Misc. A Tiny Tale Review (Switch eShop)

With Switch 2 now hosting Wind Waker, SoulCalibur and the like, have you got a case of GameCube fever? If so, Misc. A Tiny Tale might be just the soothing ointment you need to apply generously all over your body. Lead developer Michael Pearce has said it was inspired by the games of his youth, and it only takes a glance at the trailer to see that those games must surely have included GameCube favourites Chibi-Robo! and Pikmin. Taking that retro inspiration, Misc is a 3D platformer featuring a teeny-weeny robot bobbling about and helping people in a quirky post-human world.

The debut release from Tinyware Games, Misc was made by a core team of three, winning funding from the Australian government along the way. It was developed for Nintendo Switch (which is the version reviewed here) and PC but, as reported on Nintendo Life last month, Tinyware took a punt on Switch 2’s approach to backwards compatibility, meaning the new console does deliver a significant boost in graphics and performance – but more on that later.

The story revolves around an inch-tall robot named Buddy and his friend Bag Boy – a unicycle robot with a paper bag on his head. One day, they hear an explosion in their little garden village, then set out on an adventure to find out what it was. As they go, they visit other locales peppered with friendly robo-characters to lend a hand to, run errands for, or trade with.

As simple as the story is, it’s nice to go on a quest just because something went bang, not because the world’s ending again – and it doesn’t hold back on throwing in some dramatic moments later on. This is supported well by the music, which has a storybook quality, some eerie moments, and even a few songs for the emotional peaks.

Each village area you visit on Buddy’s odyssey has a locked exit gate and a scattering of collectibles. There’s not too many — no collectathon trinket fixation here — and they’re split between major golden cogs and minor metal nuts. The metal nuts are more plentiful, left in short trails to nudge you around the level, while the golden cogs are the keys to opening the gates. Each area has ten cogs, with eight required for progression. A little icing on that quite appetising collectibles cake is a feel-good "Difference Made" system (think Chibi-Robo’s Happy Points) which counts up your positive influence on the world as you potter about litter-picking and scrubbing goop.

But collecting golden cogs is the backbone of the game. You mainly get them either by completing tasks for NPCs — find a shiny trinket or complete a set of sheet music — or by performing daring feats of platforming and exploration. The platforming is all low-stakes stuff — there are no lives to lose or anything like that — but when you fall, you will be left having to retrace your steps, which can sometimes be a bit of a downer.

Alongside some retrying, the jump-feel takes a bit of getting used to. It’s floaty by design, with Buddy having a propeller on his head to extend his air time, and the camera will need plenty of manual nudging to get sight of both where you’re aiming and where your drop shadow’s going. It was a good decision on Tinyware’s part to put the most challenging jumping in separate underground sections — one on each level — without any golden cogs riding on it. Tucking the 'real' platforming away in break-outs like this reminded me of Mario Sunshine’s wooden-block courses – another GameCube reminiscence.

While we’re on the subject of controls, there are duck and dive manoeuvres that are almost never needed, as if they’d been forgotten, and a stamina gauge to throttle your sprinting that just seemed unnecessary to me. Misc does control well once you’ve clicked with it, but these details make it feel just a little bit baggy.

Most of the action happens in outdoor settings a bit reminiscent of Pikmin. However, a graphical comparison with Switch contemporary Pikmin 4 is not especially flattering. The environments are varied, particularly later in the game, although they sometimes seem a little barren. While most levels don’t feel like places characters might actually live, their charm and creativity still come through.

Unfortunately, the Switch isn’t doing the game any favours: it simply can’t render the game at its best. Resolution is low, and distant assets are hard to make out, with a lot of shimmering. The default setting for focus blur is a little heavy-handed — not so much Vaseline on the lens as a custard pie — obscuring anything at a distance and making it hard to get your bearings. Once I discovered I could turn the blur off, it didn’t go back on – for simple playability more than aesthetics.

And that little bit of navigation help was really needed in some villages. I eventually managed to frame the levels around distinctive landmarks, but scouring places for the last couple of cogs sometimes led to walking — albeit rather cutely — in circles. As I climbed up the same stack of buckets for the fourteenth time, even Bag Boy starting giving me funny looks. Add some invisible walls and blocked gaps that look like you could go through them, and more than once I was ready to move on before having the required cogs.

A test on Switch 2 told a different story altogether. The resolution at distance is great, movement is much smoother, and load times are shorter. I still preferred to have the blur turned off, but the ability to survey levels properly from high vantage points helped no end in finding my way around. Again, though, it’s the Switch 1 'version' under review here.