Lucky’s Tale Review

Lucky's Tale kicks off with a simple story: your pig friend got kidnapped but he left a trail of coins behind him showing you the way.  It's all very storybook like with a rhyming narrator - and it's also extremely brief.  This is pretty much the only time the story takes center stage meaning that the next two hours is all gameplay.  But before you get too worried, the campaign itself is only about two hours if you're playing straight through without exploring too much.  But each of the levels have hidden presents to find and two additional modes to pad your gameclock a bit.  Time trials are exactly what they sound like, asking you to grab as many gems as possible and speed through a remixed version of the level at top speed.  And then there's red coin hunts where you go through the level much more slowly listening for the audio clues in order to snag all the hidden red coins.  If you're determined to do all of this you'll get a lot mor out of Lucky's Tale - but be warned -  unlike the campaign itself, the Time Trials will make you want to rip the hair out of your head.  They might be the most difficult Time Trials I've ever encountered in my life, forcing you to cut every corner and do each run PERFECTLY - I'm talking practicing each one for upwards of an hour before getting it right.  And trust me I know how this sounds - I'm complaining that the campaign is way too easy and now the time trials are way too heard?  Silly right?  But trust me, there's no in between here.  So if you're going for the platinum trophy, be prepared for some punishment.

But the core of Lucky's Tale is the campaign and luckily it does almost everything you'd want a standard 3rd person platfformer to do.  It looks great with sharp colorful environments and a draw distance that allows you to see far into the distace.  Lucky himself animates well and has a moveset similar to Crash Bandicoot with a spin attack, double jump, the ability to take enemies out by jumpng on their heads, and a ground slam.  The similarities to Crash don't end there though, because at least once in each level you're taken to an underground area that plays more like a sidescroller.  These are a nice change of pace and I love the dramatic shift in scale.  It's interesting to note that developer PlayFul isn't scared to move the camera in Lucky's.  Rather than having a static camera angle like in Moss or a very rigid camera that only move slowly forward like in Astro Bot, Lucky's moves left and right, up and down and even pulls toward you as you backtrack through a level.  This is so refreshing but I will say that even though the camera is almost always exactly where you want it, i was still wishing i could swing the camera around with the right analog stick

Lucky's might get criticized for being too derivative and its hard to disagree with that.  Almost everything here - from all the typical level tropes, to the hazards, and gameplay itself - can be found in a myriad of other platformers spanning the last 30 years or so.  But none of this really bothered me as i played though, because in VR I enjoyed the charming visuals,  bouncy music and sound effects in a way that I just wouldn't have on a flatscreen.  What did bother me - however - were two main issues.  First the difficulty is practically non-existant.  You'll go multiple levels without every dying and even though I lost a life here or there, you collect SO MANY extra lives along the way that it's never an issue - meanting that Time Trials are the only place you'll encounter any meaninful challenge.  And the other issue - I'm hoping is a bug the the devs can patch.  The DualShock4 never once vibrated during my entire playthough.  No pitter patter of Lucky's footsteps, no rumble after getting hit by an enemy, no reaction at all when the environment changes right in front of you.  It's a sensation we all take for granted and I barely ever talk about in reviews - until it's not there.  And its absense makes the whole experience less impactful

From all the reviews of Lucky's Tale on other platforms, I thought I was in for a snoozefest.  But Lucky's is a great little platformer that - although geared towards kids or casual gamers - really is fun for everyone.  Some more challenging platforming, a lengthier campain, more difficult bosses, and some feedback from the controller could have pushed Lucky's into must have territory, but even as is it's still a great time.

Score: 7.2/10