[h1]Feels more like a bootleg than an official game[/h1]
After 3 3D platformers on the PS2, TY 4 makes the transition to a 2D side-scrolling platformer and is by far the worst game in the entire series. Still, this one deserves an honest analysis for what it's trying to be instead of just being a complaint on what it [i]should've[/i] been, but even reviewing the game with this approach, there are way more flaws that ruin this game than there are positive aspects going for it.
For starters, the single biggest complaint I had with this game are the controls - for a 2D platformer, they are absolute garbage. Running on foot works fine enough, but the jumping, the main aspect of a platformer, feels comparable to Sonic 2006 in that once you jump while moving, there's no way to slow down or stop mid-jump. Even if you let go of the direction, you will continue moving in said direction, and pressing the opposite direction instantly makes you go the other way. Jumping from a standstill allows very small directional movement. These issues makes precise jumping near impossible unless you rock the d-pad back and fourth. Platforming feels really bad in ways very few games in the genre do, 2D or 3D.
There are no mini-games or alternate game modes. Unlike TY 3, this game is entirely focused on being a simple point A to B platformer and doesn't involve vehicles of any sort, nor does it lock you into combat arenas to deal with waves of enemies. It's just that the core gameplay is terrible and a huge downgrade from previous games. The combo system from Ty 2 and 3 that allowed you to gain more opals from higher combos is gone entirely meaning the combat is even more of a downgrade here. Other fun rangs like the lasharang don't exist, and the Doomerang is completely useless in this game.
This game lacks invincibility frames after getting hit, which can result in you getting hit multiple times in a row which can easily happen thanks to the knock back, as well as you getting hit the moment you respawn after death during the final boss which makes it much more frustrating than it needed to be. It's just as well then that this game has infinite lives and enemies don't respawn every time you die, but it still feels unpleasant to play despite that.
Level design is very underwhelming. Most of it comprises of basic platforming with very few surprises. I barely remember a single level from this game because of how samey they feel. The only level I remember is the one where you're riding a whale to a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea, not because it was a fun change of pace, but it's the only one without core platforming. Most levels also require completing various tasks such as putting out all fires or defeating specific enemies to progress, which are usually placed along the main path but there have been times where I missed something which required retracing my steps, and unlike Shadow the Hedgehog, there is no way to warp between checkpoints to make this process easier.
In every level are 3 gooboo berries and 2 koalas to find. There is also one thunder egg you can get from completing various tasks in every level, or by completing the level goal on every third level. These can be quite frustrating to find at times due to the lack of any form of item tracking like TY 2 and 3 had to point you in the right direction. Unlike previous games, these collectables do absolutely nothing outside of unlocking an achievement for finding them all, so you can skip them and miss nothing if you don't care about achievements. The only positive I have to say regarding collectables is that you're not required to complete the level to keep anything you found - you can quit out mid-level and they will stay collected.
Even the story can't save this game, and in fact does more harm than good for the series. Plot was never the series' strongest suit, but while I thought the animated cutscenes were decent at best, the story itself was nothing special and mostly comprises of a series of Bush Rescue missions. Basically, there's nothing you haven't seen before if you played TY 2. What kills it for me however is the cliffhanger ending that, until TY 5 officially happens, will never get resolved as Boss Cass (somehow) turns the entire outback into a glacier at the push of a button. I really hate these kinds of endings.
It's certainly not helped by the terrible voice acting, either. Most platformers from the 90's, including Mega Man 8, had way better voice performances than this. The voice actors sound like they were just reading from a script and did not care about their roles while doing so. It's not even the entertaining kind of voice acting that makes me laugh unintentionally, it's just bad and bland all around.
This is also the most unpolished game in the entire series. Despite being far less ambitious than its 3D predecessors, I ran into far more glitches than I did the entire trilogy combined. Other than the lack of invincibility frames I addressed earlier, I've had times where the camera went outside the game's boundaries, the boulder chase has a chance of soft locking you as it did for me once if you jump into the pit like I thought you were supposed to do instead of the game letting you dive straight down by just running off the edge, and I was able to break the game's boundaries altogether falling endlessly due to a lack of a death trigger or any kind of failsafe at the bottom of the stage.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3373193145
I do think a 2D adaptation of a 3D series could've worked well as it has for other 3D franchises. One example of a game that actually benefit from this was Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair which IMO was much better than its 3D predecessor, and I thought the Crash Bandicoot games on Game Boy Advance worked well as 2D side-scrollers. I haven't played the GBA versions of any of the TY games so I don't know how they compare to this, but given this is numerically the 4th game in the main series and is not a handheld alternative to the main games nor a side game, it doesn't open itself up to favourable comparisons at all.
I thought TY 3 was a huge disappointment compared to the first 2 games due to its lack of focus and being an overall worse TY 2, but I still thought it had [i]something[/i] to offer for fans of the series that wanted to experience the complete trilogy. This game is just awful and I wouldn't even recommend this to fans of the series. It's not worth getting on sale either as there are far better alternatives to 2D platformers out there in the current year. May I suggest Sonic Mania, the Ori games or Gravity Circuit instead? For TY fans, now that the HD remasters of TY 1-3 are out, there's no reason to play this nowadays.
That said, I really do hope to see a new 3D TY game that takes the best aspects from the first 2 games in the future.
