Title: Lucky's Tale
Original Release: March 28, 2016 (Oculus)
Finished Release: Original Oculus Release (2016)
I'm a gamer. I play games. If you were to boil down all of the time spent in my life, and discarded sleeping, eating, hygiene, and general boredom, gaming would easily be the thing I've done most. Well, maybe reading, but probably gaming. I'm adventurous in my gaming, I've played every genre you can imagine, and I've discovered games that I love in most of them. But if I really sat and thought about it, I'm pretty sure one genre would rise above all others for me: the 3D platformer.
It may be difficult for those of you born on this side of the year 2000 to believe, but there was a time when the 3D platformer dominated every other genre on the market, at least as far as consoles were concerned. I can remember a stretch of about ten years of consistently great games in the genre. The decline had been going for a while, but I peg the year 2005 as when people completely gave up on them.
Now, that's not to say that good games haven't come out since then, because of course they have, plenty of my favorites. But I've always seen the death of a genre with such a high amount of potential to be a real shame. But apparently, that wasn't the end of it.
Something has been happening within the last few years. The 3D platformer has been slowly making a comeback. Sure, most of these offerings are from indie studios, but that's not altogether that surprising, and it should not be viewed as a bad thing. But interestingly enough, the one that has stuck out to me appeared in the most unlikely place of all: Virtual Reality.
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to come into possession of an Oculus Rift, along with a host of free games for it. One of those was Lucky's Tale. It was an odd little offering, considering that it was a third-person game on a VR system, but I was a little more than mildly interested, mainly because it's, guess what, a 3D platformer. What did I think of it? Well, let's find out.
If it wasn't obvious from the title, in this game we play as Lucky, a super cute little fox who wears a blue cape. One day, Lucky was just hanging out with his friend Piggy, who is also apparently his piggy bank. Suddenly, from out of nowhere... okay, I can't remember the name of the villain. I can't find his name anywhere online, and I really don't want to have to fire up the Oculus and strap in just to see that. I'm very sorry.
So anyway, the villain is a big tentacle beast, and he kidnaps Piggy, and Lucky's off to get back his friend.
Okay, so it's not the most original, or unique, or engaging story of all time, but it's charming and sets the stage for our purposes: platforming.
It's important to note that that charm pretty much permeates the entire experience. Lucky himself is adorable, with a bunch of cute little things he'll do depending on what's going on around him. When you move the camera (your head) in close, for example, he'll wave and give you a cute little "Hi there!" His design is simplistic, but he has the potential to be an ongoing character, with a whole series of games built around him.
The whimsy doesn't stop with the protagonist, however. Even the enemies are so cute that you hate attacking them. They charge right at you, though, so the game doesn't leave you much choice. The stages, too, are mostly fun to look at, if not the most detailed. The color palette is absolutely fantastic for what the game is going for. Everything is bright and colorful, even in the darkest areas of the game (in a good way), and it really adds to the lighthearted nature of the game.
The music is fun, if mostly forgettable. There were one or two standouts, though, and I found myself humming those after I would turn the game off.
Now, you may be wondering what a 3D platformer could possibly be like in VR. Well, it's... interesting. You control Lucky with your gamepad of choice, as he runs and jumps about the stage. Lucky's controls, by the way, are pretty spot-on. If I had anything negative to say about them, it would be that Lucky is just slightly heavier than you would expect him to be. But the game is built around that (again, very very slight) heaviness, so it's not really a problem There were times when I would swear I landed on a platform only to slip right off, but this wasn't common enough to be an issue.
As for the VR itself, you are essentially the camera. Your view of the world moves along a track as Lucky moves, but at any time you can look left, right, behind, above, beneath, really any way you can move your head, you can move the camera. You can even lean into the scene to get a closer look at things. This might initially seem like a pointless feature, but it's actually used pretty well. A fair amount of the game's secrets are hidden out of sight, meaning you need to be looking everywhere if you're going for completion. I can't recall a time that it was necessary for progression, but it's an interesting idea that was implemented pretty well.
So yeah, Lucky's Tale is a pretty fun little game. Is it worth buying an Oculus Rift for it? Well, no. It's far too short to justify such a large purpose just for that reason. However, if you already have an Oculus Rift, you probably already have Lucky's Tale, and if you haven't checked it out, you really should.
And now the big question: are Lucky and his contemporaries the first of a whole new wave of 3D platformers? A renaissance, if you will? Well, we can certainly hope. I know I will be.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Christmas stuff
Playing - Hollow Knight (2017)
Reading - Hyperion (Dan Simmons, 1989)
Watching - Christmas stuff
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