If you’ve ever been a fan of Advance Wars, Tiny Metal will feel like a modern take on that classic game. Developed by Area 35, Tiny Metal is a top-down strategic puzzle game, where you’re leading a charge against the enemy forces across various treacherous terrain. However, the fun lies in figuring out the various solutions to the problems you’re faced with, unlike there being a single solution to the puzzle.
One of Tiny Metal’s many strengths is its gorgeous visual style. The characters look blocky, almost like toy/lego characters. And the color palette is vibrant. Bright yellows and greens dominate the screen and it leads to a great look.
The core of the gameplay revolves around moving your units forward into enemy territory, and taking over regions. As you take over regions they start producing resources for you to use. You’ll also be engaging directly with the enemy in turn-based combat. There’s a fair amount of depth to the combat, a lot of which is totally worth digging in to.
The only shortcoming was that many of the fights feel fairly easy. While the AI uses some clever maneuvers, they rarely were able to withstand my attacks. The game is not exactly easy, and for the most part offers a fair challenge. I do wish, however, that I had more opportunities to use the arsenal at my disposal to a greater degree.
The issue of difficulty/challenge could have been alleviated by including a multiplayer element to the game, but as of now, there’s been no word of it.
The New Game+ mode does ramp up the challenge significantly, and I had a lot more fun running through it than I did the first time around.
The story is rather simple, and feels very much anime. Well, in fact, a lot of the dialogues happen between anime renditions of the game’s characters. It’s not bad at all, and has some charm to it. It’s a lighter tale, with no real punches to throw, but very much serves the gameplay, and that’s not a knock against it in any way.
Tiny Metal is a really fun strategy game, that presents itself well and wraps itself in a light war story. It’s main focus is on being an enjoyable experience for the player, and very much succeeds in delivering that experience.
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