinker: City of Colors will not appeal to everyone. I found the game to be a pleasant alternative to the multiplayer shooters, zombie-survival games and MMORPGs, but the brevity of The Last Tinker: City of Colors's story will keep it from replacing current go-to games like Minecraft, Starbound or Terraria.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors - Final Verdict
At the end of the day, your own perceived value of The Last Tinker: City of Colors is likely to hinge on a handful of talking points.
- Are you someone who thoroughly enjoys the platformer genre; provided, of course, that you are playing a well-constructed representation of said genre?
- Do you enjoy the light-hearted narratives found in animated television shows and movies; particularly the style of presentation frequently used to communicate basic life lessons (i.e. - teams succeed when they work together) to young children?
- Is an entertaining story more important to you than the overall challenge of whatever game you're currently playing?
If you'd respond to two or more of those questions with a "yes" , then I'd say there's a fair chance you'll find The Last Tinker: City of Colors worth the twenty dollars currently being asked for a Steam copy of the game. And, if the game's difficulty is a real concern, I'm fairly confident that turning the difficulty up to Instant Death will provide the unforgiving gameplay that you're looking for. If you couldn't positively respond to at least two of those questions, though, it might be worth waiting on a Steam sale.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors may not be perfect, but what new release ever is, these days? The game offers an interesting take on a genre that doesn't tend to see much evolution, despite making a few missteps along the way, and I'd wager the folks who enjoy The Last Tinker: City of Colors will ultimately outnumber those who hate it. It took me about eight hours to finish the game, which more than meets the standard "price of a movie ticket" argument, and I'd say there's a fair chance I'll revisit The Last Tinker: City of Colors at some point down the line.
But, make no mistake about it. There will absolutely be some people who hate The Last Tinker: City of Colors, and everything about it. Especially the lack of jumping puzzles, largely repetitive combat and the general lack of brutally-difficult game scenarios found within.
Thankfully, this is one of the cheaper gaming decisions you'll have to make in the modern era.
Score - 4/5
What did you think of The Last Tinker: City of Colors? Wish more games like it were developed specifically for the PC? Hope Mimimi sets aside the time/resources necessary to develop a sequel to The Last Tinker: City of Colors at some point down the line?
Let us know in the comments section!
