You're Ty, the last tasmanian tiger -or so you think- raised by the Bilbies family. You don't know exactly what happened to the other Tasmanian Tigers. But one day you meet the Bunyip Elder (who actually looks like a gorilla with a strange disease) and he tells you the story of your past. It seems that your parents and the other Tasmanian Tigers are not dead but are trapped in the realm of *gasp* Dreamtime!

If you guessed "And now I have to save them?" you are absolutely right, because yes, you have to save them. To do this you have to collect the 5 ancient talismans and place them in the proper sockets to open the portal to Dreamtime and thus save your family. But it's not that easy, the other Tazzies are trapped for a reason: they had been defeated by Boss Cass (who appears to be some sort of skinny dinosaur with zero tolerance toward mammals) and his henchmen. Boss Cass wants the talismans too, so you have to fight him.

As you noticed Ty The Tasmanian Tiger is your standard kiddie platformer. Cute characters, happy music, no blood. Ty uses his boomerangs (which come in many different types) and his bite attack to knock out his enemies. That said, it has all the stuff you'd expect to find in a platform game: you have to collect gems and other shiny stuff. You have to run and jump a lot (sometimes that's very hard because the damn camera moves like it's being controlled by a moron). Ty also knows some "special" (as in "special olympics") moves: he can do a jump-bite attack and he can glide in the air with his boomerangs.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against kiddie platformers (Mario, Rayman etc. roxor!) but I do hold a grudge against stupid kiddie platformers. The main reason this game is so stupid is because it gets interrupted so often you want to throw your controller at the damn TV. Every time you pick up something (ANYTHING) shiny Ty does this weird move and you hear a little victory tune. The whole thing lasts barely a second, but when you've done it a hundred times it becomes somewhat irritating. And then there's a parrot who can't keep it's damn mouth shut. He's supposed to give you advice and hints but he goes major overkill on the subject. And to top it all off: all the characters have an Australian accent (Tasmania is in Australia).

BUT! (there's a big BUT) once you get over the irritating aspects (the parrot shuts up after a while) the game is actually fun to play. This is mainly because of the games' unrealistic physics. Ty can jump very high and very fast, so once you've mastered the controls you can bounce around like a happy Australian basketball. The enemies (cute as they are) are actually rather cool too: there are some huge crocodiles, crabs, beatles and sharks.

Another thing that's nice about the game is the levels: they are (dare I say?) huge, or at the least very very big. Sometimes you also have to replay levels because you need certain boomerangs to get to secret places. But the downside to this is that you get lost rather quickly (follow the yellow arrows). The graphics are nice too: the game appears to be using cel-shading for cartoony effects on some objects, but that too has become something rather common these days.

All in all, if you're a fan of the genre you might want to give it a try (rent it or something before you buy it..) if not, stay away from this game. If you have kids, don't insult their intelligence by giving them this game, they will hate you for it.