Borderlands Mobile arrived out of nowhere, dropping onto the iOS app store and allowing iPhone players to test the game for a limited time. When exactly this test will end, whether progress will carry over to the full release, and how much of the planned content will be free to access are all questions players are being left to ponder. But in the meantime, Borderlands fans are grinding away to see everything the game has to offer, and they’re finding that it’s packed with quality content. It’s arguably even more feature-complete than Borderlands 4 with a day one raid boss, Circles of Slaughter, and more, while the core gameplay is impressively smooth. However, it’s not flawless, as in addition to Borderlands 1-like Vault Hunters lacking personality, the iconic NPC Tiny Tina doesn’t feel like herself.
Borderlands Mobile is developed by Zynga, with Gearbox providing creative guidance on the lore, art style, and more.
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Borderlands Mobile Recasts Tiny Tina, and It’s Hard to Get Used To
As soon as players load up Borderlands Mobile, they’ll be greeted with one of the usual drawn cinematics that set the stage for the game’s content (viewable above in the video from Techzamazing). Instead of only the usual narrator Marcus speaking, a raspy female voice is heard confirming that Borderlands Mobile takes place after BL3 and the defeat of the Calypso Twins. The voice in question likely won’t sound familiar to players, as it would fit a random psycho more than an existing character. However, when reading the subtitles, and looking at the capitalized words and unique phrases used within the dialogue, players will likely have the same exact thought: is that REALLY supposed to be Tiny Tina?
After a few missions where players get their bearings and are introduced to different weapon types, grenades, and so on, they’ll stumble upon Tina. Unfortunately, this confirms the worry fans of the crazed-but-lovable explosives expert will have had during the intro, as Tina sounds nothing like herself. Whoever is voicing Tina, it’s just not Ashly Burch, and it doesn’t even really sound like an impression of the character. And even if the impersonation was spot on, it still wouldn’t feel right. For practically everyone, Burch IS Tina. Her ability to inject life into every line of dialogue, stretching out words or muttering them under her breath at just the right moment for maximum comedic effect, is second-to-none. She’s been there for all of Tina’s emotional moments, like saying goodbye to Roland, and she helped make Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands a viable spin-off franchise. Whenever Tina speaks in Borderlands Mobile, it feels wrong, which is a shame since the mobile game gets everything else right.
Could the Main Borderlands Games Recast Tiny Tina Too?
Obviously, it’s a bit early to raise the alarm bells and assume that Tina’s recasting will impact the mainline Borderlands games. It’s entirely possible that Ashly Burch was just too busy to record lines for a mobile spin-off, and alternatively, Gearbox and Zynga may not have felt like it was necessary to pay a top-tier talent for a mobile-only project. Still, it’s hard not to worry at least a little bit, as Borderlands has a history of recasting beloved characters in later releases.
Borderlands 3 brought about two big recasts, those being Rhys and Claptrap. In the case of Rhys, Troy Baker wanted to return, but could not accept the non-union job that Gearbox was offering. As a result, Ray Chase stepped in. And as for Claptrap, Jim Foronda took over for original actor David Eddings due to a pay dispute, with Eddings also stating that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford assaulted him (a claim Pitchford denied). With two significant recasts happening in the series already — not to mention Tiny Tina being nowhere to be seen in Borderlands 4 — perhaps Borderlands Mobile is testing the waters for a permanent recasting of the character.
Hopefully this isn’t the case, though, as Borderlands Mobile’s Tina is a far cry from the version fans know and love. Whether it’s Borderlands 5 or Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 2, next time fans see Tina, it will hopefully be Ashly Burch delivering her lines. If it is someone new, it likely won’t fly under the radar like her new Borderlands Mobile voice seems to be doing, as a vast majority of players would likely be begging for Tina’s original actor to come back.
