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I'm not going to lie, when I first saw the reveal for SUPER LUCKY'S TALE for Xbox One X, I was surprisingly disappointed by the game. While I was excited to see another 3D platformer coming out on the Xbox console, It felt like the game was a blatant rip off of YOOKA-LAYLEE. To further my disappointment, the main character bears a striking similarity to Rare’s foul-mouthed hero Conker. It wasn’t until I did some research after the conference that I found out that Super Lucky’s Tale was originally a VR game that launched along with the Oculus Rift. Even after these realizations I still wasn’t too hyped on the game. By a strange turn of events, the first game I played on the show floor of E3 2017 was Super Lucky’s Tale.
The first thing I noticed when playing Super Lucky’s Tale was the actual lack of needing to use manual camera control. In quite a contrast to the more recent Yooka-Laylee, where one of its biggest hitches was manual camera control, not having to worry about it was quite refreshing. Diving into the gameplay, I loved how well Lucky controlled; jumps felt responsive and attacks worked without a hitch. My favorite thing about Lucky’s skill set in this demo was the burrow ability. Adding burrow to an already vertical platformer just cries out we have some crazy puzzles in store and that is exciting. Unfortunately, gibberish talk is included but thankfully it wasn’t irritating.
I got to play 15 minutes of Super Lucky’s Tale on Xbox One X and in that time, I had to find four robot heads and reunite them with bodies to awaken a giant golem or open a gate. After completing these tasks, I got to take down a boss in a battle that I truly enjoyed. As the boss stood on a platform beyond my reach he would summon enemies that I had to hit at the right angle to slam into him to cause damage. Between these damage steps fireballs would constantly be fired in different patterns requiring some clever jumping to evade. After about 5 damage steps the boss was defeated and my demo ended. If there were story aspects included in the demo I ignored them so I can’t speak to how the plot played out.
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While Lucky still makes me think of Conker and how I would like to see a new game in the franchise, Super Lucky's Tale managed to impress. Between the tight controls, colorful setting, and that fun boss fight, I can’t wait to see what else is in store. I am ready to give Super Lucky’s Tale a playthrough when it launches alongside the Xbox One X this November.