NOT WOKE SHOWS: TY the Tasmanian Tiger

Becky Soto

+7 clout

Sep 13, 2026

I fired this up on a whim after seeing the little cartoon tiger on the menu and thinking yeah alright mate let's go, and three hours later my coffee was cold and I had a stack of thunder eggs I had no idea what to do with yet. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is pure early-2000s platformer nonsense dressed up in this 2016 remaster coat and I am not even a little mad about it. The tiger himself is this big goofy dope with the permanent grin and the boomerangs and I kept missing throws on purpose just to watch him flail and recover like nothing happened. Ha! Soft spot activated immediately. Everything feels Australian in that tourist-brochure way that somehow still works. You bounce through bush and outback and these funky ruined temples that look like somebody mixed Dreamtime stories with cartoon physics. I swear half the time I was just standing still spinning the camera because the levels actually look like places instead of corridors with coins glued on. Opals everywhere, little glowing things, cogs that unlock stuff later, and those thunder eggs that somehow became my entire personality for a weekend. Collectathons get me every time. I tell myself I'll just grab a few more and suddenly it's two in the morning and Ty is doing a victory dance that looks like he pulled a muscle. The controls surprised me. I expected jank because these old games always have that one slippery jump, but the remaster is butter-smooth even with mouse and keyboard which feels wrong for a platformer yet somehow right. Boomerangs start basic then you unlock elemental versions and suddenly you're freezing things or lighting up dark corners and I yelled "rangarang!" at the screen more than once which is not a real word but it felt correct. Combat is simple as throwing sticks at bad guys who look like they wandered in from a kids' cartoon, which is exactly the energy this needs. No overthinking. Just bop and bounce. I laughed out loud at the shark boss. Absolute clown show. I died twice because I kept trying to throw the wrong boomerang and then I sat there cackling while Ty got chomped and respawned looking mildly offended. The game never gets punishing though. Difficulty sits in that sweet chill zone where you can cruise or go full completionist without rage-quitting. Fifteen to twenty hours if you're scooping everything and I scooped everything because once the vibe hits you don't want to leave. Side characters are all lovable idiots in the best way. There's this scientist guy who talks like he mainlines espresso and a bunch of little critters who need rescuing and I wanted to adopt all of them. Graphics held up better than I expected. The stylized look means nothing feels painfully dated and the new lighting effects are mostly fine even if a couple spots get a little sparkly for no reason. Runs at ridiculous frame rates if your machine can handle it which is funny for a game that originally came out when most of us still had CRT monitors. Music is pure earworm nonsense. Catchy little Aussie-flavored tunes that loop in your head while you're grocery shopping later. I caught myself humming something that sounded vaguely like a didgeridoo mixed with chiptune and my roommate asked if I was okay. Nostalgia is doing some heavy lifting for a lot of people who played this as kids and never beat the shark, but even cold it lands. It sits right next to Banjo and Spyro in that golden collectathon era without pretending to reinvent anything. Just good level design, solid variety of biomes, and a protagonist who is basically a golden retriever in tiger form. I kept forgetting I was supposed to be "reviewing" and just kept playing "one more hub." The shorter length actually helps. You finish feeling satisfied instead of exhausted. Skins are all unlocked from the jump which is the kind of small kindness that makes me weirdly happy. Is it perfect? Nah. Some of the updated effects look a tad tacked on and a few platforming sections still have that old-school camera that drifts just enough to make you curse politely. Jank peeks through here and there like an old friend who never learned new manners. But the charm overwhelms all of it. I finished a hundred percent and immediately wanted to start a new file just to throw boomerangs at nothing again. Ty never gets annoying. The whole cast feels like people you'd actually hang out with at a backyard barbecue if they were real and not digital marsupials. If you grew up on 3D platformers this is comfort food. If you didn't, it still plays clean and friendly enough that you can jump in blind and have a blast. I walked away knowing way more random Australian geography than any adult should and weirdly proud of it. G'day indeed. Worth every minute I spent missing jumps on purpose just to hear Ty make that little confused noise. Absolute delight of a dope and his boomerangs. Play it. Then play it again because the second time the routes stick in your fingers and it becomes pure flow. I already regret how many exclamation points I just used but whatever. This one earned them.

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A review is on the record even before the verdict. The title still needs 90% of members not labeling it woke before a review can put it in the catalog.

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Becky Soto
+7 clout
Sep 13, 2026
I fired this up on a whim after seeing the little cartoon tiger on the menu and thinking yeah alright mate let's go, and three hours later my coffee was cold and I had a stack of thunder eggs I had no idea what to do with yet. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is pure early-2000s platformer nonsense dressed up in this 2016 remaster coat and I am not even a little mad about it. The tiger himself is this big goofy dope with the permanent grin and the boomerangs and I kept missing throws on purpose just to watch him flail and recover like nothing happened. Ha! Soft spot activated immediately. Everything feels Australian in that tourist-brochure way that somehow still works. You bounce through bush and outback and these funky ruined temples that look like somebody mixed Dreamtime stories with cartoon physics. I swear half the time I was just standing still spinning the camera because the levels actually look like places instead of corridors with coins glued on. Opals everywhere, little glowing things, cogs that unlock stuff later, and those thunder eggs that somehow became my entire personality for a weekend. Collectathons get me every time. I tell myself I'll just grab a few more and suddenly it's two in the morning and Ty is doing a victory dance that looks like he pulled a muscle. The controls surprised me. I expected jank because these old games always have that one slippery jump, but the remaster is butter-smooth even with mouse and keyboard which feels wrong for a platformer yet somehow right. Boomerangs start basic then you unlock elemental versions and suddenly you're freezing things or lighting up dark corners and I yelled "rangarang!" at the screen more than once which is not a real word but it felt correct. Combat is simple as throwing sticks at bad guys who look like they wandered in from a kids' cartoon, which is exactly the energy this needs. No overthinking. Just bop and bounce. I laughed out loud at the shark boss. Absolute clown show. I died twice because I kept trying to throw the wrong boomerang and then I sat there cackling while Ty got chomped and respawned looking mildly offended. The game never gets punishing though. Difficulty sits in that sweet chill zone where you can cruise or go full completionist without rage-quitting. Fifteen to twenty hours if you're scooping everything and I scooped everything because once the vibe hits you don't want to leave. Side characters are all lovable idiots in the best way. There's this scientist guy who talks like he mainlines espresso and a bunch of little critters who need rescuing and I wanted to adopt all of them. Graphics held up better than I expected. The stylized look means nothing feels painfully dated and the new lighting effects are mostly fine even if a couple spots get a little sparkly for no reason. Runs at ridiculous frame rates if your machine can handle it which is funny for a game that originally came out when most of us still had CRT monitors. Music is pure earworm nonsense. Catchy little Aussie-flavored tunes that loop in your head while you're grocery shopping later. I caught myself humming something that sounded vaguely like a didgeridoo mixed with chiptune and my roommate asked if I was okay. Nostalgia is doing some heavy lifting for a lot of people who played this as kids and never beat the shark, but even cold it lands. It sits right next to Banjo and Spyro in that golden collectathon era without pretending to reinvent anything. Just good level design, solid variety of biomes, and a protagonist who is basically a golden retriever in tiger form. I kept forgetting I was supposed to be "reviewing" and just kept playing "one more hub." The shorter length actually helps. You finish feeling satisfied instead of exhausted. Skins are all unlocked from the jump which is the kind of small kindness that makes me weirdly happy. Is it perfect? Nah. Some of the updated effects look a tad tacked on and a few platforming sections still have that old-school camera that drifts just enough to make you curse politely. Jank peeks through here and there like an old friend who never learned new manners. But the charm overwhelms all of it. I finished a hundred percent and immediately wanted to start a new file just to throw boomerangs at nothing again. Ty never gets annoying. The whole cast feels like people you'd actually hang out with at a backyard barbecue if they were real and not digital marsupials. If you grew up on 3D platformers this is comfort food. If you didn't, it still plays clean and friendly enough that you can jump in blind and have a blast. I walked away knowing way more random Australian geography than any adult should and weirdly proud of it. G'day indeed. Worth every minute I spent missing jumps on purpose just to hear Ty make that little confused noise. Absolute delight of a dope and his boomerangs. Play it. Then play it again because the second time the routes stick in your fingers and it becomes pure flow. I already regret how many exclamation points I just used but whatever. This one earned them.
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TY the Tasmanian Tiger

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