Ty the Tasmanian Tiger

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Australian for ?average.?

The Hall of Video Game Mascots is reaching critical capacity?but that didn?t stop EA Games from trying to squeeze one more through the door. Unfortunately, the only thing Ty the Tasmanian Tiger really adds to the 3D platformer genre is an amusing Australian accent. Expect to someday see him standing behind a velvet rope in the back room next to the likes of Tomba, Chuck Rock, and James Pond.

Ty?s gameplay is about as standard as these things come. Your goal: collect the five talismans by collecting 72 magic rocks by collecting 300 opels and five caged furry things. The game shares a structure vaguely similar to Mario Sunshine?each world is divided into eight individual tasks?but Ty isn?t quite blessed with the plumber?s trademark handling skills or Miyamoto?s ingenious level design talents. The levels are big and the scope is impressive, but the art is bland and generic. The camera (controlled by the right analog stick) is too fast and loose, and your three zoom options are almost identical?too close. Ty?s trademark boomerangs don?t possess nearly the pizzazz or power they should (they?re essentially glorified bullets)?and his attitude-laden eyes make him look remarkably like a famous attitude-laden hedgehog. At least Ty swims better than most mascots?and as any student of 3D platformers knows, that?s one of the trickiest control elements to nail. Ty?s far from being a pack of poo tickets?but he?s not within cooee of being bonzer, either.

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