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Platformers as a whole have undergone a complete transformation since the days of yore. Not even taking into account both graphical and... dimensional changes, just the overall tone has changed. In implementing "edgy" characters, "subtle" humor and a mission-based system strongly influenced by Grand Theft Auto 3, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Night of the Quinkan tries to establish itself as a game that's different from the others in the jungle. Instead, all these additions are but mere camoflauge, and you come to realize rather quickly that Ty is another forgettable beast.
In the gradual move from the Sonic and Mario heydays to where a time-shifting Prince is king of the platformers, the protagonist has gone from being a prolific system mascot to being someone who has to be hot-tempered, yet just family-friendly enough. In the process of toeing that fine line to try to stand out from the bustling pack, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger ends up being just another "bad-ass" that you can take home to your mother. The only thing truly distinctive about him and his friends are their Aussie accents -- everything about them only reminds me of other platformers I've played. Hell, I caught myself calling Ty "Tak" every now and then.
The same feeling goes for the gameplay as well. With a formula that most platformers try to go by (whack enemies + collect items + clear objectives = completion!), Ty doesn't look or feel too different from his peers. The combat's fairly basic and intuitive, with a handy lock-on feature that becomes quite necessary in crowded battles, and with both kart racing and mecha-suit levels, you get just enough variety to shake things up.
As for the plot... since Night of the Quinkan is just a fancy way of saying Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3, it's safe to say that there was a story that was continued on from the previous titles. Not having played said titles before, it would have been nice to know what The Dreaming was and why Ty and his (questionably-clothed) lady friend Shazza were there to begin with. There is an assumption that if you were playing this game, you were an established fan of the series; while this is probably the case most of the time, for newcomers to Ty's saga there will be a bit of confusion that, unfortunately, never gets cleared up.
While the game is nowhere near terrible, there is one thing that keeps it from being more than passable, and that's the pacing of the game. From the get-go, you're constantly moving at a lightning pace that, combined with an extremely touchy camera, easily makes one dizzy. A little disorientation isn't unheard of in gaming -- many people suffer from headaches and the ilk from playing first-person shooters. The thing is that Night of the Quinkan made me physically ill. Physically ill. I literally had to turn the TV off, drink a glass of water and lay down in bed with the lights off to keep from vomiting. If that isn't a deterrent, I don't know what is.
Motion sickness aside, I don't feel too strongly either way about Ty or his story to either push one towards it or shy them away. It's got fairly decent controls, a varied cast of characters, and plenty to do while saving the world. It's doing all the things a good platformer should, and maybe that's the problem in and of itself -- the genre itself is losing itself in its copycat nature, its fear of change. However, one honestly can't expect a value game to change the genre, and Night of the Quinkan does what it can with what it's got. Too bad nobody will remember it in the long run.
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