Gameplay
In Grandpa’s Leftover you play as Tiny, a nerdy inventor who uses a grappling rope, rocket science, laser surgery, and carries a radio which seems to have its own artificial intelligence and will give you a helping hand during the game. However we feel that such advanced radio wasn’t so necessary as it take away some of the game’s difficulty and occasionally it will get on your nerves.
As we have already mentioned Tiny is after his arch nemesis, Big, who has stolen the only heritage his grandpa left him, a pair of white underpants. What we haven’t mentioned so far is that this pair of underpants has supernatural abilities that Big managed to unlock and master and is ready to cause a worldwide disaster. Tim, extremely angry and determined starts a long journey in the desert to get back what belongs to him and save the world.
Grandpa’s Leftover is powered by Black Pants’s own engine titled Scape Engine which really makes the game run smoothly and delivers the graphics in a very realistic cartoon-ish way. In order to solve the game’s environmental puzzles you’ll need to correctly use your weapon’s three functions; you can use a laser that can slice up everything on your way, a rocket launcher, and a long-range grappling hook that can help you remove every obstacle.
These mechanics in the beginning of the game feel quite impressive, and you’ll find yourself many times slicing everything into tiny objects and create as much chaos as you like n your environment. Almost everything you encounter in each of the six desert location can be fully destroyed, which makes exploring this harsh landscape a blissful exercise in creative demolition. As the game progresses however these mechanics become a bit tiring but not for long, as the game lasts for about 4 hours.
There isn’t any real combat or enemies to battle in Grandpa’s Leftover and the main objective for every level is to chase Big and reach the end. This leaves a noticeable gap in the flow of gameplay. To counteract this, sporadic boss-like encounters are thrown at the end of some areas where you must face off against Big in puzzle duels where you work to cut pillars out from beneath him or slice huge projectiles he hurls at you. Aside from putting Tiny’s gear to more exciting use, these sections do a decent job of bringing some much-needed action but they’re still infrequent and not enough to fill the gap completely.
Grandpa’s Leftover may take you around 4 hours to complete, but if you want to spend a couple of hours more as every level has hidden secrets and collectibles that require a little exploration and a lot of annihilation. What you should be aware is that the game’s controls on the keyboard never felt exact enough. Countless deaths will come from a misstep off a cliff or a long, thin pillar rather than a bad decision or carelessness. Checkpoints can be found in the wrong section of the game in our opinion, some are be placed right after difficult sections, while others take far too long to reach.
Conclusion
All in one Tiny & Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers is a pleasant experience that manages to satisfy gamer with its beautiful graphics, sounds and its innovative mechanics. At $10, the game is a worthwhile investment for anyone looking for a fun distraction with a unique platformer that provides mechanics we haven’t seen executed this well elsewhere. It has the right length to keep from feeling too repetitive, though we feel that gamers would have enjoyed it a lot more if the types of tasks they had t overtake had evolved in ways beyond cut, push, pull, repeat, or if the story had been more heavily implemented.
Even so, this is only the first episode, so hopefully Black Pants Game Studio will polish off some of the game’s rough edges and give us a sequel that will be even much better than their first adventure. Those interested can take a slice out of Tiny & Big from Steam, GOG.com, and Gamersgate for $9,99. If you want to have a taste of the game before purchasing it you can try out a free demo related to the game which is available from here.
Gameconnect Rating: 8.0
