It is quite easy to come across a platforming game for the PC nowadays. Although it was pronounced as pretty much a distant genre after booming on 90s platforms, we can see a rebirth of it in the current situation on the indie scene. Most of them based themselves on the fast-paced movement and parkour elements, however, there are some that keep themselves loyal to the founding fathers of the genre. Commander Keen, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Earthworm Jim are the most prominent ones when it comes to addressing good quality platformer titles.

Those three all have one thing in common: Consistency of coherence between gameplay and the core element of platformers. It is crucial to keep the basic structure and play around as you keep progressing through the storyline, which brings me to believe that Tiny Thor employed the same tactics to a good degree. Tiny Thor is a platformer/collection game that features important gameplay mechanics that is very familiar with previous iterations of the genre. It further boosts this evidence with its cute art style, tight controls, and memorable mascot character.

The game starts with our protagonist, Thor, falling through the sky. Well, he is a god after all. To meet with his father, Odin, he has to land on Earth. As it turns out, it is Thor’s 8th birthday and his father got a surprise for him. The first few levels and sections of Tiny Thor include basic platforming and easy tutorial levels to get a grasp on the physics of the game. There are occasional enemy encounters, but those are simply solved by jumping on top of them, just like any other platformer game. Beginning levels are quite welcome as in they do not feel out of the ordinary either. The main game starts off when Thor gets his 8th birthday gift from his dad. Mjölnir, a hammer (which I am pretty sure you are familiar with in the Thor myth from the Nordic mythologies, his main arsenal is an extremely powerful hammer that only Thor can hold and lift) that grants him immaculate powers and only he can wield it.

That is the part when Tiny Thor becomes more than a simple platformer. Now that he has the power of the hammer on his side, we can use it to our benefit. Mjölnir can be thrown in a linear manner, such as upwards, sides, and downwards by giving directional commands to Thor. There is, however, another sophisticated way for precise throwing which comes in handy a lot of the time during Thor’s adventures. By simply holding the trigger buttons, Thor can aim down the hammer and throw it into places that linear throwing wouldn’t cut. Areas filled with gems, switches, jump pads… All work with a simple throw of the hammer and sometimes throw needs to be spot on.

Talking about things that Mjölnir can interact with, Tiny Thor’s world is not an empty space by no means. Every level has two main objectives to do: Reach the exit and collect both red and blue gems. Blue gems are easily available throughout the levels and usually, there are 300 to 400 in each level, thus making you check every corner, tree top, or hidden area to get all the blue gems. Red gems, on the other hand, require some exploration and witty thinking with platformers. In the first few levels, red gems are easily reachable with some graphical cues in the levels. But as you keep progressing, some hard puzzles get in your way while trying to get the red gems in the further levels.

These gems do have their uses but they are mostly little changes that add extra flavor and content to Tiny Thor’s screen span. Collecting enough red gems opens up trial levels where you are most needed to be quick with your platforming skills, and blue gems act as sort of a currency to buy extra attributes for both Thor and Mjölnir. Every five levels, there are shops that Thor can visit to buy cosmetic or game-changing upgrades with the blue gems we collect. As expected, collecting enough red and blue gems get harder with each level passed because the game requires you to be more fluent with the movement and guess where the secrets are.

Secrets? That’s right. Tiny Thor has a fair share of secrets that lead to extra blue gem areas. Secret areas are actually needed for a hundred percent completion of a level as most of them include great amounts of blue gems to collect, and a level is considered a hundred percent completed once you get all the gems. To find a secret, you need to hug some walls or watch out for some odd clipping on the level design to see them. Sometimes the secret areas also include a heart stone, which lets Thor take another extra hit.

The health system in Tiny Thor is a much-needed addition, as the game gets progressively harder with extremely tight platforming sections and quick reflexes. As much as the health system is a nice addition, there is a certain ickiness to it. Once you take damage while the heart is active, the heart jumps out of the Thor and has a timer on it. You need to catch it before time runs out and it creates a dilemma where you do not know if you want to spend an extra effort catching the heart or just keep playing the level. The problem gets even messier when the heart actually knows when you are next to it and runs away from you. Doing a 180, jumping onto a hazardous area, or completely vanishing from the screen are a few things that the heart can do, and it's most frustrating than ever.

The heart jumping off is obviously an homage to Sonic the Hedgehog. The rings you collect in Sonic the Hedgehog are basically your shields and as long as you got one, you are safe. The only problem is, the rings are always spread in the diagonal ways, in Tiny Thor it is completely random where it will land. While Tiny Thor has most of its aspects taken from other platforming titles, the most resembling one is the Jazz Jackrabbit. Epic Games’ Jazz Jackrabbit completely fits the bill when it comes to overall design with other classics thrown into the mix. Level layouts are always independent and the secrets can lead to different paths to take.

Platforming is heavily influenced by Jazz, and funnily enough the movements too. Slopes allow you to slide and in the further levels, Thor gets a double jump and dashing ability as well. This creates another aspect with the levels, in which you can ultimately go back to a previous level with your earned special power to find unreachable areas.

While the storyline isn’t that important, it has relevance to the appearance of bosses. After Thor gets an invitation to his 8th birthday party, he has to go through a dense forest. He comes across a stranger saying there are a few troublemakers in the forest that needs to be taken care of, otherwise, the village will be doomed forever. Learning that, Thor now takes the responsibility of dealing with bosses and making it to his 8th birthday in time.

Bosses are quite fun to fight with as most of them want you to use Mjölnir as the source of damage. They usually protect themselves in a box or a cage that can be only accessed with a precise throw of the hammer, of course, it is not as easy as that. The hazardous environments always keep you on the move and while the hammer is bouncing off from surfaces, you need to avoid dangers.

One of the best and worst things that the game has to offer is the Mjölnir’s bouncing off from surfaces. I would love to use the term double-edged sword here, but we aren’t using a sword, so. Now, what you would expect from Mjölnir to do is, when thrown, it will bounce off surfaces and keep going until reaches back to Thor. It means you can throw it, never touch Mjölnir and it would eventually move with you. Some puzzles do require you to let the hammer loose for its consistency, however, this means you have to both maneuver around the hazardous areas as well as your hammer so it keeps going.

With its mostly good and very few bad sides, Tiny Thor is quite enjoyable with small play hours. It would take about five to six hours to beat the game and that is without visiting trials or going for all the gems. Let’s not forget that Tiny Thor also allows you to customize the graphics and sound to look like a retro game. It has very low PC requirements to be played and with options for the graphic settings, it could run well on a CRT monitor with 800x600 resolution, just like old times. So players always get a pinch of nostalgia when they take a look at Tiny Thor even if it's a 2023 game.

Everything about Tiny Thor is very generous in terms of being loyal to old platformers and executes the idea well. Graphics, soundtrack, gameplay, the very basic storyline, art style, and many more little bits of creativity added to Tiny Thor makes it a worthwhile experience for both old-timers and newcomers.

Atilla Turan
Editor, NoobFeed