Need a game to fill you Pikmin fix?

Pikmin was easily one of my favorite Gamecube titles as it offered a challenge that I had not found from other Nintendo games at the time. Add in the incredible environments to explore, lovable creatures to recruit, and overall simple gameplay mechanics made Pikmin an easy game to get lost in. When I was told about Tinykin, my brain immediately saw this as a modern day Pikmin. After playing through Tinykin, while I was completely wrong about my comparison, it had shown that it was more than just a Pikmin style title that had me hooked throughout.

The premise of Tinykin is simple, explore the various worlds (large rooms) gathering supplies for the inhabitants of those areas to collect the items needed to create your ship to return home. To achieve this, you must collect various Tinykin throughout the map to overcome obstacles and reach certain areas. The Tinykin abilities vary based on color with green Tinykin having the ability to stack to reach higher areas, blue ones conduct electricity, red just blow up…….and they die which is pretty depressing……but I digress, etc. While you don’t need to collect all the Tinykin to complete each area, you do need quite a few to ensure that you can get everywhere. While finding the Tinykin can be a challenge as they’re spread out across the massive areas, if you take the time to just explore the areas, you’ll come across them easily; and with how much is in the world, you’ll easily get lost in world.

Unlike Pikmin, Tinykin doesn’t offer any combat, so the only TinyKin you’ll lose are your red explosive ones; again, rest in peace red TinyKin. As for the player, heights and water are the only ways you’ll die so if you considering your surrounds Tinykin offers a relaxing journey.

Traversal is smooth, and not just because you can surf around the map on a bar of soap. As you progress through the maps, you’ll free spider-like beings that shoot threads to allow you to traverse the map much quicker which is a nice addition. You can also generate an upgradeable bubble that allows you to glide across obstacles and gaps.

Tinykin is a gorgeous looking game that mixes 2D artwork with colorful worlds that look great. Alongside the relaxing soundtrack, Tinykin is a game that you could just walk around exploring the beautifully crafted world and feel satisfied. Characters that you’ll come across are charming in design and look great as well.

Tinykin is a great that will have you invested for roughly 8 hours of play time. While you can try to 100% each of the areas of the game, many of the side missions feel bland and the payoff for collecting the golden pollens is just the ability to glide longer with your bubble so it isn’t really that important. While the game looks great, I would also like to have come across more npc’s that offered depth to the areas rather than feeling like signs telling you where to go next. These don’t ruin the game, but just don’t match the quality of the presentation.

Tinykin is gorgeous 3D-platformer that offers stunning visuals, massive worlds to explore, and adorable creatures to collect to help explore. While the amount of content within the worlds are a bit smaller than what I was hoping for, the game does a phenomenal job at creating a relaxed atmosphere where just exploring is enjoyable. While the story feels set, the ending did feel a bit flat. If you’re looking for a relaxing game to enjoy, and one that’s on GamePass, Tinykin is a must!

*Review code provided by the developer*