14 DAY TRIAL // The Last Tinker: City of Colors is an action adventure game set in a vivid world of silly characters and intensely colorful backgrounds.
Its makers, Mimimi Productions, have you take on the role of Koru, a young kid living in the slums of Colortown, the only place where different colors mix without prejudice.
As colors become more and more divided, Koru has to make use of his powers over them in order to defeat the Bleakness and make his hometown a city of vibrant colors once again.
As the colors devolve, red becoming the color of anger, green the color of fear and blue the color of sadness, you will have to cleverly use your abilities, battling enemies and solving puzzles, in order to overcome the obstacles you encounter on your journey.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors is obviously targeted toward children, but can also be enjoyed by adults, if they can get into the child's mind and giggle at some simple puns and general silliness.
The entire world is made out of colored paper and glue, including freshly drawn vegetables and other such notions usually encountered in cartoons, and all the denizens of the world are anthropomorphic animals wearing big splashes of color or resemble big cuddly plushies.
The platforming components are very well insulated, allowing the protagonist to jump by himself as long as you keep pressing the sprint button, and removing the need for precision, apart from general orientation in the desired direction.
The plot is very simplistic and characters deliver their lines in a slow manner, on big boards, making them very legible for reading beginners, as well as abstaining from using big words.
The premise and the actual content triggered memories from various animated shows I watched as a kid, being exactly what you would encounter in a quality show from the heyday.
Actually, The Last Tinker: City of Colors feels like just like you're taking control of the main character in your favorite cartoon, presenting a cheerful and silly adventure that goes back to the roots of the genre on consoles.
It starkly contrasts the latest offerings of the action adventure category, which focus mainly on killing people in dark alleys and looming in the shadow in gray and brown cities, and instead proposes a completely innocent and kid-friendly experience.
It also comes with its fair share of pop culture references, and its cheerful mood and vibrant colors make it a truly relaxing experience, maybe too relaxing, considering its low level of difficulty.
The world is full of hazards, but even your enemies are cute, and the various dangers waiting for you in the wild, such as sketched cacti with tacked-on thorns, have a very innocuous presentation.
Combat is very easy and basic, your enemies politely announce their inexperienced attempts in a timely manner, allowing you ample time to dodge or counter-attack them, and your only chance of getting hit is if your eyes linger too much on the vibrant scenery.
It overall feels like a game made for those who enjoy playing, in the most genuine and unsophisticated way, and it gave me a feeling I haven't had in a very long time.
It feels like a game that is truly made for children to enjoy, targeted at them, and not just keeping in mind that there are also kids who will play it, but its innocent ways will surely win over the hearts of many adults too.
It feels charming and quaint, like a wacky variant of Kids Say the Darndest Things where you also get to smash things and prance around in a world that's been overrun by crayons.
The Last Tinker: City of Colors so far has what it takes to warrant more exploration, and I for one am very curious to see the color powers in action and what the naive art direction and storyline hold in store.
