Developed by A Grumpy Fox and published by Deck13, Lunistice is a 3D platformer inspired by classic and retro platformers of the early 2000s and the late 90s. If you have been gaming for a long time and you have played a lot of platformers, you will be finding the overall art style and gameplay of Lunistice very similar because the developers have gone exactly for that nostalgic feeling with the game. Today, not many developers understand the classic platforming formula and it is great to see A Grumpy Fox deliver such a brilliant platformer. This is our review of the Nintendo Switch release of Lunistice in which we collect some cranes and jump around beautiful levels.
Lunistice plays out similarly to most linear 3D platformers where you step in the shoes of Hana the Tanuki. Hana the Tanuki is journeying through her dreams in a world inspired by the art style of the PS1 era. Hana is on her way to the Moon and you will be helping her clear all of the acts in all the levels as you jump around, defeat enemies and collect cranes in order to unlock the next level. Each level in Lunistice is unique and represents a different dream. There are 7 different dreams in the game ranging from worlds made up of food, an old shrine, and even a water park. For delivering that true retro experience, the game also has a cool CRT filter that adds the curved edge effect to make it feel like you are playing the game on a CRT screen.
Coming to the gameplay of Lunistice, you have double jumps, and you can extend your jump using your spin attack move as well. Normally, you will be using your attack for taking out enemies, but it can be used for movement as well. There are only two moves in the game jumping and attacking apart from using the left stick to move around. Movement is sensitive to your input so the more you push the joystick, the faster you move in the game and the less you push the joystick, the less you move around in the game with it. You can use this as you move around tight paths and close-quarter movements while platforming in the game.
The level design in Lunistice is intense as you will be traversing a 3D world comprising of small platforms, huge gaps, and tight squeezes. As you move around, you will be using jumps, double jumps, and your attack moves to reach the next set of platforms while avoiding various enemies scattered around the levels. One of the collectibles that are found most commonly in the levels are the cranes and some of these are hidden in paths that lead away from the main path and also pose a bigger challenge for traversal. You will need to collect all of the cranes apart from other collectibles in order to reach the S level in levels apart from not dying and finishing in a decent time. For landing on the tighter platforms, you will need quick reflexes and a good command over your left thumb controlling the left joystick.
The enemies that you encounter during these levels are simply just shaped that act in different ways. You have the happy-looking triangle that starts chasing you once you get near it and then you have the flying bat-like circle that likes to stay at key locations only to mess up your jumps. In some places, you will find kitty-looking shape which quickly gets spiky if you get too close to them. All of the enemies have the same color green so they are fairly easy to spot in the game and you can dispose of them simply by your spin attack. The enemies damage you if they hit you so you have to be careful around them because if you lose your health, you will respawn at the last checkpoint you crossed or at the start of the level if you did not hit a checkpoint yet.
Death is not too brutal in Lunistice but you have to keep in mind that if you are going for a clean run with zero deaths, dying even once will require you to restart the entire level. Since Lunistice is a tight platformer, falling down is the most common form of death and some of the later levels in the game are simply brutal. However, thanks to the crisp and tight controls of the game, you can navigate these platforming sections pretty easily if you have gotten the hang of the movement. There are checkpoints after every few platforming sections so once you reach these checkpoints, if you die or fall down, you will respawn here and there is no limit. The only thing that deaths affect is the number of ‘Resets’ that shows how many times you have died in the level. When you respawn at a checkpoint, all of the enemies that you had killed will also respawn however all of the collectibles that you collected previously will not respawn so you do not have to visit any areas where there is nothing left to collect, and this time around, you can just move forward.
As I have mentioned earlier as well, the main charm of Lunistice is its high replayability value because you can easily jump into the game, complete a few levels, and then go back to your work. Apart from aiming for the fastest time across all of the available levels, you can also try for completed runs with all of the cranes collected as well as zero deaths. Complete the game once and you will unlock a bonus character as well you can try with a fresh moveset to complete the game as fast as possible as well. Lunistice is nothing too fancy but I really like its art style and the solid platforming mechanics that it offers. Instead of focusing on being too flashy, I like how the developers went for a retro vibe and delivered a title reminiscent of one of the best platforming eras. For some reason, Lunistice sits really well with the Nintendo Switch and goes to show why we used to love pick-and-play titles so much.
Final Verdict:
If you miss the good old school platformers that features beautiful yet challenging levels with tight and crisp controls, Lunistice is here for you. It features a pretty art style with its own retro vibe and solid platforming with tight controls to back them up. It brings high replayability with it as you can jump randomly jump into one of the acts whenever you want and try to complete it as quickly as possible. Different characters with unique abilities also further add to the replayability factor of the game. If you have been craving for some solid platformer with some retro vibes, I cannot recommend enough that you jump into Lunistice right now. On the Nintendo Switch, it feels right at home since you can jump into the game at any time you want.
Final Score: 9.0/10
