Super Lucky’s Tale review

Super Lucky’s Tale review

Super Lucky’s Tale

With a controversial reveal Super Lucky’s Tale was met with quite some disappointment because people first thought it was Conker. After playing it, I can say that Super Lucky’s Tale can hold his own and is a lovely experience for all ages. I would even go so far and say that Xbox has a new colorful mascot. 

THE GOOD

  • First thing you notice is the colorful and child friendly visuals, the game world simply invites people to play. While the game won’t be remembered for breathtaking graphics it is a wonderful eye-experience that many gamers will love. It is fascinating to see how alive all the levels feel with little animals and great use of object placement. You just see that the developers did a genuine try to make something special and they absolutely nailed the art, level and visual design.
  • One memorable thing was the country song moment with the worm-characters. I was actually streaming this part on Mixer and got multiple reactions about how great this part was. In general the sound and music is decent, sometimes even beyond great. It took me some Googling but the voice from Lucky was great too, so Caitlyn Bairstow well done!
  • Your main task is collecting clovers, 99 of them. Each boss level is locked behind a specific amount of required clovers. Don’t worry though, getting them is easy and fun. Each level has four of them,  one for finishing a level, collecting all LUCKY-letters in a level and the other two are mostly earned by some kind of hidden sub-quest or mini game. The game tries to change things up a little with 2D levels, puzzles and drastic level design, so Super Lucky’s Tale will never feel repetitive.
  • I can’t explain enough how great Super Lucky’s Tale feels and plays. It has this responsive flow that works really addictive. For example, when you collect a time clock and you need to collect all coins in a specific time it feels extremely satisfying to dig underground, jump up to pass a platform or enemy and dig underground again. This fast and easy to control motion is what makes Super Lucky’s Tale a fun platform game.

MIXED FEELINGS

  • One thing that could have been more meaningful is the story, the prologue explains why and what but throughout the game I missed some extra storytelling. The game has everything to be more, a good selection of charming characters, great voice actors and the story setting is decent enough to expand. Anyway, the story isn’t something that will make you love or hate the game, the gameplay remains the main reason why to play Super Lucky’s Tale.
  • When it comes to the learning curve and difficulty I have to consider that Super Lucky’s Tale is aimed towards kids too. Let me immediately add that this game is perfect for adults too. That said, the difficulty is all over the place. Most of the times the game is easy, sometimes a little too easy. A some points, the game can become a little bit difficult too, for kids anyway. Luckily Lucky has quite a lot of checkpoints so you never have to replay large parts.

THE BAD

  • You will get used to it but that doesn’t change the fact that a 3D platformer needs a rotating camera. It makes the game much more limited than it should be. I’m guessing it was a design choice so they could cut on some level design but it really is horrendous. Please Playful Corp, consider this feedback for a hopefully next adventure with Super Lucky on Xbox.

If people ask me why 2017 was a great gaming year my answer is the glorious return for platform games. Yooka Laylee, Crash Bandicoot, Voodoo Vince and obviously Super Mario Odyssey. Developer Playful can be proud about Super Lucky’s Tale because this game is part of the platform genre resurrection too. This is the exact game that was missing in the Xbox library of exclusive games, with a perfect price of €30 I hope that many of you will try this wonderful adventure. It is totally worth your time!

Dev: Playful Publisher: Microsoft Played on: Xbox One
LifeisXbox received a digital review code, provided by Microsoft.