Super Lucky’s Tale is a 3D platformer where you play as Lucky, a fox who is sucked into a mystical Book of Ages. You will explore a total of four worlds with plenty of coins, clovers and the letters ‘LUCKY’ to collect.
Super Lucky’s Tale is indeed charming. From the design of the main characters and the enemies, to the art direction, it’s clear that they wanted to develop a game that would immediately catch the eye of the younger generation. This theme is seen in the general level design and the mechanics of the game as well, which are unfortunately far too simplistic. But more importantly, the controls will take some time to get used to since they are not as responsive as one would expect. The movement is stiff and sluggish, which is essentially the first element a platformer has to get right. The camera angle, when combined with the movement, has an abhorrent effect on the rest of the mechanics. The jumping doesn’t feel prices, making you miss a lot of jumps when you think you have landed them perfectly. Lucky can also dig under the surface in order to find secrets but that too feels sluggish. It results in a frustrating experience where you are fighting the controls from beginning to end.
In addition to the poor controls, there is a serious lack of inventiveness, fresh ideas and variety in its design. Once you have completed the first world, you have pretty much seen everything the game has to offer. While other platformers build upon mechanics and incorporate that into the level design, Super Lucky’s Tale is consistent with its lack of depth. The game has some 2D levels and side missions that are far more entertaining than the main campaign. They allow for diversity in gameplay, which was badly needed in the rest of the game.
Super Lucky’s Tale is charming, beautiful but barebones. The controls and level design are just not on par with the rest of the games in the genre. While there aren’t that many good 3D platformers available for the platform, there are far too many great games coming out for you to consider purchasing Super Lucky’s forgettable tale.
