Tinykin test: sweetness and wonder

Platform games and me have never been a crazy love affair. Already because I never really fell into it when I was little, but above all because I discovered over time much more fulfilling activities, such as cleaning my coins with a cotton swab or counting the number of small holes in a paper towel. Apart from a few rare exceptions, it’s a genre that I didn’t particularly hold in my heart. So when we talk about a platformer in 3D, it’s usually not even worth trying: there’s always a moment where the camera gets stuck behind a piece of scenery, where the perspective makes my character land three meters further than intended and where, basically, I got tired of climbing platforms for two hours for the simple pleasure of climbing.

Then I discovered games like (the incredible) Psychonauts 2 in 2021 and the very recent Tinykin from Splashteam. Both achieved the impossible: they made me love the platformers. And reminded me that maybe I was a little in bad faith.

In Tinykin, we shrunk the bosses

Splashteam is a very small Montpellier studio that you may already know for its previous game Splasher. It consisted of using a fluid cannon to spray the walls of the levels and thus grant oneself different abilities. It was smart, precise and devilishly nervous, which earned him credit with platform game enthusiasts who saw a UFO steeped in ideas landing on the scene. Splasher nevertheless came out five years ago, and the team has since been able to work on a new project: Tinykina 3D platform game so cute that you want to scratch its chin and spend hours cuddled up with it.

Such a cute 3D platformer

Tinykin tells the story of Milo, an archaeologist from the future who must take a short detour to planet Earth in 1991 to repair a curious machine and continue his journey. Problem: Milo is barely the size of a walnut and walks into a house that is clearly designed for humans. He therefore sets out to discover a family pavilion and its various rooms, from the bathroom to the toilets to the kitchen and living room shelves. A bit like some old maps of counter strike had us play in a huge bedroom, Splashteam thought of the levels of Tinykin like familiar environments, but which become hostile and intimidating environments as soon as one puts on the suit of an explorer three centimeters high.

Books become impressive monoliths, puddles turn into insurmountable lakes and laces, huge climbing ropes very practical for gaining a little height. Using classic platforming mechanics, Tinykin we walk from room to room and explain to us with a simple overflight of the camera at the beginning of each level that we will have to do one thing: climb. Fortunately for this good Milo, even if he is as big as a pea, he moves like no one else. Jumping from object to object is child’s play for him. He can also let himself hover in a bubble for a few meters or slide on a bar of soap to pick up speed if that’s not enough. The platforming phases follow each other with naturalness and dynamism and, apart from a few rare camera problems, Tinykin is a platform game in which we take a lot of pleasure to navigate.

A smooth video game

Hidden in each of the six (vast) levels of the game, the parts of the machine that Milo seeks to repair are obtained by achieving different objectives. Sometimes you have to find a key to open a padlock, repair a mini festival stage to organize a foam party in a bathroom or help small insects to lift the veil on this mysterious hairy blue monster that haunts the drawer of the bedroom. Each new room gives rise to new problems that must be solved by searching every corner of this funny house full of life. Full of life, yes, because you are never really alone in this adventure.

The Tinykins, who give the game its name, are little beings who squat the rooms of the house and will start following Milo as soon as he steps on their eggs. This is where the Splashteam game reveals another clever idea: the control of the Tinykins, who follow us like a small army of Pikmin that we can direct by finger and eye. With a simple pull of the trigger, we can use the pink Tinykins to carry heavy objects, call the red ones to the rescue to blow up walls of scenery or stack the green ones to form an improvised climbing tower wherever we want . The control of these minions is an essential mechanism that expands over the levels as new colors of Tinykins will be grafted around Milo.

A real distributor of smiles

Each color brings a different ability, and a new way of understanding certain parts of the levels. This will be used most of the time to accomplish the small missions that we discover by talking with the characters, or to recover all the hidden objects to display them in our small personal museum once back at HQ. The addition of the Tinykins densifies the platform sequences a bit and fits perfectly into the verticality of the game. But you shouldn’t expect a complex synergy system or an invitation to emergent gameplay either. Splashteam’s game is quite clearly marked, allowing even those less accustomed to the genre to know which small creature to use to overcome a given situation. Some will probably see a lack of challenge, others will see a desire for accessibility that allows you to focus on the other great success of the title: it is a real distributor of smiles.

Of the six to eight hours that are enough to complete Tinykin, there is not a moment when you feel like you are having a hard time, or having an unpleasant moment. We go through the house with a smile on our faces and we are constantly amazed by the discovery of a new place, a character or a little reference stuffed in one of the dialogues. Visually, the game is fantastic. The mixture of 3D decorations and sprites 2D creates a delightful ambiance as everything comes to life before our eyes with our every move – and there’s a host of little details to spot in the environments for the most observant.

We must also warmly salute all the work done on sound coherence, both through the game’s soundtrack and through the symphony of sound effects that adorn the slightest collection of objects or the discovery of a secret. And if anyone still had to be convinced of the care given to the smallest details of the game, know that even the Tinykins sing in rhythm with the music when they lift a heavy object.

All of this coexists in an enchanting universe brimming with surprises, visual treats and storytelling in the environment, as if the house could tell its story through the game’s settings. ‘adventure, Tinykin surprises with all these little capsules of wonder that alone are enough to give meaning to the exploration and encourage us to go further. Whether you’re just there for the adventure or for the obsession of collecting, it’s a safe bet that the very friendly game from Splashteam will suck you into its funny universe, with its immense generosity and sweetness. And, who knows, it might even reconcile you to platform games. He’s pretty good at it.

The verdict

We liked

• Explore every room in the house
• The atmosphere
• Funny, sweet and generous

We liked less

• Some precision issues in the platform
• Quite a few synergies between the Tinykins
• The little slowdowns

Beneath its air of a fairly classic little platform game, Tinykin is a real concentrate of sweetness and wonder. It’s a childish and warm title, reminiscent of the taste of the brioche that comes out of the toaster, the one you put on when you come home from school in front of cartoons. A six to eight hour adventure, perfect for spending a good Sunday afternoon slippers and hot chocolate. And besides, it’s in the Game Pass…