Whether it is a game that has platforming elements like Cuphead, or the standard bearer for the genre making a triumphant return like Super Mario Odyssey, we've were built with a great run recently with platformers. Obviously, having these stellar examples also allows for easy contrast when we encounter one which doesn't meet expectations, and unfortunately, Super Lucky's Tale is quite a pathetic example of a platformer.
Like most platformers, Super Lucky's Tale's story is a simple one. You play as the titular Lucky, a brave little fox whose dream would be to eventually become guardian from the Book of Ages. It is said to contain tremendous power, and thus it's no surprise that a nefarious number of felines known as the Kitty Litter need it on their own. Lucky's sister is typically protector from the book, but while she's away, Lucky may be the de facto protector-in-training-a perfect time for the Litter to strike. While working in his sister's stead, Lucky accidentally knocks the book open when the Litter surprise attacks, and soon they all are sucked within its pages. Now, Lucky must navigate the worlds described within the book if he hopes to steer clear of the Litter's leader, Jinx, and prove himself worthy of being a true protector of the book.
At the very least, Super Lucky's Tale does come up with a number of fun little worlds to understand more about. Each represents a chapter within the Book of Ages, and it is broken down into a number of stages that can be accessed from that respective world's hub. Both stages and hub are full of colorful characters that want to help Lucky, ranging from the worms of Veggie Village towards the golems of the Sky Castle. The enemies Lucky faces off against appear to be they popped from a children's story book, including rotund little bumble bees that fire their stingers to you or carnivorous flowers with cartoonish jaws that try to chomp on our foxy friend's fluffy tail. There are also lots of nooks to explore in every world that can lead to coins (for one-ups) or four-leaf clovers, which are accustomed to unlock each subsequent world in exactly the same stars or moons are used in Mario's 3D adventures.
There isn't much beyond this pointed in the fox's favor, however. As the worlds are fun, there are too few of these to really constitute much of an adventure. The sport has only four to explore, with about 25 four-leaf clovers to be found in each (there are 99 clovers total in the game). This makes Super Lucky's Tale feel surprisingly short-even for any $30 budget title-as it clocks in at approximately four hours to complete.
What's really puzzling, though, is when the game tries to shoehorn in replayability by instituting some ridiculous barriers between worlds. As the first world only requires 10 clovers to advance, the subsequent worlds need 30, 60, and lastly 80 total before the final boss-meaning that you need to snag nearly ever clover in the game before you can complete it. The issue is, collecting them can often be boring, running you thru the same tasks again and again such as simply finishing happens, finding tokens that spell L-U-C-K-Y, collecting 300 coins, or getting a particular secret in each stage. It's natural that many players will pass up getting all of the clovers on their own first time through stages, but this means that, after they hit a certain point, there will be no choice but to return and grind a little. Fortunately, I had been capable of finding 84 from the 99 clovers hanging around on my small initial playthrough, but when this really is indeed a game title intended for younger audiences, I do not expect those players to possess nearly as much patience.
Speaking from the final boss, there's also a sharp spike in difficulty at this particular point in the game. Personally, i found Super Lucky's Tale to be considered a breeze to get through, so actually being slightly challenged by the end boss would be a pleasant surprise for me personally. The problem is, it is so inconsistent with the rest of the game that if a younger gamer may be playing this, I would not be amazed if they found this frustrating because of how unnatural a bump it had been.
Where Super Lucky's Tale really falls apart is by using its gameplay. Movement in a platformer is essential towards the experience, and Lucky is among the worst-handling protagonists That i have ever played as. His jumps feels extremely floaty, during the ground he's plodding and tank-like. This can lead to an inability to tell when he's getting enough momentum for a jump or maybe he'll are unsuccessful, despite his mediocre double jump. One unique element to Lucky is that he can also burrow underneath the ground, that is great for solving puzzles or collecting coins. However, because he burrows, you are feeling like you're fighting the controller, trying to make Lucky go the direction you would like him to as the game has other ideas, leading to an inaccurate zig-zag over the landscape. All these things combined makes Super Lucky's Tale feel harder to play it really is given its simplistic puzzles and basic moving platforms. Once the controller itself feels like your greatest enemy, you know a game has failed like a platformer.
The other aspect where the gameplay doesn't stand up is within its camera. The majority of the game happens in a 3D world, however, you rarely may change to camera for better angles to make critical jumps. These kinds of issues seem like something which was remedied 20 years ago, when game developers remained as finding out how to be employed in a 3D space; it's absolutely inexcusable at this time to not provide the player full control of the camera to set up jumps.
At times, at least, Super Lucky's Tale seems enjoy it did come up with an effort to become entertaining. The sport occasionally mixes up its primary 3D stages with 2.5D side-scrolling sections, there are even some mini games which were a lot of fun-including an endless runner, and some Marble Madness-inspired sections in which you need to roll Lucky around inside a ball. These sections were probably so enjoyable, however, because Lucky's movement was boiled down to the bare minimum in every, with virtually no jumping involved.
Finally, Super Lucky's Tale has a surprising quantity of glitches. The most prominent you might be audio eliminating following a load screen, requiring me to restart the game. It only happened a couple of times, but the uninspired soundtrack of this game is better than listening to nothing at all. Lucky can also be poorly animated, leading to moments such as as he seems as though he he's standing still for a few seconds while simultaneously sliding across the landscape as I was moving him with the joystick (until he finally broke into his running animation). Additionally, there are your typical problems for example occasionally getting stuck around the environment, or phasing through what should well be solid objects. Issues such as these just seemed like the final bit of proof of a lack of polish this game much needed.
Super Lucky's Tale is nothing short of a disappointment. It pales compared to contemporaries within the genre and feels like it might've been a good effort decades ago from developers who have been beginning to experiment in the 3D space. The planet and characters are cute and supply a fitting “fun for the entire family” sort of motif which was clearly a goal with this game, but all of the style in the world can't save something with your little substance. Floaty controls, poor camera angles, and repetitive gameplay all spell doom for Lucky, who becomes only the latest in a long type of failed platforming heroes.
