Obscure Game Review: Tinhead

Hello all and welcome back to the game room. Today I'll be doing a quickie review of a weird little game I recently picked up for the Sega Genesis that I'd never heard of before.

I have a lot of games. And when you have as little spare time as I do to enjoy playing games but can’t stop the urge to keep buying more of them, you end up with tons of games you’ve never played or even heard of before. So during this brief little winter vacation I’ve had lately, I decided to thumb through some of those weird games I have in my possession and give them a go, and that’s how I ended up playing through a relatively obscure Sega Genesis game called Tinhead.

Released in 1993 exclusively for the Genesis (a Super Nintendo port was planned but cancelled), it’s a nifty little side-scrolling platformer that was certainly worth a quick playthrough. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and can be downright frustrating as hell at times, but overall it served as a modestly enjoyable trip back to the early 90’s, which incidentally was probably my favorite era of gaming.

The story is more or less one of those “just read the back of the box and you’re good” type of plots that were so common at the time: in distant space, an unlikely little robot hero named Tinhead must do battle with an evil madman named Grim Squidge who has stolen the galaxy's stars and spread them out across different planets, and that’s all you really need to know.

This picture tells you almost everything you need to know about Tinhead's storyline.

Though the story isn’t too riveting, the graphics really steal the show for this game. They’re vibrant, colorful, and detailed- a great example of some of the best the Genesis was capable of. The foregrounds, backgrounds, character, enemy and item sprites all look wonderfully detailed and really serve to make this game stand out. The music isn’t anything spectacular by Genesis standards, but it offers up a catchy tune every now and then. There isn’t much diversity in the music however, since there are only four worlds in the game with six levels apiece, and each world has its own track that will play through five of those levels (boss levels have their own music). The rest of the sound effects are fairly generic Genesis-esque sounds you’ve probably heard at least once in your life if you’ve played a few Genesis games before.

While nothing about this game is a masterpiece, it certainly is a delight to look at.

As I just mentioned, each of the four worlds consists of six levels. Every two levels you’ll get a password, which is quite helpful if you’re anything like me and don’t usually beat games in one sitting unless it’s necessary to do so. On the sixth level of each world is a boss you’ll do battle with before progressing on to the next world. The other five levels are large, non-linear stages in which you’ll be traveling forward, backward, up and down in search of a golden star, which is usually tucked away in a corner of the level requiring a decent amount of searching to find. Upon obtaining the star, you must then find the exit teleporter, which also tends to be hidden in a certain area of the level. This can get a bit frustrating if you can find the exit but cannot find the star, or vice versa; however, it’s usually simple enough to do so. One annoying thing is that if you’ve collected the star and then die, you must find the star once again before proceeding to the exit. This is especially annoying if you don’t remember exactly how you even got to the star through the maze-like level design. Again, though, this usually isn’t that big of an issue.

Finding the star in each level can be a challenge and a bit annoying, especially if you've already found the level's exit.

As for the gameplay, it’s..well…a tad flawed. The biggest complaint I have is with the jumping- Tinhead can spring up pretty high, but then drops like a lead weight. Seriously, you will just barely be able to pull off some of the jumps the game presents you with, and be prepared to attempt the same sequence of jumps multiple times after falling off of platforms because of this. Also, he tends to move pretty quickly, which often results in running into off-screen enemies if you don’t constantly mash the fire button. Tinhead fires projectiles at enemies that look like little pinballs, and he can do so in three different ways: shooting straight, diagonally upward, and in a downward arc that bounces along the ground. Enemies can be destroyed with anywhere between one and five hits. It works well enough, but the upward and downward shots can be a bit tricky to pull off with enemies above or below you. Also, you’ll need to manually switch between these three firing modes by pressing the C Button, and this can present problems while trying to rapidly cycle through firing modes when attacking enemies that are all around you.

Also, another frustrating aspect is in the amount of projectiles you’ll be able to fire at once. Each time you die, you start off again by only being able to fire one projectile at a time. You can upgrade by collecting items scattered throughout the level that will allow you to fire up to five balls at once, which all but makes you a walking tank. However, upon getting hit by an enemy, you’ll lose one ball- i.e., if you have five balls and are then hit, you’ll drop down to four, and then three, and so on. This can get really annoying if you’re far into a level and find yourself only able to fire one measly projectile at a time, but once again, it’s not a massive hindrance that can stop you from completing the game.

You have five hit points of health that are independent of the projectile counter, which can be replenished by picking up health items that are readily available throughout the stage. Also, you can find bonus stages hidden in each level that will allow you to pick up some extra health, projectiles, and 1-ups. There is also a huge abundance of black orbs and other little items that serve no purpose other than to increase the score, which doesn’t even gain you any extra lives or anything as you increase it, as far as I know anyway. Once in a while, you’ll also collect special items that can equip you with things like a jetpack, a wheel, a propeller, and more. However, you move a LOT faster with these items and tend to run into enemies very quickly this way, causing you to lose that upgrade within about 5 seconds of obtaining it.

Power-ups like the jetpack are good to have, but good luck keeping them for longer than 5 seconds.

 

The bosses of each stage are not very hard at all, especially with a maxed out projectile counter. Even the final boss is quite easy, and I was actually surprised upon beating the game that it was over just like that. You’ll spend much more time traversing the stages of the game than you will on any of the four boss battles.

In all, I beat the game in about a day or two of playing, putting it down, and then coming back to it later by using the password system. It’s challenging and a bit hampered by some bad controls, but none so bad that it makes the game unplayable. If you’re looking for an obscure Genesis game that’s worth a few hours of playing time, I’d certainly recommend it.