Tiny Thor from Asylum Square has been a very long time coming. After one in all its lead builders got here up with a tough minimize of its idea in a 48-hour sport jam in 2012, its improvement proceeded in matches and begins for slightly over a decade earlier than it lastly noticed launch this previous June. Games that spend that lengthy in improvement hell will be notoriously uneven, however we’re joyful to report that Tiny Thor has confirmed to be definitely worth the wait. This is a tricky, beautiful, and altogether nice retro platformer that you simply ought to think about choosing up.
The 16-bit-inspired sport follows the adventures of the titular Asgardian warrior throughout a time lengthy earlier than he was the buff, long-haired hero you all know—the story right here opens on his eighth birthday. As a gift, Odin presents him the legendary Mjolnir hammer, which Thor instantly takes to. While he’s out playing around along with his new toy, the boy is approached by a sure mischievous particular person, who tips him into destroying the anchor of the Bifrost, chopping off all of Asgard from Midgard. Joined by his father’s ravens, Tiny Thor thus units out to restore the harm and stop Ragnarök from inflicting the top of the world.
Gameplay follows a simple 2D action-platforming template, whereby you journey between powerful ranges, gather an entire lot of goodies, and wreck home along with your new magic hammer. Each stage takes about 10 to fifteen minutes to clear, that includes an assortment of platforming gauntlets and puzzles that you simply normally have to resolve by in some way utilizing Mjolnir. Holding down the fitting set off will trigger Thor to spin it up and, as soon as thrown, the hammer will bounce off partitions, ceilings, and the perimeters of the display screen indefinitely till you both name it again or it makes its means again to you. It’s a easy, however efficient mechanic, and Tiny Thor will get a variety of mileage out of inventive methods to make use of it in each fight and puzzle eventualities.
Level designs are sometimes linear, with a smattering of secret rooms and aspect routes you possibly can take right here or there to gather gems. There are a couple of hundred blue gems and three purple gems in every stage, with the latter positioned in particularly tough-to-reach locations. If you are taking any harm alongside the best way—and boy will you—Thor will die in a single hit except you latterly touched a coronary heart field. If you probably did so, a coronary heart will leap out of his chest and bounce away from him as a timer ticks down, a bit just like the well being system from Yoshi’s Island. Fail to select it up, and also you’re by yourself, however it could possibly typically be equally dangerous to chase after it when it goes careening over spike pits or behind enemy traces.
Overall, stage designs really feel fairly strong, however they are typically slightly inconsistent with the issue curve. Sometimes you’ll be progressing simply high-quality till a nasty part instantly stops you in your tracks for a number of makes an attempt, solely to be adopted by extra simply handed areas. Or on the puzzling aspect of issues, you’ll typically be confronted with an environmental puzzle that expects you to use an answer utilizing a mechanic that you simply weren’t taught but. Luckily, Tiny Thor will get sufficient proper with its stage design that it’s nonetheless a completely satisfying expertise, simply be ready for it to be slightly ‘cease and go’ in some locations.
Difficulty spikes apart, Tiny Thor nonetheless is not for the faint of coronary heart. It’s not fairly at Super Meat Boy ranges of ache, however that is positively not a platformer you could sleep via and discover some problem within the endgame. Even the sooner ranges can put up extra of a combat than it’s possible you’ll anticipate, and issues solely get harder as you beat bosses and unlock extra motion skills like a wall leap or a double leap. Sometimes you’ll get ganked by a horde of enemies and never have the ability to retrieve your coronary heart earlier than the relatively brief i-frame window ends. Sometimes you’ll be racing to outrun a rising flood and leap only a second too late, drowning Thor. In most instances, it looks like such deaths are the consequence of foolish errors and gradual reflexes, however there are nonetheless many instances when it feels just like the physics are at fault.
For instance, one widespread early-level gimmick is a vine that shortly swings forwards and backwards, which Thor ought to seize onto mechanically when you’re inside vary. Yet in our expertise, there have been many instances the place we made a leap of religion solely to look at him fortunately sail proper via the vine and to his early loss of life. A wall leap needs to be initiated by first holding the stick away from the wall you’re clinging to after which shortly urgent the leap button. Even after getting the texture for it, there have been nonetheless many cases the place Thor would simply fall off the wall and die. We’ll concede that lots of the errors we skilled might feasibly be chalked as much as a ‘talent difficulty’, however Tiny Thor nonetheless looks like its controls typically fail you, which will be damning given how a lot precision the extent designs demand.
Though there aren’t any problem mode choices, you possibly can take the sting off by spending blue gems in an improve store, netting you boons like a sooner recall for Mjolnir or a slower countdown when your coronary heart leaps out. None of those are a alternative for easy talent, however they actually do assist tone down the issue, particularly should you’re a completionist. Going for 100% completion on every stage is not any joke, and this goes double for the aspect ranges you unlock with purple gems, which supply devastating, no-checkpoint gauntlets demanding nothing wanting perfection.
As for its visuals, Tiny Thor options among the best 16-bit spritework accessible on the Switch, courtesy of Henk Nieborg. Animations are clean and color palettes are extensively different, making each minute of this expertise a visible deal with. Whether you are sliding down the grassy slope of a mountain, slaying a mighty kraken, or exploring the chilly halls of a frost large fortress, every locale is realized in spectacular element and all of it runs at an unbroken body fee. It’s the little issues like tiny mice scurrying across the flooring of caves that actually promote Tiny Thor as such a visible marvel, and whereas it could be that an precise 16-bit console might’ve by no means hoped to hit this stage of constancy, it’s satisfying to see what pixel artists can do once they’re let unfastened on {hardware} that may comfortably ship their full imaginative and prescient.
These visuals are then matched by an equally glorious soundtrack by Fabian Del Priore and Chris Hülsbeck, delivering catchy chiptunes that completely match the commonly lighthearted tone. We would have appreciated slightly extra selection—it looks like some tracks get recycled slightly an excessive amount of—however it’s almost unimaginable to complain in regards to the high quality of the music right here.
Conclusion
Tiny Thor is a well-crafted retro platforming journey that no fan of 16-bit gaming will need to miss. Though its controls generally is a tad irritating and its problem will be sometimes inconsistent, there’s no denying that this a completely satisfying expertise from stem to stern, particularly for many who get pleasure from a fittingly old-school problem. We’d give this a robust advice to anybody on the lookout for one other solidly constructed neo-retro platformer so as to add to their assortment, although we’ll warning anybody with slower reflexes to brace yourselves for a tough time. In all one of the best of how, Tiny Thor looks like a misplaced Sega Genesis sport, simply value your money and time.
