Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue

"This game (with its great music and good platforming levels) would have been good if not for the vehicle missions"

The first Ty was a good game. Nothing great, but certainly deserving of a solid 6.5/10. This game however took a nose dive in quality from the original due mainly to the curse upon 3D platformers that are vehicles.

The story goes that Boss Cass has escaped from prison and formed his own nation…the result being he has diplomatic immunity and thus you can't go attack him – at best this story is ridiculous. It gets worse though. Because of you not being allowed to attack Cass you've got to fill your time with some of the more unexciting stuff that happens. Missions range from boring helicopter missions to delivering lunches to searching for a missing child (who is marked on the map >_>), yet more boring helicopter missions, delivering spark plugs and finally bad bunyip missions.

The gameplay is 3D platforming with the addition of loads of lame vehicles. These include a helicopter with a terrible camera angle and boring repetitive missions. A Thermo bunyip which can swim in lava as well as wiping out all enemies in your path with a terrible amount of ease. A Sub bunyip which swims in water and has quite possibly the worst camera angle I've seen in a game. A Lifter bunyip…which lifts stuff…and walks slowly…*sigh*. A car which is slow, boring and serves as the cause of one of the worst bits of the game. Finally there is your generic bunyip which destroys enemies with FAR too much ease. Unfortunately these vehicles comprise around half of the gameplay, the result being a lot of boring and terribly laid out missions as well as a huge loss of charm (something the first game excelled in).

The hub world design took a huge nosedive from the nice big open hub world of the previous game. Instead the hub world comprises of three parts. The starting area which looks vaguely like the hub world of the first game and serves virtually no purpose. The town which contains shops and very little else. And finally the complex road system that links between the town and the levels. This road system is very boring to traverse and it can often take up to five minutes to get where you're headed – this is terrible compared to the one minute it would take you to find the level entrance in the previous game.

Another major complaint is that where as the previous game had quite a lot of full-fledged levels this game has only 5 or 6 proper full-fledged levels – the rest of the game consists of minigames, vehicle levels and driving to the levels. To make it worse the full-fledged levels are tremendously un-varied. Expect to see numerous forest levels and little else.

Another major complaint with the gameplay is that the developers decided to implement a proper currency system…this is TERRIBLE. You'll spend most of the game hoarding every single opal you can find to buy a new boomerang, which is all rather easy to abuse considering crates re-spawn. However the really bad thing about this is that it makes the other collectables all rather pointless…you'll go out of your way to collect Cogs and yet will be unable to do anything with them.

The controls are basically the same as the first game. However one very important change has been implemented. In the previous game you have to cycle through your boomerangs with the arrow buttons which not only took quite long but also left you open to attack. Now that has been replaced by a system where you hold down a button, select your ‘rang with the analog stick and then release the button. This is not only quicker but it also pauses the game during the process so that you aren't hurt.

The graphics are very good, though the game doesn't look much better than the first. There are moments when the graphics aren't particularly great – there are a few bad textures and some trees look weird – however generally the game looks quite nice

The music is a true high point of the game. The music is brilliant, whether it be the slow guitar solo that plays when you're in the sewers or the acoustic guitar that usually strums along as you play. The music won't be to everyone's tastes but it is definitely very good. The sound effects however will get on your nerves as the feel horribly generic. Also, whilst some of the Voice Acting is pretty mediocre, some of it is absolutely horrible

The game is around 10 hours long and though there are quite a few things you can go back and do after completion, the fact of the matter is you probably won't go back and do them for fear of having to take part in more vehicle missions.

Gameplay (vehicles) = 3/10
Gameplay (platforming) = 7/10
Graphics = 8/10
Music = 9/10
Sound = 3/10
Controls = 9/10
Length = 10 hours

Overall = 5.5/10 (rounded to 5/10)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/14/08

Game Release: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue (EU, 11/05/04)