Misc. A Tiny Tale Review

I love homegrown video games as much as the next Aussie critic. Titles like Untitled Goose Game and Hollow Knight have cemented their place in the indie sphere for good reason, and I find great joy in seeing locally-developed projects soar to success. The first game by Perth-based studio Tinyware Games, Misc. A Tiny Tale is a narrative-driven adventure attempting to offer players a new perspective from which to see the world, but unfortunately, no amount of local pride is going to make up for where this game falls flat.

Misc.’s story is, on the surface, a simple one. Two tiny robots, Buddy and Bag Boy, are heading off on an adventure to investigate a mysterious explosion that has scattered debris all across the land. Leaving their home, they travel to different locales and help out other robots who are each facing their own problems. Starting out in an upbeat manner, the story covers themes such as caring for the environment, looking out for one another, and accepting people for who they are, although there is a conspicuous tonal shift at around the three-quarter mark where things become a lot heavier. It’s at this point that the game really begins to foreground more sensitive topics such as mental health, and with one exception discussed later in this review, it does this in a way that will mostly be accessible for children, who, judging from the tone of the narrative, seem to be the game’s target audience.

Explore a world among discarded human possessions

The concept is sweet, even if the overall substance is not very engaging. While the idea of cute little robots who live among abandoned human belongings might capture the imagination to a degree, the narrative lacks sophistication, and there’s a distinctly Play School-esque vibe to the story, narration, and cutscene animations which is rather grating to sit through as an adult. Young children might enjoy this style of delivery, but to me it felt infantilising. The cutscenes also have an issue where the visuals fall out of sync with the audio, and the writing is peppered with typos, which is always disappointing to see.

In terms of its gameplay, Misc. is a straightforward 3D platformer-collectathon. There are eight main levels, each designed around a human environment such as a playground or a garden, and you must find golden cogs to repair broken gates which will allow you to progress to the next level. Cogs can be given to you as a reward from the game’s many diverse characters after completing requests, but they can also be found from exploring and interacting with the environment, which is rich and has a good deal of visual interest, even if the gameplay itself is rather bland.

The level designs and platforming aspects are also something of a mixed bag. While there are some interesting and well-designed areas in the first half of the game, the latter levels are much larger and more spread out, and searching for objectives and collectibles begins to feel tedious towards the tail end of the experience. There are recognisable genre mechanics such as disappearing blocks or bouncy surfaces to add interest, but the platforming itself is very easy once you get used to the game’s floaty physics, and even the hidden platforming challenges that require a bit more precision are often just a matter of going through the motions. Additionally, key control settings such as X- and Y-axis camera inversion have no effect, which makes movement very awkward if you typically rely on these. The camera also resets to an awkwardly close-up zoom between levels, although thankfully the zoom setting can be adjusted during play.

You can pet the dog!

Each level in Misc. contains trash and spillages which need to be cleaned up. Purifying the environment gives you ‘Make a Difference’ points which unlock supplementary content, and rubbish can be recycled into currency which you can use to buy quest items. It can be tricky to find all of the trash to reach 100% for each level, as a lot of the debris is very small and hard to spot against some of the game’s surface textures, although you can acquire a Trash Radar from the recycling bot to help you find any pieces that you’ve missed. Using this device prevents you from earning any additional ‘Make a Difference’ points for that level, though, so it’s best to leave it only for the last one or two pieces that you’re struggling to find. I’m not opposed to this kind of trade-off – it seems fair to have low-stakes consequences for using an assist mode in a collectathon game – but it does sit a little uncomfortably that the game calls you a cheater and actively shames you for using the Trash Radar given that Misc. is trying to sell you a story that, among other things, is about being nice.

As with any collectathon, there are rewards for completing as much as you can in the game. The cutscenes you unlock from clearing levels can be revisited in the Gallery menu in the Chapter Select screen, while reaching 100% completion of levels unlocks development notes, which is something I always find interesting to review. The ‘Make a Difference’ points you earn by cleaning up the environment and helping others also unlock supplementary letters written to Buddy and Bag Boy as word of their adventure and their good deeds spreads among all the robots. While none of these unlocks are going to take your breath away, the supplementary letters do build some extra character into the world. The game doesn’t alert you when you receive them, though, which is an odd choice given that a couple of them are relevant to the narrative.

One of my biggest reservations regarding the supplementary content, however, is how it handles the topics of depression and suicide, especially since the narrative tone otherwise indicates that the game is geared toward children. To be abundantly clear, I’m not at all opposed to video games addressing sensitive topics; the medium can be a good way to explore confronting issues provided they are handled appropriately and with care, but there is a lapse of care here. You receive a series of letters from a robot with obviously deteriorating mental health, and at one point, the letter you receive can only be described as a quite convincing suicide note. These letters cannot be responded to, only read, and you have no agency in this interaction whatsoever. Any sensitivity around handling difficult topics in an age-appropriate manner goes right out the window and it’s rather at odds with the tone of the rest of the game.

The game handles topics of mental health using, for the most part, child-friendly analogies

I had been prepared to critique Misc. with the acknowledgement that the target audience was probably a couple of decades younger than me, but this moment left me wondering who on earth this game was meant for. I certainly don’t think it’s for adults or teenagers; the narrative lacks depth while also being crudely didactic, and it was alienating to sit through narration that made me feel like I was being spoken to like a six-year-old child. However, if the game is meant to be for children who need gentle analogies as a way to explore difficult topics around mental health (analogies which, to the game’s credit, are elsewhere effective and appropriate), putting a convincing suicide note in the supplementary content without careful context around it is absolutely not okay.

Although the character who writes this letter ultimately sends a follow-up explaining that they cried it out with a friend and did not “power down,” in my opinion the conclusion of this arc does not at all excuse the way this material is handled earlier, especially since the letters are unlocked sequentially and the full context for the character in question is not available from the start to reassure anyone who might be distressed by this content.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, I’m not really sure who Misc. A Tiny Tale was made for. Adults and adolescents are likely to feel talked down to by the narrative, and while the game does handle some topics around mental health, anxiety, and grief in an age-appropriate way for younger children, its depiction of depression and suicide in the supplementary material is not well handled for this age range.

Given the supplementary nature of this particular content, the silver lining is that some players will miss it altogether while they focus on running around as a charming little robot. Unfortunately, though, Misc’s gameplay is neither particularly fun nor memorable, and there are plenty of better platformers out there that can be enjoyed by all ages. Unless the characters or setting here really speak to you, it’s unlikely to be worth your time.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 // Review code supplied by publisher

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