Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Playful

Developer

Playful

Series

Super Lucky's Tale

Genre

Action, Adventure, Arcade, Platform

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

7.6 GB

Release Date (NA)

Nov 8, 2019

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Epic Games

New Super Lucky’s Tale is the upgraded version of the 2017 Xbox One title Super Lucky’s Tale. Additionally, the game is a sequel to Lucky’s Tale, a 2016 virtual reality 3D platformer for the Oculus Rift. This new version makes several improvements, providing a much more satisfying gameplay experience whether it’s on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or PC.

Old Lucky vs New Lucky

New Super Lucky’s Tale has quite a few tweaks that make the game feel like new for those who have already played the original Super Lucky’s Tale. Notable among them is that level layouts have been redesigned. They are also much brighter and more colorful, and instead of getting clovers at the end, you earn pages. Moreover, camera issues, while not 100%, have been fixed, making navigation easier. Controls are tighter and more responsive, too. Additionally, dialogues have been changed to be sillier and more informative. Even the cinematic scenes and music have been tweaked for the better. In short, this is the best version of Super Lucky’s Tale.

The Cat Came Back

The tale in New Super Lucky’s Tale is typical good versus evil, but there’s enough storytelling in this indie game to keep you playing. You follow Lucky Swiftail, a young, brave fox who’s helping his sister, Lyra, in guarding the Book of Ages from Jinx and his mischievous children, the Kitty Litter. One day, Jinx gets ahold of the book, but the book ends up sucking in Jinx and the Kitty Litter, along with Lucky. Inside the book are entire vibrant worlds with joyful characters and a new adventure for Lucky.

Somehow, in between Jinx and the Kitty Litter and Lucky being sucked in, the cats were able to cause plenty of havoc in the Book of Ages. Characters in the book ask for Lucky’s help to return their world back to normal. To do so, Lucky will need to find the missing pages of the book that are scattered across the book’s many worlds.

Upon confronting the first two Kitty Litter members—Master Mittens, a martial art enthusiast, and Tess, a scientist—they are much nicer than what one would expect from an evil gang. Later on in the game, though, they confront Lucky to steal his pages. So they’re bad, maybe.

Taking a Few Pages From the Greatest

Lucky’s 3D adventure is inspired by some of the greatest video game platformers, such as Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. Like Super Mario 64, Lucky can jump between worlds through the Book of Ages. Similar to Donkey Kong Country, Lucky can find letters sprawled across a level that spell his name. As for Banjo Kazooie, instead of searching for puzzle pieces, you are looking for pages.

The game’s music may not be as memorable as the classics, but its orchestrated soundtrack makes the game feel more alive. Whether its levels are based on farmland or the canyons, the game’s musical score fits and plays along with Lucky’s adventure quite smoothly. It brings the audience closer to the worlds inside the Book of Ages. The brighter and more colorful areas in New Super Lucky’s Tales serve to make the music pop even more.

Each level swaps between a 3D environment and a 2D side-scrolling adventure, keeping the game from being repetitive and providing enough flavor for players to enjoy. It’s like taking Donkey Kong Country and mixing it with Banjo Kazooie. Each level holds four pages and has four goals: complete the level, find all the letters that spell “LUCKY”, find a hidden page, and collect 300 coins. If collecting pages isn’t enough, the game also offers costume collecting for your foxy friend. Costumes can be unlocked by completing each world and by perfecting each world by collecting all its pages. You can (mis)match your outfit any way you like. You want cop glasses to go with your yodeler outfit? Go for it, as long as you can pay for it.

The minigames are quite fun. Whether it’s sliding sculptures to their required green spots or navigating a marble labyrinth, they add more variety to the gameplay. Unlike the adventure levels, you only need to complete the puzzle to earn a page. Early on, the sliding sculptures are simple, but later in the game, they do become more challenging.

Boss levels are especially entertaining, since they’re based on timing and patterns. Lucky can swing his tail at enemies to put them in a confused state or borrow underground to avoid attacks. Additionally, Lucky can attack enemies when popping out from underground. Unfortunately, Lucky’s burrowing ability only works when there’s dirt. The rest of the time, you’ll have to rely on sheer jumping skills and tail attacks when taking on the Kitty Litter, as they’ll throw anything and everything at you, from fireballs and lasers and even other enemies.

One of the best features of this game is not having to re-collect all the letters that spell “LUCKY”. If you can only find two of the five letters during your initial playthrough, you can go back after completing the game and look for the remaining three. Similarly, if you already collected 300 coins and find the missing page, you don’t need to re-do it when you replay a level. That said, you’ll still need to finish the level to get credit for what you find.

Players can quickly fly through levels, acquiring about half the pages available in each world. It’s possible to beat the game within seven hours with the bare minimum needed, doubling that if they decide to go for 100% completion. Ideally, though, the game would increase the page requirements the further you are into the game. As much as being trapped in a book sounds dreadful, there’s so much potential that it shouldn’t feel rushed.

Please Hold…While We…Transfer…You

Loading screens become a hassle not long into a play session. Whether you’re booting up the game or entering or exiting a level, they’re so long that you can make a sandwich and eat it, too. (I know because I did it.)

Moreover, if you miss your chance to collect something, you can’t simply restart the level while playing. You either need to quit the level or finish it. It’s a bit frustrating for those looking to quickly get back into the action without having to wait through multiple load times. It’s even more annoying when doing minigames. If you make a mistake and want to redo the statues, you have to restart the level instead of simply resetting the statues.

Plus, on the loading screen, there’s a small golem that tells multiple corny jokes about being Lucky’s friend. Sometimes, he sounds a bit desperate; other times, he gives out hints, though they’re obvious. It’s entertaining the first few times, but when you see the golem four times for each level (up to twenty seconds each), it gets to be too much.

A Lucky Tale to Tell

Even with the excessive loading times, New Super Lucky’s Tale is a fun, lovable game that fans of platformers should jump into. The countless improvements made are well worth it (even the cornier dialogue), easily making this the best version of Lucky and his adventure. You’ll be ready to become the next great guardian in no time, but you’re great the way you are.

A code was provided for this review and gameplay footage. New Super Lucky’s Tale available now for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.