Sometimes, we all find games that spark the childlike wonder that, for many of us, brought us into the fold as gamers to begin with. These titles are rare, but cherished in a way unlike any other; while we may prefer gritty shooters, deeply-involved RPGs, or bone-shaking tales of horror and suspense, many of us still find a soft spot opening up for these bright, vivid testaments to good old-fashioned fun. For me, The Last Tinker: City of Color definitely fits into this category, though the merest glimpse is all I’ve yet encountered.
The imagery evokes classic adventure games from the PS1/2 era – Psychonauts comes to mind pretty directly, given the art style, but The Last Tinker is a more modern, polished version of this same aesthetic. Mechanically, I ran into a couple of hiccups, but they smoothed out as I got the hang of the controls; mostly it turned out to just be an issue of acclimation, as the controls themselves are pretty spot-on once you have the feel for them, and movement through the brightly-animated landscape becomes fluid. Unfortunately, the short demo doesn’t offer up a particularly large slice of the world to explore, but what scenery is there is beautiful, vibrant, and enthusiastically chromatic.
I won’t go into too much here since, again, the portion playable right now is brief, so there’s not a lot to go into, but The Last Tinker: City of Color is officially on my radar, and I’m excited to see where it goes come full release. There’s a lot of promise bundled up here, from the flow of movement through the brilliant world, the simple yet satisfying combat engine, and an engaging story that teases at something that will be a lot of fun to dive into once it’s complete. If you’d like to follow along and keep an eye on it, Mimimi Productions can be found on their website and on Twitter. I’d definitely recommend checking them out, and I hope to give this game the full review treatment once it’s done.
