While I’m not sure what to call a point-and-click (PnC) adventure game when it’s on phones and tablets, I know exactly how to describe it – fun! Tiny Thief is an impressive “tap adventure” game from developer 5ants, and published under the Rovio Entertainment banner (you probably know them better as the Angry Birds guys).

Monkeys love thieves.

Tiny Thief puts you in control of, you guessed it, a tiny thief. In the beginning, you play a Robin Hood-esch vigilante, taking ill-gotten gains from those in power and returning them to the people who could actually benefit from them. To 3-Star levels, you’re tasked with finding a certain number of treasures, your ferret pal, and a level specific goal.  As you dive further into the game, the story turns our little ne’er-do-well into something of a hero, I don’t want to spoil it – not that it’s too deep or anything – but it’s more enjoyable to experience yourself.

Gameplay follows all good PnCs, you move your character to an object, interact with it or pick it up. Items you can pick up will either be added to your inventory to use later, or count as one of the “treasures” you are tasked with finding in each level. Inventory items can be combined with other objects in the level to solve puzzles, and occasionally multiple pick-ups will be needed to solve a given problem. Lucky for new PnC gamers, Tiny Thief is no The Secret of Monkey Island or Sam and Max – generally, Tiny Thief’s item combinations and puzzle solutions are logical, and you don’t have to give a rasp to a bigfoot to get into a pool party.

Stolen Candy? I will avenge thee!

At first, I cringed at the high $2.99 price tag. I waited days to get it, sometimes staring blankly at the green “Buy App” button until my iPhone put itself to sleep after 5 minutes. Finally, I rationalized myself into the purchase – $2.99 for maybe 2 days of gameplay is on par with a Redbox game rental, the difference is I keep the game, and it’s good for both iPhone and iPad. Usually, you’ll have to pay extra if you purchase an iPhone app, and want to use it with HD graphics on the iPad – but Tiny Thief already has you paying a premium, so even if you buy it on iPhone, you’ll receive the HD version for your iPad.

Speaking of the iPad, Tiny Thief may not play better, but the iPad version definitely shows you more of the level, the entire level actually. For some, playing on the iPhone may be more ‘authentic’ to the PnC genre, not showing you everything at once means there is some guess/sleuth work involved. 3-Starring levels might be easier on the iPad, as you can see everything – hidden treasures, ferrets

Tiny Thief iPad

Same Scene on iPhone

Final Thoughts
Big or small, Tiny Thief plays well and is very entertaining. The humor and intuitive puzzles are enjoyable, and occasionally challenging – though enough tapping around will find you an answer. Though the price seems high, Tiny Thief more than makes up for it with hours of playtime and (let’s hope) plenty of updates.

I look forward to 5ants level updates for Tiny Thief, and would gladly pay for a separate sequel when it comes.

The Good
Tiny Thief embodies classic ‘point and click’ gameplay, on touch based devices. Entertainment value is high. Puzzles are clever, yet intuitive. Characters and Levels are well designed. Tap controls are quick to pick up.

The Bad
Scary Price, at first. $2.99 is a lot, until you think about it. Overall, I spent over 9 hours to 100% Tiny Thief, without hints. That’s 2 days entertainment for $2.99 – not too bad. 30 levels.

The Ugly
Waiting for 5ants to release new levels.