TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns Review: G’day Mate!

Australia is one of those places I’ll probably never visit in my lifetime. Not because it’s not beautiful, full of fascinating people, history, flora and fauna, but because I wager there’s a better than even chance I’d die a ridiculous death within moments of setting foot there. Bitten by a Redback spider, gobbled up by a Saltwater crocodile, or taken apart by a rabid Koala (it could happen). As a result, I’ve lived vicariously through a couple videogames that take place in the region. Previously I tackled a game and subsequent DLC that features a certain kangaroo. Most recently, I got the chance to check out the latest entry in the TY the Tasmanian Tiger series. That game is called TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns. It previously released on Steam back in 2015. Now I wrapped playing the enhanced version on Nintendo Switch. While playing this game won’t result in your untimely demise, it does suffer from some unfortunate rough edges.

I should mention, though I haven’t played any game in the series prior to this review, I did do a little research on Krome Studios’ not yet extinct marsupial. I was especially surprised that all three of the other games were 3D affairs, while TY 4 is 2D. That’s not a complaint, mind you. It’s far easier to screw up a 3D platformer than a 2D one. So with that out of the way, let’s take a trip to Coolarangah and find out why our favorite boomerang-toting hero is so busy all of a sudden.

A Ranger’s Work Is Never Done

Bush Rescue Returns truly lives up to its name. The citizens of Coolarangah, even TY’s fellow rangers, are constantly in need of saving. Both from nefarious Frills and assorted baddies, but also from environmental dangers. At first it all feels random, but gradually the mastermind behind all the chaos is revealed, and it’s a bad bird TY is very familiar with named Boss Cass. I’ve seen a lot of silly villains in my years playing videogames, but this cassowary takes the cake. He’s like the love child of a Bond villain, Dr. Robotnik and one of the mad scientists from the Crash Bandicoot games.

The game is comprised of several Acts, and each one has sets of 3 stages you have to face in a row. You’re free to play them over once you’ve beaten them, mostly to pick up the many, many collectables hidden away in the remote corners of stages. As a result, almost every single area in the game is pretty open-ended and expansive, other than the occasional racing level. Even though this is a 2D game, it has some of the stage building philosophy of a 3D adventure. Honestly that’s not a complaint, since it’s relatively fun to platform through areas. Just don’t expect to 100% any stage the first time you play it.

You Rang?

One of the things I appreciated about TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns is TY’s expansive arsenal of boomerangs. He throws them to stun and defeat foes, and there’s a wide variety. Not only will you gradually acquire new boomerangs at pivotal moments in the game, but you can also buy more at the rang shop run by TY’s parents. Boomerangs can also be used for puzzle solving, such as using a fire boomerang to light torches, douse raging flames with an ice boomerang, and triggering switches with a plasma boomerang. Once thrown, a boomerang will travel a set distance and then return, as one would expect. They also come back immediately if they hit some obstruction. Much of the time boomerangs seem to have some mild homing properties, though oftentimes I had to aim them more manually to hit my desired target.

Though I loved hurling boomerangs, they quickly made the combat devolve to a simple affair. I would get within striking distance, hurl boomerangs until an enemy fell over, rinse and repeat. Sometimes foes couldn’t be felled with a standard toss, and I would have to hit them with a powerful charged shot. These have the benefit of slowing down time while charging them, but foes will still keep coming, albeit more slowly. Charged shots also require the game’s currency of Fire Opals to unleash, 20 each time. That isn’t a crazy amount, since I usually had hundreds to thousands of Fire Opals on hand, but I was a little perplexed why I had to use game currency just to attack.

In case you’re worried the combat is too easy, there’s a couple things that kept it challenging. One is that every enemy in the game that shoots projectiles is an expert level sniper. Worse, they often hit you before you realize where they’re situated. There’s also armored foes that can’t be damaged until you stun them, and they’re often quite fast and prone to rushing you the moment you see them. Luckily, TY 4 isn’t just about combat, so let’s talk about how it fares as a platformer.

Cool-arangah Character

When TY isn’t hurling rangs, he’s a pretty nimble hero. He can climb up ledges, run around and bounce off trampolines. He also can inexplicably fly, or more accurately, hover. By holding the jump button he’ll soar while falling slowly, which can allow him to reach some far off ledges. I like this mechanic in theory, but it often wasn’t sufficient. I would constantly find distant areas I could almost reach, but not quite. Had TY come equipped with a double jump, things would have been easier. While I’m sure there’s hidden paths to reach every part of the stages, I really wish TY was a bit more acrobatic. Oh and for his weirdest move, he can chomp things. Though this is rarely used in combat, it’s regularly used to chomp your way to new heights when faced with strings of floating platforms.

As a longtime fan of the platformer genre, I did wish the platforming was tighter and more responsive. TY isn’t just floaty by virtue of his jumping skills, he’s almost too floaty. When you’re standing on a rotating platform, if you move too much he has a tendency to start sliding off the platform before you’re ready to jump. I also was irritated how inconsistent hit detection was in the game. Sometimes TY will immediately pick up objects he runs past, others he’ll touch something only for nothing to happen. This was especially frustrating when tasked with chores like gathering lost sheep for farmers and the like.

Boss fights can be the highlights of many a platformer, but that’s not the case here. While it’s true that each one is different, none of them were particularly fun. The first boss runs around an arena firing missiles at you. I spent way too many attempts trying to damage it with boomerangs, discovering I had use charged shots to stun them first. Then after stunning them, my boomerangs still wouldn’t damage the boss. Finally I realized I had to chomp them, which was admittedly weird. The second boss was better, with TY riding a mounted beast and chasing the boss. Though this one was more fun, it utterly lacked challenge. And as for the final battle against Boss Cass, I frankly hated it. TY is in a room that’s full of broken paths and walls which is constantly rotating. So essentially, you’re falling through the arena as the cassowary flies around in a drone firing projectiles at you. Worse, that’s just phase one of a truly irritating series of battles against the cold blooded bird.

Lovely Outback

Visually, TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns is pretty snazzy. There’s a cartoony, comic book aesthetic I really appreciated. It’s not very modern, but it really has flavor and personality. While I didn’t play the Steam version of the game, my understanding is that this Switch version features remastered graphics and extended cutscenes. Likewise, I enjoyed the new voice acting in the game, which really lent plenty of characterization to the assorted friends like TY’s girlfriend Shazza, and the demented, kleptomaniacal Dennis. On the negative side, I wasn’t that impressed by any of the music. It was fine, but it didn’t really light my hair on fire.

While I would prefer to focus on the positive, there’s a few more issues I had with TY 4 that kept it from a higher score. I talked already about the floaty platforming and the annoying boss battles. But there’s more. The game has lots of flying enemies, and they made things much more difficult. Usually they’re situated right in your path to collect important items. Once you’re in sight, they divebomb in, hurling projectiles at you, and more than once sending me hurtling through the air. The sea isn’t much better, since aquatic sections are full of sharks and gators that appear out of nowhere to bite you. While you can fend off sharks with TY’s boomerangs, gators are invincible, apparently.

On the topic of boomerangs, though I enjoyed them, I was perplexed by how some enemies could only be harmed by specific rangs. At a point later in the game I came across two different enemies that were resistant to all my elemental boomerangs and my standard one. I was lucky I had bought the Chaosrang, which was the only rang that could dent walking crab tanks and armored lizard thugs. More than anything, I would have appreciated some sort of coherent visual indicator for which foes were weak to which boomerangs. Lastly, though the game is very accessible and it’s easy to revisit stages, I would have enjoyed some sort of world checklist showing how many items still needed to be found in each individual stage and Act.

A Boomerang Always Returns

TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns is a fun adventure on Nintendo Switch, albeit a flawed and inconsistent one. It took me 5 to 6 hours to beat, and there’s plenty more bonus content to unlock, including a ton of silly optional costumes. While I enjoyed my time with the game, the wonky platforming, simplified combat and annoying boss battles all held it back from more. That said, if you’re a fan of platformers and want to check out a silly, Aussie story, then it’s still worth picking the game up.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

Available on: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PC; Publisher: Krome Studios; Developer: Krome Studios; Players: 1; Released: September 26, 2023; ESRB: E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence; MSRP: $19.99

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.