Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD (Switch)

When many platforming game heroes finish saving the day, they head off to relax and take it easy until adventure calls once more. After his adventure to stop the cassowary Boss Cass from wiping out all of mammalkind, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger wasn’t so content to rest on his victory. Instead, along with his allies like the scientist Julius and his close friend Shazza, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger continues to serve the people by helping out at the Bush Rescue. Not just stepping up when the world is in danger, Ty’s now the kind of hero who helps with bush fires, car crashes, and all sorts of everyday concerns, so when it comes time for another major adventure, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD is able to mix in a much wider range of tasks than just stopping baddies and collecting useful baubles.

 

While working for Bush Rescue, Ty gets the call about an attack on a very particular prison, Boss Cass broken out by his minions to try and wipe out the mammals of the outback all over again. This time though, the mean bird relies heavily on his right hand woman, Fluffy the thorny devil feeling more like the main villain as most boss battles involve her taunting Ty and unleashing some new monstrous ally or robotic villain on him. Luckily, while Boss Cass is making efforts to develop new technology to take down the mammals of the outback, Ty can still squeeze in quite a lot of time to make sure the anthropomorphic animals of Burramudgee and the wider Southern Rivers region are safe and sound. Sometimes he’ll need to head out and stop the frilled lizard foot soldiers of Cass from causing trouble, other times he’s working to make sure a woman in labor can make it to the hospital… and since there is no time limit on when these tasks must be accepted, that lady can thankfully wait quite a while if you have other tasks on your plate.

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD is a remake of a 2004 3D platformer and mostly touches things up visually or adds in a few extra small bonuses. As a result, while this remaster is an open-world game by definition, its scope was limited by what worked well back then, and that is perhaps to its benefit. Outside of the opening, you can tackle missions in the Southern Rivers area however you like once they’ve become available, new missions appearing once you’ve cleared out your other work. Some of these missions are essentially just platforming levels, the kind of platforming and combat challenge you run through once, but other areas can be more open-ended in terms of exploration and may have multiple missions take place in that area. You do drive a vehicle through the mostly safe Southern Rivers roads to get to your destinations, and while there are 34 missions in total, there are also a range of collectibles to make your time in most places have extra value. Little Bilbies are hidden in secret spots, Cogs often are rewarded for some smart platforming that let you buy new costumes or new looks for your vehicle, but one of the most delightful things to find in a stage is a guy called Gooboo Steve.

 

Already Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD is teeming with the same embrace of Australian culture and creatures its predecessor had, characters throwing out slang and phrases unique to continent that make their conversations more fun. Every “Struth” or “No Worries!” reminds you of the love the team had for their home country, and seeing both familiar creatures like a tasmanian devil and more local critters like a mopoke on your side keep this game’s setting in your head before you head out to the outback and beaches that further visualize it. Gooboo Steve though is a fun anomaly, a made up creature who says off the wall things like poorly trying to recount a joke he heard in a hailstorm under a tin roof. While most collectibles are there to reward action, Gooboo Steve feels closer to the enjoyment you get from finding how this adventure cooks up characters and situations to encounter that further its loud and proud Australian identity.

 

While its just as happy to embrace its homeland as its more straightforward collect-a-thon predecessor, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD also hits on some familiar issues with its boomerang throwing hero. Ty carries a pair of ‘rangs that he can throw quickly and easily, and they have mild homing to help hit an enemy or target you’re facing. What this ends up meaning is most enemies who can be taken out by boomerangs are defeated without really needing to work for it, and while some tougher foes crop up who can guard or simply resist a regular ‘rang, you can gradually build up quite an arsenal over the adventure. In a rather interesting touch, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD doesn’t have you unlock new weapons or tools at specific points in the story, the player instead mostly free to purchase them so long as they have opals. Opals are scattered around and a reward for taking out enemies in the very quick encounters, and while you are limited a touch like a shop with more powerful ‘rangs only becoming available later, you can splurge and get quite a collection pretty early on. Flaming ‘rangs, icy ones, electrical boomerangs, and many others all have specific purposes but also very limited ones. You need a fire boomerang for something like breaking ice, but that’s always more for a few extra goodies rather than interesting gameplay challenges. A boomerang that lets you see invisible objects isn’t that useful when you can often spot the distortion and even platform safely across them due to the little tells. There are stronger boomerangs that can take out most foes your standard ones couldn’t that will probably become go-tos, the rest of the arsenal there for the side collectibles.

The boomerangs, your main means of interaction and combat, can end up a bit of an unexciting inclusion as a result, too much freedom in acquiring them countered by not having many moments for them to shine. There are some things you can buy with full-on devoted sections where they’re all you can use though, and those are the Bunyip mechs. Despite sharing a name with a mythical creature Ty has met before, these robotic suits are things you ride in. There are a few varieties of Bunyip, the most basic being a punching robot where the combat really isn’t a step up from boomerang flinging, but the fire rescue Bunyip can use its hoses for problem solving and swim while the heavy lifter is unfortunately slow but at least focuses instead on clearing away rubble. Ty might still have too much power or too little to worry about while in them, but they do at least often get some more interesting areas to explore where your abilities are different. The spaces in Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD at least invite curiosity by hiding little things to motivate you to do more than focus on the objective, although some mechanics like using your boomerangs to change the position of tipping rock platforms is slow and a bit frustrating. A few unfortunate areas punish a failure with a lot of waiting to get back to where you were, either because of slow moving platforms or because you need to rearrange everything again to try a second time, a simple drop when trying to do something pretty precise leading to a little irritation.

 

However, when areas are working well, checkpoints are in reasonable spots or little shortcuts let you embrace your desire to search for goodies and figure out what you can do. Ty does have a little glide he can do by holding his boomerangs out and generally climbing and jumping about has a good range of places that reward simple fun movement. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD does try to keep mixing things up though to mixed success. Some missions require you to pop into a helicopter and use a claw to deliver things like sheep, dynamite, or road pieces where they belong, a task that feels too easy since even the enemies here can be taken out too quickly just by chucking boomerangs while looking the right way. Completely optional though are the kart racing tracks, the game even offering them in multiplayer should they earn your interest. The kart racing has some pretty good course design, memorable obstacles and visuals, shortcuts and tough turns, and many boost pads and items to shake things up like shrinking another racer or freezing those in front of you. It works well for the sideshow it is but like many things in the game it could benefit from being tougher. This sequel may be overall better than the first game, but it feels like the tasmanian tiger’s adventure still lacks some fangs.

THE VERDICT: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD is brimming with ideas and puts forth its Australian identity wonderfully, but it feels like everything it tries just turns out alright. It’s interesting to hop into Bunyip mechs or the helicopter but the work is never difficult, and it’s nice to explore new areas even though you know most danger is handled with frantic boomerang flinging. The platforming often carries the experience, giving you many areas to explore to find extras and some decent tests of your ability to get around, but when the only moments that are really difficult come from how much of a setback slipping off a platform can be, this open world outback adventure fails to find a shining moment despite serving up a range of activities that at least don’t wear thin.

 

And so, I give Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD for Nintendo Switch…

An OKAY rating. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD does a lot of things, but it doesn’t excel at any one. The platforming is perhaps the best handled, Ty’s strength not really able to overcome it easily and levels often able to slip in small extras that do make a little use of your extra boomerangs. It’s often as easy as swapping to the necessary one and immediately using it, but it still has you poking around looking for things to do in the more open spaces. When it’s time to do more involved actions though, while Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD keeps concocting unique concepts for a rescue mission, it still boils down to activities that feel too simple. There’s not enough danger or complexity at play, but the variety of them does keep them from growing stale or being too basic. The road repairing in the helicopter has you needing to match them to the empty spaces for example while wrangling sheep with the chopper involves tracking down moving targets. The Bunyip mechs change up your controls enough that their sections feel unique, and it’s still a treat to see how this setting and its characters will set up the next mission. It’s a creative game to be sure and perhaps this game might be better embraced by younger players, but it does at least hit the mark where enough of what you do is interesting even if it’s often the subtler elements like navigation pulling their weight rather than the many boomerangs or gameplay shake-ups.

 

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue could have been a classic if more ideas were followed through on interesting ways. The world is memorable, the mission structure is intriguing especially since it mixes rescue work with taking on villains, and even with the Australian setting so front and center, you still head to places like a volcano and oil rig as the creators definitely had a wide range of concepts. The collectibles keep things from feeling shallow, but Ty feels like he’s got hero work down pat and he needs more room to stretch his legs. More ways to use the boomerang, enemies who aren’t so easily defeated, and mission objectives with some more effective parameters would help this game’s litany of promising ideas actually provide the thrilling adventure they could have been with a bit more substance.