It took me a while to warm up to the Hidden Object genre, but if I had started with a game like The Tiny Bang Story from Colibri Games and Herocraft I would have been hooked from the start. If you enjoy puzzlers with a unique sense of style like Machinarium then you will absolutely love The Tiny Bang Story.
The Tiny Bang story takes place in a world that’s been torn asunder by an asteroid strike, and your job is to put it back together one piece at a time. You’ll accomplish this by searching for hidden objects, solving puzzles, and taking on several insanely difficult mini-games. It’s the kind of game that’s probably going to make you cheat, and even though they have a hint system in place you’ll probably have to hit up a walkthrough several times.
The way Tiny Bang Story is setup helps to make the game great. Every level or chapter requires you to collect puzzle pieces, but that’s really just the start of things. Each lever you pull or cabinet you open will get you closer to the next stage, but it’s also going to make things trickier as there’s a good chance that door you’ve been trying to get into will unlock another set of objects to find or have an infuriating mini-game like the retro ship game. On that note, I’d like to take a moment and curse the folks at Colibri games for putting in the ship game. That simple little mini-game wore me out, and made me swear at the heavens I was never going to play the game again. Five minutes later I was right back at it though which speaks to the addictiveness of the game.
The mini-games and puzzles can be tough, but all are beatable if you put the time in. The hidden objects are also laid out in a cool way, and they are tied into the environment instead of being thrown in helter skelter. Another thing I liked was the fact that you can’t skip anything so no matter how tough things get you’ll have to just go at it until you persevere or look online for a walkthough. The hint system is double edged sword as it’s geared to help you and keep you going, but doesn’t let you get out easy. For instance you can collect butterflies to fill up your hint meter, but they only appear 2 at a time and they fill your gauge very, very slowly. Want to use a hint on a mini-game? Tough luck bub, it only works on hidden objects, puzzle pieces and the like.
As great as the gameplay is, the graphics are just as good and very fitting as they do a good job sucking you into the mysterious world of The Tiny Bang Story. The soundtrack fits the game to a tee as well, and the fact that there is no in-game dialogue or real direction makes Tiny Bang Story more than just a simple hidden object game. In regards to the length of the game, it could be considered a little short by some as it only has 5 chapters, but they are 5 awesome chapters that are going to entertain you all the way through. It also doesn’t hurt that you get to work a puzzle in-between chapters… kind of a puzzle within a puzzle Inception kind of thing when you think about it.
Verdict
I have nothing but praise for The Tiny Bang Story as it’s got plenty of style and more than enough challenges to keep you busy for a while. The only negative I’ve seen anyone say is in regards to the shortness of the game, but I have to disagree. It is short, but as they say all ‘good’ things must come to an end. When a game leaves you wanting more it’s never a bad thing, and The Tiny Bang Story is definitely a puzzler that’ll leave you yearning for more. I’ve got to tip my hat to Colibri Games for making such an engaging game, and a big thanks goes out to HeroCraft as well for bringing it over to Android. No free version of The Tiny Bang Story is available, but the full version is a steal for only $2.99.