Somebody’s favorite game, of all time, is Glover. Yes, the 1998 Nintendo 64 title that got remade into a middling PC port a couple years back sits atop someone’s list for the GOAT platformer. There could be any number of reasons for this (TBI, parents are both gloves, etc.), but the big one is probably exposure. When you are limited in the number of games you play, especially in specific genres, you end up with skewed perspectives and tastes. It doesn’t make your opinion wrong by any stretch of the imagination, but it does keep you from understanding the breadth of what you’re talking about. I bring this up because I can easily imagine Nikoderiko: The Magical World becoming someone’s favorite game of all time, as long as they make sure to not play any of the games that inspired it.

Okay, you spelled your name, got almost 300 golden doodads, but missed the keys and secret gem. FAIL.

Nikoderiko is the tale of Niko and Luna, two mongooses who you would never guess were that animal had the game not expressly told me so. They travel around on an airship, searching for treasure, which is a nice way of saying they’re transient thieves. Anyways, they find a really cool relic over the course of their adventures, and this gets the attention of the evil Grimbald, who is the commander of the Cobring Gems Company, and they steal the relic. This is bad and deeply affects the native tribes of the island, who would have been just fine if Niko and Luna had regular jobs. So now these two furry protagonists need to explore the island, fight off the Cobring troops and pick up anything and everything that isn’t nailed down, because collect-a-thons go hand in hand with 2.5D platforming.

It’s very clear that VEA Games has a deep respect and love for the action platformers of yore, as Nikoderiko has an incredible number of influences from Donkey Kong Country, Crash Bandicoot and, to a lesser extent, Spyro the Dragon. Each stage (with the option of co-op) asks the player to get from point A to point B without dying. Niko and Luna have the same movesets, which are a jump and a dash, and you can jump and ground slam. Some enemies can be jumped on. Some can be dashed into. Some require a mix of both. Fireworks act as checkpoints for respawn if the need arises, and there are so many damn things to pick up each level you’ll never run out. The soundtrack is done by the venerable David Wise, one of the bosses is a beaver, and I feel like those two things say a lot.

Luna prepares to achieve escape velocity on her way to punch the moon.

This is a time where I have to say that I think developers need to seriously consider whether their game is right for the Nintendo Switch or not, and, if it is, to make proper allocations. Yes, the Nintendo ecosystem is chief for family-friendly platformers that will eat up every moment of your life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can just slap a game on here and call it a day. Nikoderiko looks amazing in screenshots for both the PC and XBox versions, with vivid and exciting graphics that are enhanced by ultra smooth, 60fps playback. The Switch simply does not deliver that level of visual pop, which is a damn shame. Yes, it’s a fun title, but it’s lacking in the colorful pizzazz that will keep players hooked, and I’m left wondering (and hoping) it looks better on the next Nintendo system.

Visuals aside, Nikoderiko has its ups and downs. I really appreciate the fact that the game tries to examine gameplay from multiple angles. You could be coasting along from a sidescrolling POV, then turn the corner, literally, and now you’re watching from behind as you attempt to measure depths and lengths in a 3D adjacent environment. You move from land to underwater, up into the skies and deep underground. Players get to ride on minecarts pretty early on in the game, which is very exciting, and you even have different mounts that you can access at your leisure if you’re willing to pay for them (though several stages will have the mounts available for traversal purposes). One thing I have to say is that the game is constantly swinging for the fences, trying something new with nearly every step forward.

The entirety of the Dragon Chase levels are crazy fun and a great example of how the perspective changing works.

When the formula works, it works in a spectacular fashion. Nikoderiko is meant to be both evocative and original, and the payout is a success story a large percentage of the time. Niko and Luna are delightful characters to see move about the screen, and they have a level of fluidity when you get into the groove that actually makes the mongoose roots work in a more magnificent fashion. Being able to transition so well from the jumps into sliding dashes, bouncing off the appropriate targets and taking enemies to task in quick succession is a kinetic level of gameplay that is sorely lacking in a lot of modern experiences. Sure, you’ve got things like Sonic Mania, but Sonic games feel barely in control, whereas Nikoderiko has an almost suave quality to it. Like you feel so damn smug to be on top of this expedition.

Also, I realized that I’m not a teenager anymore, which is great for a lot of reasons (except I still want to order off the kid’s menu at Friendly’s). But mostly I’m able to logically separate my need for collect-a-thon compulsion. Whereas I once gave up sleep and common sense to try and 100% Star Fox Adventures, I now know the game and the world at large will forgive me if I don’t get every single scroll, coin or gem that exists in a stage. Yes, there are fun bonuses from getting them (scrolls and coins allow you to buy gatcha prizes from the workshop), but I don’t need to get them in order to complete the game. Do I want them? Yes. Will my life be over if I can’t figure out where the hell those two keys are in each stage? Time will tell.

Oh crap, an EPIC chest? MOM, I NEED THE CREDIT CARD!

But a caveat of developers growing up with these types of games is getting very, very good at them and wanting to deliver a more challenging experience for other veterans of the craft. Sure, for those of us who made our way through Diddy’s Kong Quest in one piece, it’s old hat to pick up a platformer that asks you to maneuver through an ever changing, multi-faceted game that only allows you to get hit three times before dying. At the time of this writing, the game page for Nikoderiko has finally removed the comment about being “family fun,” probably because it implies something that anyone can pick up and play. While this is by no means the most difficult platformer out there, it’s definitely got a level of challenge that some players might not be ready for.

Gently sail through this gauntlet of death, or feel shame that you couldn’t achieve VVVVVV levels of skill.

This challenge is only amplified by the fact that everything is itemized, including the number of deaths for each stage. Look, some players, particularly speedrunners, will want to know how many times they’ve died in a stage in order to get a better idea of where to improve their success rates. The average player, though, might feel very, very discouraged when they see how many times they’ve failed at a stage, especially when it keeps happening just moments before the finish line thanks to some ill timed jump or misfiring of a cannon. If there was an option to turn it on or off, brilliant, but it’s a default, non-negotiable setting, and it completely deflates my enthusiasm for the experience every time the little skull and crossbones counter ticks up.

Additionally, my criticism about the performance of Nikoderiko on the Switch is only furthered by the glitches. When I’m playing the less than ideal form of the game, I don’t know if the bizarre nature of the game is something that’s unique to the port or if it exists in all incarnations. When an enemy decides to simply vanish, that’s a silly one off that I chalk up to a hiccup. When a boss suddenly forgets its attack pattern and just lambasts a wall instead of me, I’m confused but think it might be a feature. When my mount fails to disappear when I leave the water and I ride my sea dragon high into the night sky like a goddamn aqua Valkyrie, I realize that maybe we needed a couple more minutes in the oven. It’s entertaining but also very, very frustrating when these things happen.

Fly, Shadowfax! We’re just going straight to Mount Doom because I used IDDQD!

Lastly, David Wise. Look, Mr. Wise, you’ve done incredible music throughout the years. I cannot stress how much I love the huge, orchestral pieces of the Donkey Kong Country franchise, the charm of Yooka-Laylee and even the punchy sounds from R.C. Pro-Am. There’s clearly a lot of great concepts in Nikoderiko’s soundtrack, plenty being evocative and capturing the overall concept of this island adventure full of different biomes, enemies and areas. The effect is good, not my favorite forever but certainly no slouch. But the fact that the loading music between each stage sounds, undeniably, like Phil Collin’s “Take Me Home” has ruined me mentally. I have the song stuck in my head having not listened to No Jacket Required this decade, and that is unbelievably annoying. Thank you, I love your work, I need an Excederin.

I by no means think Nikoderiko is a bad game. On the contrary, I think it’s a lovely little piece with some strange missteps (the voice acting feels unnecessary) but an overall strong presentation. Yet the execution, particularly on the Switch, is just not a spectacular piece. It janks in weird places, the fluidity is ruined by the limitations of the hardware, and sometimes the perspective changes are too frequent and too unexpected. I adore the chances and swings, and, when it works, it works so very well. When it falls, though, you really feel the weight of it all and the legacy it’s trying to carry. With a performance patch, this could be an absolute banger, but for now I can only recommend it to the diehards who simply must play the latest Rare-inspired title.

Nikoderiko: The Magical World is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Nikoderiko: The Magical World was provided by the publisher.