TY the Tasmanian Tiger 2

A cozy and casual "B-tier" platformer, used to play this a lot on my PS2 back in the day, though I would prefer something like Ratchet & Clank 1-3, it still kinda held a special place as a fun and charming game to return to every now and then, TY2 might be the closest to those in terms of gameplay and progression, especially with all the unique boomerang types you can get (explosive one being an obvious winner) Has a great soundtrack, hub world full of secrets and collectibles and fun characters all over the town/explorable areas. If you love 3D platformers of any kind, this is definitely one worth trying, and honestly I wouldnt mind seeing a modern sequel of it some day too.

PEAK

Still charming and colorful. Boomerangs, Aussie humor, and a nice hit of nostalgia — what’s not to like?

This is the sequel to one of my favorite games. Overall, the game plays well and the controls feel solid. It’s definitely enjoyable on a basic gameplay level. However, I felt like this game has lost a lot of what made the first game special. There’s much less focus on the boomerangs. While there are still different types, most of them are available in the shop right from the start. This removes the sense of progression and achievement from the first game, where unlocking new boomerangs through missions allowed you to access new areas. The characters also have far less presence this time around. Their personalities — which were a big part of what made the first game so charming — barely get any attention here. I also missed the cozy outback feeling that the first game captured so well. Back then, every mission had its own unique flair and was memorable. In this sequel, the areas feel more generic and interchangeable, and the missions themselves often come across as repetitive and somewhat bland. On the technical side, the game ran well on the Steam Deck. Compared to the first game, this one is definitely weaker. Still, it’s a good game overall, and if you like Ty, I can absolutely recommend giving it a try. Overall: 7/10

A classic that shouldnt be missed. Clunky at times and simple but enjoyable

I played one of these A LOT as a kid. It wasn't often that I had my " own game," generally my brothers had games and I played as 4th player or watched them play. Ty was *my game* as a kid, and I don't remember much aside from how the game looked, the boomerangs, and jumping around because I was an infant. I still don't know if I had this game as a kid or the first one. I had a feeling it was the second one, but to be honest after playing the game I don't remember much so it might have been the first one. For some perspective, I was born in late 99 so I would have been 2 when the first game came out and 4 when the second one came. Revisiting as an adult with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2, as an adult, has been an amazing experience. This is an awesome game, and seriously impressed me with its scope for 2004. The characters are likeable enough, though the story is generic and doesn't compare much to the gameplay. The gameplay is certainly Spyro-esc, most time is spent shooting projectiles at enemies or platforming/gliding around. This game continues shaking things up throughout the bit I have played so for, you're constantly in vehicles, doing cart races, and playing minigames that break up the pace of the gameplay. This might be taken a bit too far, as sometimes you're like " really? Another vehicle section?" but overall you do get enough regular gameplay. My only real complaint with this game is that it is a " where do I go" type of game. The open world is great, but trying to find your way to most of the locations is nearly impossible. Firstly, the map is small. It's hard to tell where you are going, though if you really focus you can figure it out. You can pause to make the map bigger, but that doesn't help in telling you which direction X or Y is. The worst part is, in the larger open world these objectives show exactly where they are on the map instead of showing you the area you need to go to. Half of the time I find the place to go, it is because I gave up on trying to find the place to go and then somehow wandered into the correct place. There's some other small things, as well, that really show this is an old game that isn't going to explain anything readily. A great example is when you go to this spooky mansion mission. The goal of the mission is to find a person who is pretending to be a ghost. You aren't told this, you are only told that you need the Infrarang -- a rang that lets you see things you can't see otherwise -- and that most spirits are friendly, but one spirit isn't. What this actually means in the mission is that you have to aim with the infrarang and find which ghost is a person in a ghost outfit. Originally I just pressed the button, went on the roof, grabbed the opal, and then tried to return to complete the objective. That didn't work, so I looked it up. Then, I found the ghost imposter, so I un-aimed the rang and began shooting the crap out of him. It didn't do anything though, and keep in mind this entire time i'm getting constantly chased by these annoying spirits that take 1/4 of your health and stun you for three seconds. It turns out you have to aim the infrared rang at him manually and hit him while still in the infrared view. None of this was explained, so it really felt like " how was I supposed to figure that out?" especially if I were a kid me playing this in 2004. So the game's main issue isn't that huge of a deal, but sometimes you will be left completely confused on what to do next or where you are supposed to go. The platforming is surprisingly fluid and fun, even challenging. There was a section where I tried the same series of jumps over and over again and kept missing, but it was entirely optional and I was doing it to get an item. I like a game that challenges me in that way while not stripping the motivation to try and do something, and I like a game that lets you set your own goals while also guiding you. In terms of the remaster, it's surprisingly comprehensive. Settings menus, HD, and plays great on my computer and my husband's steamdeck (streamed, but still streamed from Linux) -- there really isn't much more I could have asked for on that front. It worked perfectly! Also, the public leaderboards are cool even if people have found a way to cheese 00:00 times on the kart races. Either way, my review ends in resounding surprise: This game was lightyears better than I was expecting it to be, honestly. I thought this was going to be a quick nostalgia trip I would put down after playing, but now I see myself beating the game as it turned out to be a lot of fun. It is nice to learn that some of my earliest and most prominent gaming experiences beyond the Sims 2 were actually awesome. Thanks Ty, for being an important and happy part of my childhood. Although I forgot a lot about the games and forgot what game I even had, I never forgot about Ty. This was my Super Mario 64 growing up, and I am lucky it was!

These Devs did not have to port this game to steam but they did

This game is definitely the best out of the series. It has a lot to offer, lots of missions, and the improvments made since the 2004 release made this game incredible.

👍

This game has an identity crisis. It's like they looked at all the popular games of 2004 and thought "hey, lets make a game that combines all of the top games, but do it poorly!". To start, this is not your typical late '90s/early 2000's platformer like Ty 1 was. It's like if you combined GTA, Spyro, Mario Kart, TY 1, and then added mech suits for some reason. The world is big, but completely empty. You have to drive a vehicle with TERRIBLE physics along the map to get to other sections. Sometimes these sections are small areas, sometimes they are larger "worlds", and some places are races where you play the worst knockoff of Mario Kart you've ever played. It's ironic to have a Mario Kart knockoff in the game, but then the physics and handling for the vehicle you are forced to drive to get around the map is borderline unusable. Just re-use the code? I genuinely don't understand. In fact, there are only 7 races in the game, getting first place is dead simple, and yet only 17% of players have the achievement unlocked for doing all 7 races and getting first. Why? Because it's boring and terrible. TY 2 adds so many new rangs, but like TY 1, you use maybe 4 of the 17. Then to make matters worse they decided to add Bunyips, which are mech suits, that completely replace rangs. So they added a boring random feature that competes with their already underutilised rangs. Every time you load up the game, it puts you in the furthest corner of the map, and it requires a 3+ MINUTE WALK EVERY TIME to get back to where you were. Not joking, at least a good hour or so of my game time is walking back to play the game. Actual wild gameplay decision by the devs. Gameplay is mostly just fetch quests, but in the worst way. Most of them are just re-skinned helicopter missions where you control a helicopter/mech and there's a radar around you and you move/extinguish/destroy/etc the objects on the radar. Again, completely forgetting this is a platformer.. Overall this is just a really weird game with a bunch of terrible decisions and it's not fun. 100%ing this game was a chore. Also adding a perma-death 1 health mode to a platformer, but more specifically THIS "platformer" is the dumbest decision ever. Made a terrible game a million times worse. [h3] Linux performance [/h3] Unlike TY 1, this game claims it is Steam Deck verified, and boy that is not accurate. Linux performance is pretty bad. While levels are playable, with frequent FPS dips, some levels are borderline unplayable with an average 14FPS. Most notably Frill Neck Forest. I guess it technically is fully playable on Linux, but the experience sucks. Then again the experience sucks either way because this game is poorly designed.