TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3

A nice sendoff for the series. More vehicles, more humor, and still that classic TY vibe. Just good fun.

I'll start this off with saying the game is fully playable on Deck without a single crash. Type in "MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=zink %command%" without the quotation marks in your launch settings, and just make sure MSAA is Off and you don't set your Draw Distance any higher than mid, and you can max out everything else. No need for a specific version of Proton. Runs like a beauty. Anyway, onto the actual review: TY 3 is a weird game for me. I know full well it's the least liked of the original trilogy, and I can understand why people might feel that way. Keeping circumstances in mind, the biggest criticism and simultaneously the best praise I can give TY 3 is that it left me wanting more. This is easily my favourite game in the series, rushed development and all. The music is fantastic (as usual), the touchups to the combat are enough to make it fun, and being able to put together your own broken 'rangs with the stone system is just fun. It isn't long before you go from having to be conservative with your loadouts to decimating everything with 'rangs you can throw rapidfire that autotarget enemies and explode, and it feels good. The story's charming enough, though the characters are what really shines. It's clear that the game had to be rushed out the door, and it's one of the most unfortunate things in gaming to me. If it had been allowed a little more time in the oven, it would have been close to perfect for me. Still, it clicked, and it clicked hard. If you want more of a traditional collectahon, you're not going to get it here. The platforming isn't anything crazy, especially compared to the previous games, but it doesn't need to be. The only parts I found frustrating were some of the flying missions, but never enough to make me put the game down, and I came to appreciate them when they popped up. I honestly feel like they're a step up from TY 2's copter segments once you get the hang of the controls, but I digress. I don't have anything to really complain that couldn't just be summed up as wanting more. I love running around the two overworld maps in the dumb crab blowing everything up; I wish there were more overworld maps to explore. I love putting together different stone combos into my 'rangs and annihilating everything; I wish there were more viable combos (Fire+Earth leading to explosions that scatter fireballs that also explode, as a dumb example of what could have been) and more opportunities to use them. I loved the characters every minute they were on screen; I wish they were on screen for longer -- so on and so forth. TY 3 isn't a good game. It's a great game, and if fate had been kinder, it would have been a fantastic one. But the amount of love and care put into it still marks it as something special to me. But hey, much like TY 3, I'm a weirdo. I can't deny that there's a lot of its DNA that appeals to me specifically. But beyond that, it's still TY, and TY's always good. Even if Sly's still cooler.

The game's unbalanced, made in a short time on a shoestring budget and could've used more features and polish. And? It's still TY, 10/10

TY The Tasmanian Tiger

Unfortunately, unlike the first two, I am unable to recommend this game on steam at this time due to being completely unable to play on my Steam Deck, which is the way I play 3d platformers like this, I am very saddened by this fact

I adore the first 2 games but man, this one really misses the mark. I feel that everything that made 1 and 2 special was practically removed from this game. The map is alright, the platforming isnt nearly as intriquing as the second, and enemies are in my opinion bland and just not that detailed. I feel that 2 was the perfect Ty game and it just needed an extension of that map and atmosphere.

Being a huge fan of Ty and Ty 2, I really wanted to love this game. But I can't. Everything it does, Ty 2 did better. Playing this game, you can actually feel the budget run out halfway through. Throughout, you'll run 4 mission types - Ty missions - Bunyip missions - Gunyip missions - Racing missions Compared to previous entries, these are extremely short, super easy, linear, and repetitive - seriously repetitive, as you'll run a good amount of them more than once. Most of the Ty missions have you walk down a single path just throwing your rangs at enemies mindlessly. I'm almost positive you can get to the end of any of these missions with ease without letting go of the W key (or thumbstick) once, as it is that trivial. The bunyip missions have been reduced to just punching whatever is in front of you, again, with ease. In Ty 2, there were a handful of bunyip models that were assigned to you based on the mission type, allowing for unique scenarios and traversal. That level of design is not present in this game. Gunyip missions did not exist in previous entries, and I'm thankful for that. Compared to the helicopter missions in Ty 2, which had you saving animals or putting out wild fires, they are so boring. Gunyip missions have you shoot whatever is in front of you in a jet that has terrible controls, for a third time, with ease. It just doesn't feel good to fly and the missions are just boring. Lastly, racing missions are no longer just side missions. They are baked into the story, cause somehow we have time to race during an alien invasion. What once were side quests to fill the world with content are now just forced story deviations that make for bad writing and less Ty levels. The missions being boring and linear aren't even my only complaint. The decision to swap the car from Ty 2 with a "crabmersible" was a horrible one. Good luck moving 20 feet in front of you without flipping or bumping into something. The outbacks of this game are seriously unfun to explore because of that thing. I can appreciate them trying to update the rang system, but overall, I felt the system present in Ty 2 was better. It felt like a chore having to edit my rangs constantly, looking for a certain ability or combo I wanted. The world is boring and small compared to Ty 2. The story is bad and short compared to Ty 2. The bosses are terrible compared to Ty 2. Seriously, you will fight the same boss 5 times, with nothing changing from the previous fight. I could go on and on about the smaller things and some other bigger things, but I won't. This review is already long and rambly enough. Just go play Ty 2. SPOILER (sort of): [spoiler] This was literally the ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u61F_qvdid0 [/spoiler]

Devs ported the first and second game to Steam Deck, but not the third. The game crashes consistently and repeatedly at the same points which makes it unplayable. Well known and reported by players. Extremely lazy of the devs to just abandon support on the third entry in a series EDIT: Tried to continue playthrough on PC. Can get passed the cutscenes, but the graphics are atrocious. Textures pop in/out constantly. There will be times when the sun in so blindingly bright I couldn't see. Other times shadows will be so dark and muddy I couldn't make out what I was looking at

The game is just as good as I remember from when I first played it on GameCube! The QoL that was added in this port definitely smooths a few things out, though I will say there's small oddities here and there. For one thing, Dennis's whip keeps undulating in and out of cutscenes for literally no reason. Don't know if that's a quirk of the port or my PC is having a hard time. Either way, having a great time collecting everything!

Love the darker atmospheric, post-apocalyptic alien invasion setting and the demonic looks of the Quinkan with new enemy behaviors but even in this version the combat is stiff and repetitive. The customizable rangs do alleviate it to an extent. Love the new bunyips though the jet is no Star Fox. If you didn't like the racing in 2 then you won't like the mandatory racing missions here especially when you need to collect small items while racing for first place. This entry was more experimental than 2 and I applaud it for trying new things. I would like to see the Quinkan continue to be a nuisance in Ty5 with remnants that need to be exterminated but either have them nerfed so that normal rangs can damage them, significantly improve the combat to be like Rayman 3 or keep them in bunyip missions.