New Super Lucky's Tale: PS5 Review of the Fox's Return

Every 3D platformer enthusiast has probably already heard of New Super Lucky's Tale, a lighthearted adventure where you don the cape of young Lucky, a curious and enterprising fox cub who must protect the Book of Ages. And it's no small feat, given that this precious artifact can open doors to fantastic worlds.

Over the years, Playful Studios' title has debuted almost everywhere, improving the original formula (even earning a nice "New" in the title) and delivering a relaxing, sparkling experience to players, especially aimed at younger gamers who will undoubtedly fall in love with its charismatic protagonist.

The aspect that surely strikes most is the exquisite nod to the '90s, when exponents like Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro the Dragon illuminated our days with that humor and frenzy that still bring a small tear to our eyes today. And if you add 4K resolution and a frame rate of up to 120 fps to this nostalgic element, then this adventure might be even more appealing.

In fact, we find ourselves with an even more refined experience (albeit with the same content) for PlayStation 5 owners, additionally implementing the DualSense controller's haptic feedback. The selling price is also attractive (€29.99), and if you own New Super Lucky's Tale for PS4, the upgrade will cost €4.99. 

Is it worth returning to play this classic? Perhaps, provided you haven't already completely devoured it on other platforms. 

Jump and Hit, Lucky, for Everyone's Sake

We are in a fantastic world, one where a carefree young fox is free to live in the forest and dedicate himself to all his favorite activities. Together with his sister, he always had a dream: to become a Guardian, a heroic fox who travels far and wide in search of adventures. And one fine day, when Lyra managed to find the Book of Ages (an artifact capable of opening doors to new and strange worlds), this desire became a reality.

But guess what? The foxes weren't the only ones looking for it: the feared Kitty Litter wanted to get their paws on it, snatching it from the Guardians. The book, however, wasn't exactly on board and sucked Lucky and the whole gang of baddies in. Now the future of the world is in danger, and only our hero can save it.

A simple story, a pure platformer, that brings back memories of the wonderful moments spent with Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer. If you think about it, the opening of portals, the journey through worlds, everything suggests a playful inspiration that had been somewhat lost in recent years: and the return of these classics, even in a different form, is good for the video game industry.

Minor digression aside, New Super Lucky's Tale projects us into a 3D world where our young hero can explore, run, jump, and take down baddies with effective spinning tail attacks, or alternatively jump on them, giving them a big headache. Not only that, at any time the fox can literally dive into the ground and move like a well-trained mole, hitting enemies from below. This style makes the gameplay more immediate, although it's amusing that he can't perform the same dives in water: in that case, the fox will lose a heart from his remaining energy.

The game structure is divided into worlds, six to be precise, which serve as hubs with 4/5 levels each plus the final boss. In each of them, in addition to jumping between platforms, collecting coins (to buy outfits at the general store) and crushing opponents, we can recover the letters of the word LUCKY scattered everywhere and find secret portals: by doing so, you will get 100% and 4 pages of the Book of Ages.

To be honest, finishing New Super Lucky's Tale will take a few hours (6/7) and probably a little more if you want to get 100% and the related platinum trophy on PlayStation 5. The overall difficulty is definitely set low, much easier than other competitors, apart from a few bonus levels that raise the difficulty a notch or two.

This seemed quite logical to us: the game certainly wants to attract a young audience, but also those looking for a more relaxing experience to play in small doses: in fact, the level structure lends itself very well to short sessions since a level can be completed easily in 20 minutes, perhaps even a little less. 

New Super Lucky's Tale: How Does It Perform on PS5?

The PlayStation 5 edition is the so-called improved version of PS4 which, for its part, already guaranteed 4K resolution and 60 fps on PS4 Pro (on the standard, it stops at 30 frames per second). The PS5 upgrade guarantees us a fluidity that reaches 120 Hz on compatible screens, although, we must be honest, the performance gap is not that high. 

Even the introduction of DualSense's haptic feedback didn't seem that revolutionary to us: it's true that some jumps and hits are "translated" more effectively, but at this point, why not also focus on adaptive triggers for certain abilities? In any case, in terms of performance, there's nothing to say: there are no slowdowns of any kind, and this is probably the best version you can play on console. However, we wonder: did New Super Lucky's Tale need a PS5 version, especially since there is no additional content of any kind? Probably not, unless you want to take advantage of the 120 fps. 

Despite its playful goodness, New Super Lucky's Tale is not a deep action platformer in its mechanics; however, we consider it a good exponent of the genre, very enjoyable and suitable for everyone. And then, perhaps, one day the developers might even listen to fan feedback and deliver an updated sequel with more gameplay elements in its arsenal.