Estonian studio Yeta comes to Xbox and PlayStation for the first time. Having cut their teeth on a number of mobile and Nintendo Switch titles, including the well received Street Racers, Yeta has teamed-up with eastasiasoft for Tricky Thief. A simple yet rewarding experience, in this Tricky Thief review you’ll learn that the worst part of the game is simply its brevity.

Tricky Thief casts the player as a the titular thief. The objective of the game is to sprint around the top-down levels, collecting coins and avoiding guards. We say ‘sprint’, as there is no other type of movement. You can only move from wall-to-wall, stopping between only when a specific red tile allows you to do so. It’s a puzzle game, not an action experience.

Tricky Thief screenshot

The guards have cones of view and move along visible paths. It plays similarly to Hitman Go in many respects, though in real-time. And you’re not doing any kind of killing. Tricky Thief is a much more family friendly experience. In more ways than one.

Despite not offering any kind of tutorial, Tricky Thief follows the now familiar eastasiasoft pattern of slowly introducing new mechanics and increasing difficulty through its levels. If you’ve played Maggie the Magnet or Slap the Rocks – or countless other puzzle titles from the publisher – you’ll know what this Tricky Thief review is talking about.

Tricky Thief screenshot

It’s a very simple set-up, then. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Increasing complexity is achieved through new obstacles and map design, then mixing new and old together. However, where Tricky Thief suffers is that it ends all too soon. Just when you think the challenge is ramping up, there’s no more. The game boasts that levels are replayable, allowing you to improve your ‘scores’. However, at no point did we find less than the maximum of three stars for completing a level. Perhaps the ‘family friendly’ nature of the game has been taken a bit too far, but nonetheless Tricky Thief remains enjoyable while it lasts.

Categories: Games