The latest game to jump on the “tiny” bandwagon is Tiny Predators by Michael Gough, available for both iPhone and iPad. Aside from having the same adjective in its name, Tiny Predators possesses a sheen that is reminiscent of Tiny Wings’ soft pastel watercolor look. What’s more, Tiny Predators uses a simple one-touch control, which Tiny Wings is famous for. The game also includes “procedurally generated graphics,” a feature pioneered by Tiny Wings that lets a markedly different design be randomly chosen for every new game or level.
Given these noticeable similarities, it’s tempting to immediately write-off Tiny Predators as another ripoff of an established game. It’s a good thing its gameplay is nothing like Tiny Wings and more like a combination of Whale Trail and the classic Pac Man. In Tiny Predators, you control a young centipede in a maze environment where you will try to outplay other older and faster centipedes. The key is to eat the other centipedes from behind before they eat you. Sounds easy, but there’s a catch: you can’t crawl your way through the maze to prey on the others unless you have enough strength. This is where the beads scattered throughout the maze come into play. Eat the beads to maintain your strength, but make sure to eat other tiny predators before the beads run out. Otherwise, you lose your strength and the game.
In a sense, Tiny Predators is comparable to a chimera, a monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail. It appears to have copied elements of design and gameplay from Tiny Wings, Whale Trail and Pac Man, but the result may very well be a different beast altogether. You can see for yourself by downloading Tiny Predators for $1.99.
