And back down under

As I mentioned in my Crash Bandicoot post, there seemed to be a similarity between Crash and Sonic in that they were animals that relatively few in the target audience had heard of before. Now Crash seems to have another similarity to today's mascot. The Outback.

Uh...that's what she said?

Around the time of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger's release, I remember seeing a number of magazine ads. Variations depicted Sonic, Crash, and even Spyro the Dragon, all in situations that implied they had just been beaten near to death by the new kid on the block.

Bitch knew not to fuck with Mario.

I've been thusfar unable to find evidence of these ads, but their message was clear- the new video game mascot Ty the Tasmanian Tiger was going to blow everything that existed out of the water. Awesome!

...Did...did someone punch him in the nose?

The concept, at least, was fairly sound. A definitively down under hero, a member of the extinct race of the Thylacine. The dreaded Boss Kass, determined to eradicate Ty's race, seeks out the 5 mystic talismans to destroy them and take over the world. But things go wrong, and the remainder of Ty's race become trapped in the Dreamtime in order to scatter the medallions and prevent Kass from obtaining them.


Years later, Ty has grown, and a...something, I forget what, tells him it is time for him to save his family and stop Kass once more, armed with weaponized boomerangs.


...Ok, even if you didn't notice, that is where the story starts to fall apart a bit. (BUNYIP, that's what it was!) For starters, we don't get even a bit of exposition as to what has become of Ty in these past years. We see him running around with another...thing, erm, animal and assume he's been living with them, but get no real indication as to such.


The other half of the problem is simply localization. The game was made by an actual Australian studio, who seemed utterly determined to make a penultimately Australian action hero, with slang, culture, environment, the whole shebang. But the fact is that not a lot of people outside of Australia know that a Thunder Egg is another term for a geode, which is integral to Australia's history and economy, leaving newer players expecting them to be actual eggs that make thunder or some such thing. It wouldn't have taken much clarification to make it clear that they are simply geodes, and not something bent on hatching into some eldritch stormcalling beast.

Where else would she have gotten that haircut?

This does also extend to the species of the various characters. Ty's two main support characters are a cockatoo and a koala, animals easy enough to recognize, but two others are a Dingo and a Tasmanian Devil, respectively, and neither with inherent clarity. (A third is a tree frog, but again, he's "Dennis the Tree Frog"). Ty's own species is in the damn title, the big bad's is his very name, could we get the least bit of clarification on the recurring support characters? The key to a good mascot, or just a good character, is memorability. If a kid doesn't even know WHAT a character is, chances are they'll forget other things soon enough.

Oh, wait, there was a third one, wasn't there...SEE?!

But even with the concept and the characters aside, there is really only one way I could describe the game...


...Aggressively mediocre.


There are no deal breakers in the game. There is nothing that makes me want to stop playing. The pacing is fast enough that the story progresses smoothly, but there are enough hidden collectibles to motivate me to explore each level. But there are so many things, particularly in the cinematics of the game, that are just distinctly phoned in. Moments of heightened tension are shown in slow motion, such as when Ty rescues the ambiguous villain henchman from death, but no one's expressions change, the music remains the same as the rest of the world. It's not bad. It's just...there.


Even in the end of the first game, there is no drama. Ty reclaims the medallions, he opens the Dreamtime, and his very own parents appear before his eyes... there is no fanfare. Just overworld music. There is no dialogue. Just an awkward polygonal half hug...and then he turns and, stonefaced, jumps toward the camera with his hands in the air, until it very slowly freezes...and then the credits roll.


And this game got two sequels.


Released within a year of each other.


With accompanying Game Boy Advance games.


There were even talks about an animated series for a while.


It didn't happen.

That was the point Mario decided to get involved.