After working your way through several puzzles you'll smack into one of Tiny Brains' action sequences. These are tests of speed and reflexes, dropping the brains into rooms riddled with holes, ramps, moving pistons and other obstacles. The goal here is to move the ball to the exit, but since you can't just roll it with your tiny paws, you've got to use your powers. This ends up being challenging because A) the ball almost never comes to rest and B) just about everything in these levels shreds the sphere to pieces. Again, you have to work together to make it to the end, but in this case it's about working fast.
Breaking up the puzzle and action sections are the Protect Pinky interludes. Here, that cute little pink chick is helplessly positioned in a room with all manner of dangerous things crawling around. Maybe it's evil chickens wielding weapons, or maybe it's hot flames firing from below. Either way, it's your job to protect Pinky through wave after wave of danger. These sections of the game can be a real challenge, especially if you don't have a full team of players at your disposal.
Co-op is what makes Tiny Brains truly special. It's as simple as "everybody plays at the same time", but the game was obviously built for a bunch of people to get together and have a blast. Four players can drop in/out online, locally or mixed. Surprisingly, the game is perfectly playable solo, but you'll miss out on all of the hootin' and hollerin' that occurs when your friends are along for the ride. Having a dedicated player for each character is an enormous boon, and it siphons out the bits of frustration that creep in when attempting to switch between characters and juggle spheres on your own. Luckily the game will adapt to puzzles on the fly based on the number of players. Have a player drop online? You'll see the game remove a switch or lower a gate that would have otherwise required another player present.
Tiny Brains' setting, sense of humor and presentation are miniature works of art. The laboratory is built out of cardboard, glass tubes, breakable popsicle sticks, bits of magazines and other found objects your evil overlord scraped together. You'll also catch pieces of story scribbled on papers dropped here and there. It's a treat to just stand there and play around, and Spearhead seemed to be aware of this, too. As you're walking from one chamber to another, you'll often get to play with objects using your powers. Nothing is more satisfying than being half an inch tall and using your telekinetic powers to try to make a phone call. Nothing.
The chief complaint raised about Tiny Brains before its release was its reported length. Five hours is a good estimate for a single run through all of the game's content, which includes five chapters in story mode, handfuls of challenge levels, a team vs. team soccer mode, and two additional unlockable modes. There's incentive to go back and beat your own times as well as compete with global times, which adds quite a bit of replayability. More importantly, Tiny Brains doesn't overstay its welcome. When you complete the story you'll crave more, which is where the other modes come into play. Beat those and you're left with a nice, satisfied feeling.
Tiny Brains is a co-op game that knows exactly why co-op play exists. Its brand of crazy teamwork is an experiment in controlled multiplayer chaos, and it hits all the right notes at every turn. The challenge level is just right, encouraging you to press forward but not punishing you for trying and failing. Get some people together and give Tiny Brains a go. Their brains are so small, they need your help, you know.
Note: This review is based on an early release of the PC version and final retail PSN code of the game. The content for the console versions is identical.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Play as four laboratory critters working together to survive a mad scientist's wicked tests. Online co-op as well as combo co-op was also available in addition to local multiplayer but the servers are no longer there.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.