New Super Lucky's Tale

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With the world literally and figuratively burning as humanity marches ever forward towards annihilation, memories of a carefree childhood playing colourful 3D platformers feel like a surreal hallucination rather than something that actually happened. A simpler time when games shipped feature complete and bonus character costumes were unlocked with double jumps and not our wallets.

New Super Lucky’s Tale burrows its way onto PlayStation 5 on the 26th March to show, once again, that 3D platformers can still shine in 2026, even if it still needs a little polish.

A tale as old as 2019

Are you clinging onto nostalgia? What’s your favourite platformer? Let us know in the comments below, and maybe you might add this to your list too. Let’s get to the review.

Lucky the fox jumps between two platforms where giant orange balls roll towards him — Unlockable costumes include this nifty Indiana Jones ensemble.

Gameplay

New Super Lucky’s Tale is a throwback to those halcyon days of the 3D platformer where a limited skillset was paired with an expansive array of collectible trinkets. Which is just as it was when it first arrived on then current-gen consoles, back in 2019. That release itself was a redo of Super Lucky’s Tale that debuted two years earlier on Xbox One and Windows. That’s a lot of lucky tales!

Our bushy-tailed hero, Lucky Swiftail, is equipped with a double jump, a tail attack and the ability dive and burrow underground. That’s it. Lucky’s platforming skillset may be limited, certainly when compared to certain moustachioed plumbers, but it allows players to quickly learn the controls and focus on the platforming at hand. The only downside to this is that New Super Lucky’s Tale is unable to ramp up the challenge to players throughout the adventure.

Lucky a cartoon fox runs towards a purple building surrounded by large music speakers and palm trees — The soundtrack is universally excellent although Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Foxy Lady’ isn’t included.

The story itself sees Lucky traversing several vibrant worlds within the pages of the fabled Book of Ages after the evil sorcerer Jinx, a cat – naturally, along with his children and underlings, the unfortunately named Kitty Litter, attempt to claim the book for themselves. It’s a straightforward premise that allows players to jump into the action quickly and begin collecting lost pages in colourful 3D worlds, 2D side-scrolling levels and some genuine chin-scratching puzzles.

Much like the 3D platforming adventures of yesteryear, the Kitty Litter punctuate the collectathon with unique boss battles. Whilst they mainly follow the tried and tested formula of dodging incoming attacks and biding for your time, the bosses here are varied in design and present a good challenge that breaks up the rest of Lucky’s quest.

As quick as a Fox

Each world within the Book of Ages is presented as a hub area with levels branching from it. Previous versions of New Super Lucky’s Tale harboured an abundance of loading screens and they do return in this new PS5 version however they are now thankfully brief. So brief in fact that there’s little time to actually read all of the text on the screen between levels. While the reduction in load times is much appreciated, given the horsepower of the PS5 it would have been great to see those load screens disappear altogether.

Lucky the fox, inside a ball navigating a maze while a giant cat looks on — Despite all my rage I’m still just a fox in a maze.

The touted DualSense controls amount to nothing more than the ability to use motion controls in a few puzzles. These puzzles involve Lucky rolled up inside a marble whilst players guide them through a maze. In fact the motion controls may be familiar to players who explored every shrine in Breath of the Wild. Or those whom remember the PS3 downloadable title Super Rub ‘a’ Dub. The motion control implementation here works well. Although it’s a shame that the developers didn’t incorporate the expansive suite of DualSense features elsewhere.

Graphics & Audio

The headline feature of the PS5 edition of New Super Lucky’s Tale is undoubtedly the bump in the resolution and increase to framerate. New Super Lucky’s Tale bold art style now outputs at a native 4K and runs at 120 frames per second. While I’m clearly not working for Digital Foundry, switching between the PS4 and PS5 versions definitely shows off a noticeable improvement in visual fidelity. The crisp, clear presentation made my inner child smile. The increased framerate also means Lucky feels great to control. With changes in direction, jumps and spins all feeling suitably responsive.

A birds eye view of a farmyard island with green grass, yellow chickens, a red wooden barn and blue water. — The limited draw distance often makes levels feel barren.

While developers Playful Studios have harnessed the power of PS5 to improve the resolution and framerate, it’s a shame to see that draw distances remain disappointingly poor. They are more in line with what we saw on PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions. Coins, level geometry and characters all fade into obscurity far too close to the camera.

The audio fares better with a cheery soundtrack that genuinely wedged itself into my head for a couple of days. The characters aren’t voiced beyond a few lines of dialogue sparsely used throughout the adventure. It won’t be for everybody, but Lucky’s plucky, upbeat, can-do attitude really elevates the experience and can’t help but leave you cheering for the little fox. In contrast, interactions with NPCs tend to use generic sound effects to mimic speech. Including the incessant meowing of members of the Kitty Litter. This may make you want to fill your ears with sand.

Longevity

It took me roughly six hours to see everything in New Super Lucky’s Tale. However, I should caveat that statement by saying 3D platformers are my jam. If, like me, you’re well versed in the genre than you can expect to hop, skip and jump your way through the campaign while picking up every collectible along the way with little resistance. But if you’re new to 3D platformers then replaying levels to find secret collectibles and hidden areas will likely add a couple more hours to your overall play time.

A disco dancefloor with a disco ball shooting red lasers in the middle and a cartoon fox jumping over the laser. — The laser firing disco ball was sadly cut from Saturday Night Fever.

Players with saves from the PS4 version also have the option to import their saves and carry over their progress. There is an upgrade path for existing PS4 players to upgrade to the PS5 version for a relatively affordable £3.99.

Final Thoughts

New Super Lucky’s Tale feels like the culmination of Playful Studios journey with the adventure. From its original release as Super Lucky’s Tale (back when the logo still had an apostrophe) in 2017 to now, New Super Lucky’s Tale has never looked better or played as well. There are technical shortcomings that still hold New Super Lucky’s Tale back in the past. But they are issues that shouldn’t persist in a game of this scope running on hardware as powerful as the PlayStation 5.

As a fan of the genre, this game categorically delivers on the core platforming action and fun. It successfully obscures the unfolding cataclysm of humanity in the process, reminding us of the simple pleasure to be found in picking up coins as a cartoon animal in a cape.

And for that New Super Lucky’s Tale gets the Thumb Culture Silver Award.