It might not seem like it, but we fans have been waiting for a new Donkey Kong Country game for about a decade.
If you don’t include HD remakes or ports, the last new release wasDonkey Kong Country: Tropical Freezein 2014. Which is a fairly long wait for any series.
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The King of the Jungle and his crew have had many adventures, but the best Donkey Kong games don’t monkey around.
Then, as if on cue when all hope was lost, along came a new kid on the block to fill the void. Nikoderiko: The Magical World is essentially the spiritual successor to the long-running series that we’ve been waiting for, but if you’re wondering if it has the staying power to be a long-running franchise in its own right, I’ll save you some time. It doesn’t.
If you want to find out why, then stick around as we delve into this Magical World.
Mongooses and Pirates
To start this journey on a bumpy path, the game’s story is pretty light, even for a mascot platformer. It involves a pair of mongooses named Niko and Luna, trying to thwart a nefarious lizard named Baron Grimbald from invading a magical island.
All platformers of this ilk are pretty simple in terms of storytelling, but even with that in mind, it’s pretty barebones and told mostly through an opening cutscene. But despite this lack of narrative depth, it gives us just enough to chew on before the main course, which is all the glorious platforming.
This is where the game shines, with 2.5 platforming alternating between 2D horizontal and 3D vertical platforming segments, punctuated by challenging boss battles. Essentially, all the staples of a good mascot platformer.
While the game has DK DNA, it’s also intermixed with someCrash Bandicootgenetics, and there’s co-op play for up to two players, not unlike Diddy and Dixie. So you’ve got a healthy mix of influences there, and it’s good company to keep.
Then, using this framework, the gameplay offers a cavalcade of fun moments, seeing the mongooses race away from gigantic cobra dragons, fight infuriated beavers, and generally make wise-ass comments.
I will say that due to the lack of narrative focus, there is a lack of depth to the world and the characters within, making a lot of the gameplay feel like vague love letters to platformers that have come before, but with such strong blueprints to work with, it’s also very easy to overlook the rather generic setup.
So Much Loot
The gameplay is as smooth as you could wish for, and due to the solid structure of four levels and a boss to follow, everything ticks along seamlessly and tends to make perfect sense in practice. However, the same can’t be said of the collectibles, the bread and butter of all platformers.
I would love to tell you what collectibles such as keys and gems are for (if anything), but after beating Baron Grimbald and rolling the credits, I still have no clue.
This was after loading up my file and wandering back to every single world. I even checked the Steam achievements but found no clarity there.
So if there’s anything like a bonus world or extra levels, the game didn’t make that clear. This is unfortunate, since being a completionist is much more fun when you know you’re working toward unlocking something concrete.
I get that, being a DK-inspired title with smatterings of Banjo in there that there would be a temptation to have collectibles for collectible’s sake, but as many will recall, it wasn’t exactly well received back in the day either.
Sleek Heroes
The collectibles might be arbitrary little chores at best, but the core platforming in Nikoderiko: The Magical World is hardly an afterthought, as it is very solid, and borrows a lot from both Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot.
Niko and Luna can jump, slide forwards, ground pound, glide, wall jump, and grab and throw items. A moveset that offers pretty diverse movement options, making the game flow smoothly.
You can also ride a variety of mounts in the game, including Todd the Toad, Oceanis the Seahorse, Boaris the Boar, an inexplicably unnamed dinosaur, and Umbra the Bat.
They’re a lot of fun and truly switch up how you play for brief periods of time. Todd can fire projectiles and hop high vertical distances, the Seahorse can cut through the water and fire lasers, and Umbra can fly and release echoes at foes.
My only minor complaint about them is that perhaps too many mounts have projectile attacks, making them blend together somewhat. No one likes a re-skin.
These mounts may be a little samey but you’ll grow to love each one, as they are your means of getting around the various rather sizable levels in Nikideriko. Large levels usually translates to annoyingly sparse checkpoints, and that happens to be the case here.
Each have a handful of firework checkpoints, and you’ll grow to appreciate them as they aren’t all that frequent. However, I’m all for a fair challenge and that is what’s on offer here. It’s not quite as punishing as a gauntlet run between bonfires in Dark Souls, but nailing a section and earning your checkpoint is a warm and welcome feeling.
Plus, this large level design works in the game’s favor, as each level features hidden paths with barrels that fire you into mini-games. These come in three different flavors - collect all stars, defeat all foes, or grab a key, all set to a quickly descending timer.
Further complicating them, you can’t take any damage in the mini-games, and doing so will bounce you out, forcing you to try again. I appreciated the challenge of these, though they ranged from incredibly easy to sweaty, stressful affairs.
By far, the most entertaining levels are the ones where you’re being chased by something, such as the aforementioned cobra dragon, as well as a mechanical menace that fires cannonballs at you.
Whereas, the most annoying are the large, lumbering troops who grow spikes and become enraged when you bounce on them, forcing you to find something and hurl it at them to put them down permanently.
Overall, the game does a great job of keeping things fresh and exciting, and you’ll have to stay on your toes to defeat all the Cobring troops and other assorted mean wildlife.
Speaking of challenges, Nikoderiko: The Magical World has some fantastic boss variety. The first is an enraged beaver, but there’s also a mecha suit piloted by three monkeys, an insidious chef, and Baron Grimbald himself.
Each offers a distinct feel and challenge, but by a distance, the most memorable are the bosses with multiple stages, albeit not always because of their overall quality and fun factor.
My main complaint is that any battle with multiple phases should have a checkpoint in the middle. Instead, defeat means you’ll have to start over from scratch every time, which wore thin in the last boss battle which featured three stages back-to-back.
This can work for some platformers, as Astro Bot showcased with its end-world bosses, but because Nikideriko offers an overall experience much more demanding of the player, there’s just not enough wiggle room for error, making these encounters slogs in an otherwise fluid adventure.
Glowing Fireflies
I’ve been so hung up waxing lyrical about how the game handles I haven’t even touched on how the game looks, and quite frankly, that’s shameful of me, because it looks stunning.
Visually the game features smooth, buttery animation and colorful artwork, even on the lowest graphical settings. It very much presents like it was a platformer made in the ’90s, which is probably the intent of the developers.
Heck, the game even goes so far as to feature snarky one-liners as you proceed through the world map, with my favorite being when one character mistakes Niko and Luna for bandicoots.
The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s perfectly fine for this silly adventure. It’s essentially a visual blend of the modern Crash titles mixed with some Rayman Legends for good measure, and in case you weren’t sure, that’s a cocktail for success.
Musically, the game is also outstanding. Initially, I wasn’t sure why I liked it so much until I discovered the game’s score is composed by David Wise, known for his amazing soundtracks in Donkey Kong Country and much more.
I truly don’t have many issues with Nikoderiko: The Magical World, and if I were judging it in a vacuum, it would have fared better. The problem is, you’re able to’t ignore all the little nods to other, more well-known series.
There are mine cart sections, spiky insect foes, and all sorts of jokes that reference those games. Ultimately, I found the game did a wonderful job of mirroring classics, but didn’t do as well innovating its own unique vision.
So, if you want a fun little love letter to the past, this is just the ticket. But, judging this one as a platformer trying to carve out a name for itself in a saturated field, this one is just a drop in the ocean.
Closing Comments:
Nikoderiko: The Magical World is an adventure any fan of classic platformers will surely enjoy. With tight and colorful 2.5D platforming, challenging and fun boss battles, and seven worlds to explore, it’s a great time. It just falls short because it doesn’t do enough to trailblaze its own vision, and often instead references more iconic titles, which admittedly, is fun, but also feels like a crutch. Still, if you’re looking for a fun, short adventure, you’ll probably get your money’s worth here.
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