When was the final time you performed a great 3D character platformer? For me, it was most likely Psychonauts 2. However earlier than that? Outdoors of Mario? I am unsure I would have the ability to inform you. For no matter purpose, the 3D character platformer has turn out to be an more and more uncommon breed, it will appear, which makes them much more heartening to see after they do often poke their head above the parapet and leap onto our screens. Tune Of Nunu: A League Of Legends Story is considered one of them, channelling the joyous, boundless enthusiasm of its late 90s and early 00s predecessors to create a easy, however simple journey that you possibly can simply as simply get pleasure from alone as an grownup, or with a toddler in tow. It didn’t, alas, fairly make me cry as builders Tequila Works supposed (that honour nonetheless belongs to Rime and Rime alone out of their again catalogue), however there’s a lot to admire right here whereas having your heartstrings flippantly plucked on the identical time. And also you need not know a jot about League Of Legends to get pleasure from it.
Certainly, the extent of my LOL information stretches no additional than a single episode of Riot’s Arcane TV present on Netflix, however that did not cease me from having a great time with younger lad Nunu and his blue fluffy yeti pal Willump. Nunu is a chatty, however endearing presence as he travels via the Freljord’s icy mountains to search out his long-lost mum and an appropriately magical macguffin often called the Coronary heart Of The Blue, and that is thanks in no small half to Adrian Raio’s profitable voice work. His narration may be just a little on the extreme aspect, however he is definitely by no means veers into turning into one other over-sharing Atreus-type, and contemplating he is solely bought Willump’s emotive grunts and sighs to work with quite a lot of time, it is a testomony to each Raio’s efficiency and Tequila Works’ thought-about script that they arrive throughout as affably as they do.
They’re very simple to heat to, no matter how a lot you recognize about League Of Legends, and the identical goes for infrequent companion (and fellow legend) Braum, and even the villainous ice witch Lissandra, whose motivations for interrupting Nunu and Willump’s quest are explored with shocking care and sensitivity. I will not spoil what they’re, however she’s removed from the easy evil woman I used to be considerably anticipating her to be.
When she’s not making an attempt to get in everybody’s means, Nunu and Willump are largely leaping and leaping throughout icy plains, fixing some gentle puzzles to progress of their quest, and perhaps indulging within the odd snowball combat – which, sure, is simply as winsome, daft and foolish because it sounds. I wasn’t kidding after I mentioned they have been a enchanting twosome, and also you’d should have a coronary heart of stone to not really feel just a bit bit gained over by them. The platforming itself is not terribly sophisticated – there are not any wall jumps or backflips or sophisticated manoeuvres you will should carry out right here. Simply easy jumps throughout gaps and chasms, and scuttling throughout shining rocky ledges – very a lot within the vein of your Uncharteds, Tomb Raiders and different fashionable, third individual motion video games.
Since Nunu and Willump come as a pair, most of its puzzles are primarily based round them working collectively, corresponding to utilizing snowballs to hit exploding crops to clear the best way whereas climbing on Willump’s again, or utilizing Nunu’s flute to set off transferring platforms to create gaps for Willump to fireplace magical spells at, err, extra exploding crops. There are quite a lot of exploding crops on this sport, it seems. The flute is used to significantly nice impact right here. Whereas it has 4 essential notes you’ll be able to play, introduced as corners of a sq. and handily mapped right into a square-like configuration in your controller or keyboard, you may also mix them to create extra notes and pitches, including an additional tactile spritz to its puzzles.
Fortunately, it isn’t all about bursting conveniently positioned flower sacs. In a while, you will need to ferry magical ice orbs between completely different components of the surroundings to restore damaged objects on this planet, twist columns of sunshine to open new pathways, and slide towards the digital camera on Willump’s stomach to flee an enormous (and really Kratos-esque) electrical bear. There’s even a small stealth part towards the top that sees you go full Plague Story in the best way it’s important to ding noisy shields to attract consideration away from your self, however that is about as taxing it will get. Nothing right here is especially strenuous, and most of its options are simple to parse at a look. If you happen to’ve performed these types of video games earlier than, it’s going to most likely all really feel very pleasant and acquainted.
Its occasional bouts of fight in opposition to some cartoonishly mangy wolves are equally undemanding, consisting largely of mashing your gentle and heavy assault button whereas performing some very generously telegraphed dodge rolls. Which is ok, actually, when you’re in search of heat, fuzzy, switch-off-brain form of sport you’ll be able to fairly simply polish off in six hours or so (I performed it begin to end in a single day) – or certainly, when you’re in search of one thing digestible and approachable that children would possibly get pleasure from.
So sure, Tune Of Nunu will not win any prizes for ingenuity or platforming prowess, however it is extremely handsomely made, and I had a stunning, heartwarming time with it. It definitely looks like a step up from Rime, the sport that helped put Tequila Works on the map for these sorts of soulful adventures, even when it does not wrench fairly so violently at your heartstrings. If nothing else, it’s going to remind you of less complicated, maybe happier days when each third-person journey sport wasn’t simply one other grim Soulslike you needed to endure, and that there is nonetheless loads of pleasure and heat to be present in a narrative a couple of boy in search of his mum together with his massive yeti canine buddy. Whether or not you want League Of Legends or not, it is one other notch we are able to add to the current ‘good character platformer’ listing.
This assessment was primarily based on a retail construct of the sport offered by publishers Riot Forge.
