Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue

"It's your friendly neighborhood Ty"

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue is far different from its predecessor, but it still maintains the Ty spirit that made the first game so much fun. All of the great platforming elements are still there, but a few things have been changed and added.

PRESENTATION: 9/10
Whether you like it or not, Ty is back in a whole new adventure! When I saw this game in the store, I had to buy it (I loved the first game so much!), and when I played this game I was certainly not disappointed. This game has the same platforming and boomerang-tossing action as the first game, but with many added gameplay elements. You explore a bigger world and can pilot all sorts of vehicles. There are more characters in this game, too. (Gooboo Steve is my absolute favorite character.) Whether you've been a fan of Ty from the start or not, you should try this game out.

I must also mention that the game doesn't take place in Rainbow Cliffs anymore. Instead, it takes place in Southern Rivers where Ty lives in his home town of Baramudgee. The storyline of this game is that Cass has escaped from prison and now Ty and his friends have developed some sort of "emergency 911" system called Bush Rescue. I must admit that it is very silly how Ty the hero is now doing small jobs such as putting out fires and repairing pipelines.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
What have they done to the graphics? A few improvements have been made to the character models and environments, but that doesn't make up for the lack of variety. There's no more snowy mountains, the supposed "rainforest" doesn't feel like a rainforest, the really small beach area seems like it was just tacked on to the rest of the world you explore, and the only nighttime area in the game doesn't give you the same nighttime feel as the Bridge on the River Ty level in the first game.

As for the rest of the levels, you can hardly tell them apart. They're all bland and uninspired. They all feel the same except with a few color alterations. This game's graphics by itself are very good and up to date, but it lacks the variety in environments and color that the first game had.

MUSIC: 6/10
The music in this game isn't very good. It almost never fits the mood, and it isn't catchy. It also doesn't sound nearly as Australian as it did in the first game. What happened to the didgeridoos? You'll get sick of hearing most of the tracks because of how they loop a bland tune over and over and over again.

Perhaps my least favorite music in the entire game is the music for whenever you go into a "cave". Not only does the so-called "cave" not even look like a real cave, but the game makes a sad effort to make it seem spooky... at least I THINK that's what the game is trying to do. The music that plays whenever you go into a "cave" sounds like the Addams Family theme song.

So, is there anything good I can say about the music? Well, it wasn't totally annoying to listen to, and it never made me want to hit the mute button.

SOUND: 10/10
There's not much I can say about sound. It's exactly the same as it was in the first game but with a few minor changes that don't really affect it that much. Some of the voice-acting sounds different, but it's just as good as the first game.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
Alright! This is what truly makes the game. I could care less about the graphics and sound, because the gameplay in this game is excellent! The same platforming action is still here, and there are even more boomerangs than before! Also, the game has gotten rid of its "collect thunder eggs to progress to the next level" structure. Instead, the structure of the game is now based on missions. You must complete missions on your callsheet to progress further into the game.

You'll also acquire tons of opals from missions and from defeating enemies. The opals in this game are no longer used as collectibles to acquire a thunder egg but rather as currency to buy boomerangs with. There are a couple of shops in this game that sell boomerangs and you can buy the boomerangs whenever you want if you have enough opals. One of the shops sells special boomerangs that are mostly upgrades to your regular boomerangs.

The whole game is seamless in the sense that you don't travel through portals to get to different worlds but rather you get in a truck and drive to the different worlds on a highway! Road travel is fun, but it is made annoying by frill lizards on motorbikes. I would've been happy with not having to deal with enemies on the road, but it doesn't totally kill the experience. However, you'll still feel the urge to just say "Oh, forget it!" and drive right past the frill lizards instead of stopping to fight them with your blastarangs.

There is one town in this game, and that is the town of Baramudgee. It is home to a few shops that sell different things (one of them being a boomerang shop), but it is so annoying to walk through town because people constantly walk by and say something to the effect of, "Hello, Ty!" Other than walking around and driving to different areas, there are also different vehicles to use.

Most of the missions in this game require you to use the different vehicles. Some of the missions require you to pilot a helicoptor and use it to pick up things and carry them to a designated area. There are also submarine missions that are exactly like the helicopter missions. But no worries! You'll also get to drive a few different kinds of robots. There's the battle bunyip which is a battle robot, the thermo extreme bunyip which can squirt water to put out fires and it can swim in lava as well as water, and the lifter bunyip which moves extremely slow and can pick up boulders and other extremely heavy objects. I'll admit that the helicopter and submarine missions feel like a chore, but you'll still get plenty of chances to kick some lizard tail with the battle bunyip and other big robots! You'll also spend a good amount of time on foot with your boomerangs... and we all know that Ty games are all about the boomerangs, right?

Another thing I should mention is that there are more types of enemies in this game. There are no longer any kangaroos or giant bugs (except for spiders), but there are much bigger versions of the lizards. The bigger lizards (or "Uber" lizards as the game calls them) can only be defeated by either your battle robots or upgraded boomerangs.

Now, one very small complaint I have about the game is the flamerang. It can no longer kill blue tongue lizards in one hit! The only use it has is to destroy ice blocks... and that's all.

Another small complaint I have is the spiders. In the first game, the spiders had an attack where they would raise up and then slap their front legs on the ground. You wouldn't take damage from it until the moment they slapped their front legs on the ground, but in this game you take damage as soon as they raise up. That might not seem like anything big, but it does get very annoying after a while of taking so many cheap shots from those spiders.

OVERALL: 9/10
This game is far different from its predecessor, but it still maintains the same spirit as the original Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Fans of the original and people who are new to the series should all enjoy this fantastic game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/09

Game Release: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue (US, 10/12/04)