TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns

In the midst of remastering the original TY the Tasmanian Tiger trilogy, with the Kickstarter for the second currently still in the fulfillment process, Krome Studios still announced a new TY project for the series’ 20^th anniversary. More specifically, said announcement was a remaster of TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4, originally released on PC, for the Nintendo Switch with a new subtitle, Bush Rescue Returns. While I had played the original release, I was curious about the remaster due to the promise of extra content, including full voice acting and extended cutscenes, and so pre-purchased the game digitally (as the game still lacks a physical release) to take advantage of the limited-time discount. Although the experience remains much the same as the original, the new additions really do a lot to enhance it.

Since I already talked about the plot in my original review, I won’t be going into it much here. What I can talk about, however, are the cutscenes that play between Acts. More specifically, whereas the original cutscenes were presented more or less in a static comic form, here they are now fully animated and even slightly extended in places, helping to better bridge the gaps between Acts and take full advantage of the new voice acting.

Although the visuals have also been cleaned up, it still looks on the cheap side, even during cutscenes, as the original release was made on a much smaller budget than the 3D entries. There are, however, a plethora of new costumes available to purchase, including a new one based on TY’s appearance in the Doomeranger comic. Since it’s been a while since I played the original, there weren’t any gameplay alterations that I noticed, but I did encounter a bug in “Ranger in Danger” where a swimming animation began right before hitting the water, which corrected itself very shortly afterwards. I also noticed some minor performance issues in places, though it’s hard to say whether this is due to the Switch’s own underpowered hardware or the game itself.

One of the main selling points of the remaster is the addition of full voice acting and more dialogue, which greatly enhance the experience of what was originally a silent game told only through text, though the gap between my experience with both versions prevented me from easily noticing the latter. As for the voice acting itself, only a handful of voice actors return from previous games, with several other major characters being recast with convincing sound-alikes, including Myles Lowe taking over as TY and Andrew Wheildon-Dennis channeling the late Clement von Franckenstein as Boss Cass. While the voice acting itself is great, I did notice a slight audio overlap in the post-Act 2 cutscene, as well as a handful of instances where the audio did not quite match up with the subtitles.

For those that have not played the original PC version before, TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns is the ideal way to experience this game and celebrate the series’ 20^th anniversary. For those that have, though the game is largely the same, the differences are enough to create a new experience and warrant giving the remaster a look. If the post-credits teaser and the ending of issue 2 of the Doomeranger comic are any indication, hopefully we will see a proper fifth entry to the series at some point in the future.