It’s not the deepest or most robust collect-a-thon platformer, but New Super Lucky’s Tale serves as a completely decent 3D platformer that serves up some simple fun for anyone with fond memories of the collect-a-thon craze.
New Super Lucky’s Tale
Developer: Playful Corp.
Price: $40
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with a Switch code for review.
If you’re confused about the difference between New Super Lucky’s Tale, Super Lucky’s Tale, and Lucky’s Tale, you certainly aren’t alone. Though the naming scheme is a bit redundant, I’ll lay it all out here to make the review easier to understand. Lucky’s Tale is a VR platformer from 2016. Super Lucky’s Tale is the sequel to Lucky’s Tale, which dropped the VR aspect to focus on being a 3D collect-a-thon platformer. Finally, we have New Super Lucky’s Tale, the game being reviewed now. This is best described as an expanded version of Super Lucky’s Tale, with tweaked visuals, level design changes, minor story changes, and a fully controllable camera. Think of it as a Definitive Edition, rather than a full sequel.
New Super Lucky’s Tale follows the kind of basic, fanciful story that collect-a-thons are best suited for. An evil wizard named Jinx steals a sacred book, scattering its pages across numerous realms and levels. Lucky, the titular fox, is separated from his sister when he is pulled away from his home world. In order to return to his world and become a Guardian like his sister, Lucky must find the missing pages and defeat Jinx. In the beginning, it feels oddly serious for this sort of game, but New Super Lucky’s Tale quickly switches gears and focuses on smaller, goofier stories in each of the game’s worlds. It’s enough to keep you moving, and it adds to the mystical atmosphere of the game well enough.
The gameplay of New Super Lucky’s Tale is quite straight-forward. Outside of the digging mechanic, there aren’t any advanced ways of movement. There aren’t any wall-jumps, triple-jumps, or tricks to be found, making for an experience that doesn’t change much throughout the entirety of the game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as this simplicity will make this more accessible for a variety of different players. I just like having a bit of extra depth to explore when it comes to movement.
“Visually, New Super Lucky’s Tale feels like a colorful and whimsical children’s book brought to life.“
Levels vary between 3D platformers, endless runners, and the occasional puzzle stage. This variety can be interesting, but the only concept that felt fully fleshed-out was the 3D platforming. Collecting pages and exploring numerous aesthetically distinct areas is the most fun part of New Super Lucky’s Tale, so while the other stages aren’t broken or bad, they feel like an afterthought that distracts from the real meat of the game. They’re much less common than platforming stages too, so it never feels too intrusive.
Though the game isn’t especially long, there’s a surprisingly robust postgame to play after the credits roll. Entirely new stages and challenges are laid out in front of you, all of which can be tackled in whatever order you choose. These are all quite fun, as they each focus on a different aspect of New Super Lucky’s Tale, such as combat, platforming, and puzzle-solving. These challenges feel more thought-out and fun than earlier varied levels, and the various unlockables you collect by playing these stages makes it all the more fun.
Visually, New Super Lucky’s Tale feels like a colorful and whimsical children’s book brought to life. The side-characters are all wacky and cartoonish, while the fantasy-based environments have a squeaky-clean feeling to them. The music is catchy and fitting for each stage, and further adds to the game’s light sense of adventure.
The Final Word
It doesn’t do anything too new or complicated with the collect-a-thon format, but New Super Lucky’s Tale still does its job as a decent, enjoyable 3D platformer that will keep you entertained for a couple afternoons.
MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
