The more eagle-eyed readers amongst you will have already keenly noted that we previously reviewed New Super Lucky’s Tale all the way back in 2020 on PlayStation 4, a scant few months before the launch of the PlayStation 5 itself. As it is then, this PS5 version of that same game (arriving a good five years later), is identical barring some notable technical uplifts, namely a buttery smooth 120 FPS frame rate and some box-ticking DualSense functionality. Despite the lack of improvements and content changes however, New Super Lucky’s Tale nonetheless continues to earn its keep as a roundly entertaining 3D platformer that earns its place in a post Astro Bot world.
New Super Lucky’s Tale PS5 Review
In terms of the setting, New Super Lucky’s Tale is pretty saccharine coded stuff. As the titular protagonist, Lucky Swiftail, players are tasked with gathering pages from the mystical Book of Ages, a supremely capable tone that can alter the very fabric of reality itself and wrest it away from Jinx, a powerful sorcerer who betrayed the Guardian Order which was tasked to protect the book. Scattered across a variety of conveniently themed worlds, our bushy tailed hero must not only set out to retrieve these missing pages, but also rescue the wayward members of his immediate family as well.
Right away, there is a relentless cheerfulness to the whole affair which I really appreciated. Lucky is always smiling, always cheerful, potters about with infectious gleefulness and does the whole exaggerated, super-giddy leaping pose whenever he collects one of the pages from the Book of Ages. It’s almost tonical. That said, I don’t think it’s especially unfair to posit that New Super Lucky’s Tale is lacking somewhat in the innovation and ambition in stakes. Don’t get me wrong, New Super Lucky’s Tale is roundly entertaining and a whole heap of fun, but it’s most certainly not doing anything new.
Levels are thematically self-contained and there are hub areas which also invite a moderate amount of exploration to discover the various coins, hidden pages and so on that are dotted around the place. Putting an interesting set of wrinkles into proceedings however, is that New Super Lucky’s Tale not only varies these areas by theme, but also by function too, having Lucky gathering chickens in one level, before having the player leverage the DualSense controller to steer a pinball like orb around a maze in the next.
Though New Super Lucky’s Tale allows you to progress from one hub world to the next if you have the required number of pages, there is also very much an element of wanting to go back to each world and making sure that every page is scooped up for the sake of completion. From a difficulty perspective, New Super Lucky’s Tale is not especially challenging either, but it does have a decently sculpted difficulty curve all the same which also lends it an appeal to gamers both young and old alike.
Ultimately though at its heart, New Super Lucky’s Tale is unashamedly a fairly typical platforming collect-a-thon in the template of genre titles from halcyon days such as Banjo Kazooie – which from the perspective of this reviewer is totally fine, though obviously your own mileage may vary.
On a fundamental level, Lucky is a pleasure to control with a great degree of responsiveness, boasting the sort of similar momentum you’d expect to see in something like Astro Bot. Gently tilt the analogue stick and our furry protagonist will start a spirited trot. Push it all the way and he breaks out into a full on sprint, with his little arms swinging around him in adorably energetic, yet excited fashion.
Lucky also has a range of other talents too. Not only can he furiously swipe his bushy tail to dispatch enemies (on top of a Mario-style butt stomp), he can also burrow underground, allowing him to speed under walls and other such obstructions. Neatly, each level proves to be a creative amalgamation of challenges which duly test the player on their mastery of Lucky’s moveset, too and you never feel like there is an aspect of his abilities that is underused or undercooked in any way.
Visually, New Super Lucky’s Tale is charming though not a technical showcase. As I mentioned earlier, this is the exact same game as the PS4 version, albeit at a higher resolution and framerate. However, that should not detract from the fact that the charmingly compelling art style, character designs and the general vibrancy of the various game worlds, have all aged extremely well since the PS4 version released all those years ago.
Though the game has clearly been made on a relatively shoestring budget, it still manages to ooze a happy go lucky charm all the same that feels increasingly rare in these fraught times. New Super Lucky’s Tale might lack truly innovative gameplay elements or any new features beyond its PS4 counterpart, but the fact that there are still so few bonafide 3D platformers doing the rounds means that New Super Lucky’s Tale still earns itself an easy recommendation for fans of the genre and proves itself as an ample and captivating post Astro Bot fix.
New Super Lucky’s Tale is out now on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.