I’ve never had a desire to become a tattooist. I greatly admire the craft, though one of receiving tattoos rather than being the one to brand them for life onto someone who put an awful amount of trust in me. Fortunately, I’d never get such a gig, and sparing people’s bodies from my terrible interpretations of their dream tattoos is probably best for all involved.
Still, it’s fun to see how it would go in the digital space and Tattoo Tycoon offers me up that opportunity. I’m probably the one on the FG team that can get a little lost in a tycoon game. I do enjoy the likes of Planet Coaster and Zoo Tycoon and whilst this is most certainly not those games, there’s something charming, if ultimately forgettable, about this game that I couldn’t look past.
The story goes is you’re a new tattooist in town who is bizarrely given the keys to your own studio after just one shift (which goes sideways fast, too) and before you know it, you’re running a studio that needs an awful lot of work and staff which possess a skill you’re not particularly good at either.
What’s interesting about Tattoo Tycoon is the amount of customisation afforded to you. Your studio is exactly that, and you can buy and add a whole load of items to make your studio feel like your own. I tried to remember tattoo shops from my hometown and quite honestly, bar just simply putting up pictures of tattoos all over the place, I think I improved upon them with plants, vending machines and extremely comfortable chairs.
The game naturally allows you to also tattoo your customers, and as such a ‘follow the line’ minigame appears and before you know it you’re thrust in the hot seat and told to create something that looks akin to the picture your customer has bought in.
I’ll be straight with you now, I wasn’t good at this. How I managed to get as far in this game as I did is an absolute mystery to me because if it was purely based on just doing tattoos, I would have absolutely tanked my studio. You can fail these minigames, you only have a set amount of time and if you come away from the lines too much you’re going to burn through your time fairly rapidly. At that point you can either pray for a quick death or hope the customer isn’t too pissed. Trying to zip past the ‘painful’ areas didn’t necessarily work as I had hoped, and I ended up succeeding in something I should have definitely failed at.
Aside from my lack of skills I can put this down to playing on a DualSense. I’ll be straight up now and say this game doesn’t belong on consoles. The tattoos in particular are designed for precise mouse control, something analogue sticks just aren’t able to replicate. The same goes for the UI which has been absolutely designed for PC play and it seems little was done to make the game feel just as comfortable on a controller. Two Point this is not.
Still, if you’re willing to persevere through the controls you’ll find a game that begins to slightly easier on you in the mid to latter stages. Being able to hire staff was a blessing, and allows you to focus mainly on the running of the studio itself. A cool mechanic is being able to talk to the customers before you tattoo them to see what kind of design they’re after. You can fail this too and customers will just simply walk out if they don’t like your idea, which is oddly hilarious. Still, succeeding in meeting the customers halfway with your concepts is a neat touch.
Tattoo Tycoon then is pretty much what you’d expect, just fish if out on PC if you want to experience it at its most natural. The controller controls just don’t do it any favours and as such, I was left wanting. It’s good, but a little bit more controller optimisation – especially in the tattooing minigame – would have done wonders for this one.
As such it’s not there. It’s a recommendation then, just not on consoles.
Tattoo Tycoon is available now on PS5 (review platform), PC via Steam and GOG, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox Series X|S.
Developer: CrazyBunch
Publisher: Handy Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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