New Super Lucky's Tale - The Elite Institute

Mascot platformers used to be all the rage. Every company wanted in, from big game studios to lemonade brands (Cool Spot, anyone?). And then, all of a sudden they just stopped. It was as if millions of mascots suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Now, just as people are starting to miss them, they’ve made a resurgence. And I couldn’t be happier.

I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY
And so we are introduced to Playful’s cute little fox: Lucky. For this is his tale. Lucky is one of the guardians for the Book of Ages. After one of the other guardians goes rogue, Lucky needs to traverse the book to find the missing pages that will help stop Jinx from rewriting history. On his way, he’ll meet new friends and new enemies as he takes on the troublesome feline foe and his ‘kitty litter’. From a plot perspective, it has about as much depth as the average 3D platformer, but it’s really just here to set the stage for an adventure spanning half a dozen unique worlds.

On the face of it, New Super Lucky’s Tale seems to be a traditional 3D platformer – but it’s actually only a 3D platformer about half of the time. Each world within the book contains its own mini hub world, which functions as you would expect: it’s no Isle Delfino, but functions in a similar way but on a smaller scale. Each hub has a handful of levels within, along with some bonus minigames and a boss level. Each level contains four pages within: the main page for completing it, one for getting at least 300 coins, another for collecting the five letters of Lucky’s name (much like the KONG letters in the DKC titles), and a bonus hidden one tucked away. Most are pretty easy to get, but the occasionally some of them can be tough to obtain unless you have a watchful eye.

Where the game differs from what you expect is with the levels themselves. A chunk of them are free roaming 3D stages that task you with doing a variety of tasks to complete your goals, but others go straight up 2D and resemble Donkey Kong Country or The Impossible Lair. That’s not to say the stages are derivative, as the platforming within is just as solid as with the 3D stages and arguably even more entertaining than those found in the aforementioned titles. Some of the 2D sections even boil down to autorunners, which offer a short – but exciting – experience. For such a short game (for the genre), there’s a vast arrange of well designed stages on offer to keep you entertained. The minigames within the hubs are my only real gripe; there are some cool Super Monkey Ball-esque games that are a lot of fun, but most of them are statue moving puzzles that outstay their welcome.

WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?
Whilst each of the worlds has a theme, the levels within them all contain their own gimmicks for you to overcome. The beachside Gilly’s Island, sees you navigating small islands destroying speakers one minute, and dodging cannon-fire from an enemy ship the next. There are never two levels alike, which is something that The Impossible Lair suffered from every now and then. The charming visual presentation is also noteworthy, as the game runs relatively smoothly most of the time (albeit the odd dip now and then when things get a bit too much), and the aesthetics are gorgeous. It manages to evoke memories of those 64 bit platformers, whilst also looking like a well-polished modern title too. Some may be put off by it’s cutesy art style and upbeat soundtrack, but for youngsters or those looking for a bite of platforming nostalgia, it hits all the right places.

The difficulty too is generally aimed just right. For the most part, it definitely skews on the easier side of platforming, but it still throws up enough of a challenge to keep you engaged. Enemies and platforming won’t provide much resistance, especially as the former go down with little issue, but the bosses can put up quite a challenge later on. And for those looking to 100% the game, no doubt it won’t be quite as easy as you’d expect. Doing everything will probably only amount to a couple of hours extra in playtime, but it’ll no doubt be a fun time for those who wish to do so.

I was instantly sold on New Super Lucky’s Tale within moments of starting the game, and I had a smile on my face the whole time. It’s just a shame it doesn’t seem to last that long. At around 6 hours or so, it’s not too short of an experience, but you’ll blast through it before you know it. Don’t let that put you off though – if you want a great 3D platformer, you can’t go far wrong here.