Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan

Ty Fights Back!

NA release: 12th October 2005
EU release: N/A
JP release: N/A
Developer: Krome Studios
Publisher: Activision
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

I loved the first Ty the Tasmanian Devil game. While it was a bit derivative of other platformers, it had solid movement, a lot of charm and some interesting powers thanks to different boomerangs. The second game was a bit more unique, with levels connected by a large open map you could drive around, but the boomerangs felt far less important, with some abilities not being used at all in the game.

The third game carries on with where the second game was going, with an even bigger world to drive across and far more missions using different vehicles. There’s barely any platforming at all, with the game being a lot more about combat. It just focuses on the weaker parts of the last game.

The vehicle you use to get across the map is much more interesting, though. Instead of a jeep, you control some crazy crab vehicle that scuttles at a very high speed. It’s fun to use, which makes it a shame that it’s the one vehicle that isn’t used on missions, especially as it’s by far the best one.

The boomerangs have been changed again. You have a few different types of base boomerang, which can hold between one and six magical stones, which activate different powers. There’s no interesting unique effects from combining different powers, though, and once again there’s almost no usage of them for puzzles.

The combat itself makes it worse, too. The game introduces a new enemy, the Quinkan, generic shadow enemies with no personality. To make matters worse, these can only be defeated with melee combat, making the boomerangs even less important. The enemies themselves remind me of Sonic Unleashed, which is also amusing with how the mech you use (far too much) feels a bit like the Werehog.

This all makes Ty 3 even more disappointing than the second one. The reduced focus on the platforming and boomerangs (the best parts of the first) is just a big shame.

Fun

The Ty games have always seemed to be targeted squarely at a younger crowd, with simple gameplay and over-the-top cartoonish characters. However, even a younger crowd needs to have a more consistent and interesting gameplay experience than that which is present in Ty 3. There’s no doubt that there’s some charm to this game, but when it comes down to a good gameplay experience, Ty 3 is severely lacking.
Carrie Gouskos, GameSpot

Remake or remaster?

The recent remasters are fine, just port it to more platforms.

Official Ways to get the game

Ty 3 is available on Steam.