Game Review: Super Lucky’s Tale (Xbox One)

Super Lucky’s Tale is a cute & cartoony 3D platformer held back some disappointing issues. Developed by Playful Corp. and published by Microsoft Studios for Windows 10 and Xbox One. It sees the lovable hero, Lucky go on a quest to help his sister rescue the Book of Ages from the evil Jinx.

Described as a game for all ages, you must guide Lucky across five unique world collecting clovers which unlock doors for you to progress. At the end of each world awaits a boss with the evil Jinx waiting at the end of the game. The plot is basic but the numerous cute & fun characters help drive it forward nicely. Even if Lucky himself doesn’t make much of an impression.

Inspired by the likes of Castle of Illusion, the similarities are obvious but feel more like a tribute rather than an out & out copy.

There is plenty of platforming challenges & secret areas to explore so Super Lucky’s Tale has plenty of replay value. The variety in worlds & in boss battle makes for a fun play. At least until the final boss where the difficulty is ramped up to a shocking extent.

Lucky can run, jump, spin his tail to get extra height & burrow under the ground. Enemies can be stunned with his tail but most need to be eliminated by jumping on their heads ala Mario. Fighting enemies highlights the big issue with the game…the camera controls.

Instead of moving freely, thumb stick motion causes it to rotate in a rigid manner. One direction left & one direction right. That’s it. It causes a massive issue with depth perception making planning a jump hard work. Collecting certain coins, reaching some platforms or jumping on an enemy always seems like guesswork.

It’s not such a problem on the 2.5D platforming levels but parts of the 3D levels can start to feel like a chore. Particularly as falling to your doom means restarting at a checkpoint & while the game is fairly decent with them, you may still have to replay substantial amounts of a level.

Visually the game looks very pretty, very colourful & bright. However, it does suffer from frame-rate drops on Xbox One as well as occasional lag.

Despite the problems, Super Lucky’s Tale is still a good 3D platformer that is both fun & addictive. It’s rarely tough & the music/sound effects add to the overall ‘smile’ factor of the experience.