The best way, I think, that I can describe Nikoderiko: The Magical World is that it’s essentially a Crash Bandicoot-style game. That is, you run on a 2D plane that sometimes transitions to 3D, from one end of the level to the other, collecting various items on the screen while avoiding traps and either avoiding or taking out the various enemies. Nothing really revolutionary but still a fun concept. However, Nikoderiko doesn’t really bring anything new to this genre to make it stand out from the others on the market. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, mind you, just that it could’ve been the next great mascot platformer.
Playing as either Niko or Luna, which I have to give the game props for allowing us the choice of playing as either character (though there really isn’t anything to make either character stand out from each other), you traverse seven worlds to get an ancient artifact back from Grimbald of the Cobring Gems Company in order to save the island and its inhabitants, which it just now dawned on me the main enemies are snakes and the lead characters are mongooses, which kill snakes. Still, the story ain’t going to win any Oscars, but it serves its job well of giving the player a reason for playing the game and exploring the island. The voice acting, as well, is pretty good, and the little quips that pop-up on occasion during the actual gameplay are nice to listen to, though the one about buying a house by a checkpoint did get a little annoying after hearing it for the fifth time during a few sections of the game. Not enough to make me mute the game, mind you, but just enough for me to go “Then just buy the dang house”.
That’s honestly something I feel is this game’s one main issue: The inconsistent difficulty spikes. At times, the game is surprisingly easy and I was able to glide through the levels without a care in the world while, at other times, I’m running like a bat out of hell!. Now, mind you, the game isn’t ‘Dark Souls’ levels of hard, though I would love to see a 2D platformer with that level of difficulty that isn’t Crash Bandicoot 4. No, I’d say it’s more akin to the original Crash Bandicoot and, ironically, just a sprinkling of Crash 4. Some levels took me multiple tries to get through, especially in the areas where you need to be precise with your jumping which is something I was never a fan of, personally. One boss, in particular, gave me the most trouble because of just how easy it was to get hit by one of its attacks. See, the second boss in the game has this attack phase where he shoots drills at you and, while the first few are easy to avoid, it’s the ones where he shoots both at you are hard to avoid unless your timing of the jump button is precise. No matter how well I timed it, I still got hit by the attack, which in turn led to many a restart on this boss. I do kinda wish there was a proper double jump in the game as that would’ve helped out and, yeah, I know there’s a plant you can jump on for higher elevation, which does crop up during this fight, but only for the boss’ spin-dash move, and you can also wall jump, but it still would’ve been nice if we had an option for a double-jump. Though, I do like how, if you hold the jump button after a jump, you can float down and that’s actually pretty cool, though it did result in a few accidental deaths on my part, including one where I was >>THIS<< close to the end of the stage.
One thing that would’ve helped alleviate some of the frustrations with the difficulty would be the ability to get health extensions, like how Crash Bandicoot allows you an extra hit or two if you collect an Aku-Aku mask. However, that’s not the case here as you only get three hits and, once those are gone, it’s back to the checkpoint firework, which most of the time is back a good ways in the level, leading to a lot of retreading over the same areas multiple times, fighting the same enemies and collecting the same loot over and over again. Now, I’ll give the game credit that it doesn’t include a lives system and, instead, you can play a level as many times as you want without fear of a game over (the inclusion of a death counter does feel a bit mean, though, and gives me some bad memories heh), but I still would’ve liked to have at least some way of getting an extra health point as one extra point can go a long way. Actually, speaking of death and I don’t mean the one who helped the Hogfather, what really disappointed me was the lack of any really creative deaths. For example, during the chase with a different dragon in the game, I’d had thought that, if the dragon chomps down on you, you’d be eaten. But, no, you just fall off the screen or you just slump to the ground and pout. I was really hoping for some creative death scenes, like the dragon turning Niko into a mongoose flambé or the falling statues smooshing Luna ‘Tom and Jerry’ style, but nothing like that exists. A real shame as these types of games do thrive on creative death screens.
One last thing I should bring up is the camp marketplace. See, in every level, you can collect these firefly-looking critters and maps in bottles that you can then exchange at a camp. Not for power-ups, though, but for trinkets like 3D models of characters in the game. On the one hand, this is cool as I do enjoy it when the game allows us to appreciate the work done on the in-game models and I, personally, can see it helping artists with their fan art for the game. On the other paw, I do wish the marketplace offered more outside of those items, like health power-ups or maybe alternate costumes for either Niko or Luna. Don’t get me wrong, what’s here is fine and I do like seeing the in-game models, I just would’ve liked to have seen a bit more choices.
Still, the few negatives I had aside, I actually enjoyed playing Nikoderiko most of the time and there are elements I did enjoy. For one, the artstyle is actually pretty pleasing to the eyes. In fact, it reminds me a lot of Saturday morning cartoons I used to watch back in the day, though there is one I’m mixed on and this one might just be me. Now, the world itself is beautiful and the enemy designs are cool and all, that’s not my problem. No, my issue, and it’s a weird one like I said, is with Niko and Luna’s design: They just look a tad-bit off putting to me. I think it’s the eyes as they remind me a lot of mobile game characters but, I dunno, they just seem off. Anyway, Niko and Luna aside, I also think the animation is great, too, and each character in the game is nicely animated. The soundtrack, as well, is decent and fits the game perfectly. Composed by David Wise, who worked for Rare back in the day, the soundtrack has this almost old-school N64 feeling to it, with some tunes reminding me just a bit of Banjo-Kazooie. At the same time, I will admit that, outside of a few tunes, nothing really stood out to me, with the sole exception of the boss fights. These tunes are some of the best and, again, harken back to the amazing boss battle tunes from classic N64 games. That’s something else I enjoyed about Nikoderiko: The boss battles were fun and creative, despite having to replay a few multiple times, with the Beaver boss probably being my favorite, mostly because it reminded me a lot of the Leviathan boss from Bomberman 64.
I also enjoyed using the various rideable animals, like a dinosaur that can eat and spit out enemies to a laser shooting seahorse that I swear reminded me of the Angus McSixx song ‘Laser Shooting Dinosaur’ and if a game can remind me of a metal song, that’s a +10 in my book! I also like how your slide attack can last for a good while and can take out multiple enemies and that never gets old. Actually, speaking of the enemies, I do like how there is a slight variety of them and each one actually requires a different form of attack to take them out, like the porcupine enemies can only be slid into from the front and these big foreman-like enemies can only be taken out by throwing an item, be it a barrel or TNT bundle, at them.
To sum it all up, I’d say Nikoderiko: The Magical World is pretty average by platforming standards with some fun little bits here and there and some annoying bits in other places. It’s not a bad game, by any means, but it is an average game. I’d say check it out if you are a fan of Crash Bandicoot-style games and want something to tide you over until we finally get a new proper Crash game that isn’t a party game.
