Ty the Tasmanian Tiger

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger must free his family and save the world from the evil Boss Cass.

NA release: 10th September 2002
EU release: 22nd November 2002
JP release: N/A
Developer: Krome Studios
Publisher: EA
NGC Magazine Score: 60%
Mods Used: None

When it comes to anthropomorphic platformer mascots, Australian marsupials are a very popular choice. Ty is based on a thylacine, an extinct species that was killed off by humans in 1936, but has since become a popular cultural icon in Australia (and Tasmania in particular). The entire game fully dives into the Australian vibes, with a ton of slang, various other Australian animals and the main items being boomerangs.

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger has everything you’d expect from a 3D collectathon platformer: varied levels, multiple kinds of objects to collect and lots of jumping. The core controls and movement of Ty is very tight, making it feel great to just move around. His boomerangs is also extremely easy to use, which does make dealing with enemies slightly too simple, but they’re just so much fun to move, and well animated as Ty catches them when they return.

Throughout the game you’ll unlock more kinds of boomerang. While swapping is done quickly on the D-pad, I wish that elemental ‘rangs were on D-pad up/down while the tech ‘rangs were on left/right – there’s a lot to scroll through at the end of the game. These will have things you’d expect like fire, ice and electric attacks, but there’s also a homing ‘rang, the multirang (which lets you throw loads at once) and, my favourite, the kaboomerang. This produces a large explosion that thankfully doesn’t hurt Ty.

The levels are also extremely well designed. The first time though a level, you’ll likely go along the guided path of the main objective, going off to the side every now and then to explore, which means your first time running through the level will take a decent amount of time. Despite this, exploring the levels to find everything never feels cumbersome a the levels kind of fold in, so feel more “open” once you get to know them.

The main collectable you need to progress are Thunder Eggs, with eight in each level. One requires collecting all 300 opals in each stage, which sounds daunting, but manages not to be due to the level design. Another one has you rescuing 5 bilbies from cages (jinjos!) and there’s always a race on the level. Others can be found by exploring or completing challenges in each level, and these manage to keep things varied. There are also 10 golden cogs to find if you want to get additional boomerangs.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, and fully completed each level just because it was fun to do so. It got fairly middling reviews when it came out for being another 3D platformer, but I think it holds up really well over time.

Great

In its favour, though, Ty’s simplicity, bright and cheerful design, well-explained tutorial and mildly amusing dialogue makes this well worth a look for younger gamers who might find something like Mario a little too difficult or demanding. Hardly the best 3D platformer we can think of, but by no means as awful as we thought it would be.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #76

Remake or remaster?

A remaster exists. It has better shadow and lighting, but seems to be the same outside of that. It does appear to be buggier than the original, though.

Official Ways to get the game

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch.