The Backlog Chronicles: Nikoderiko: The Magical World

I think everyone has their own palette cleanser genre. The kind of game you pick up after a long project that you can just sit back and unwind to. For me that genre is the platformer. Whether it be 2D or 3D I always get drawn towards them when I can’t think of something to play.

These days I tend to lean more toward 2D platformers since I kind of came to the conclusion that I don’t actually like most 3D platformers. A topic to go into another day perhaps, but there are still 3D run and jumps I enjoy and always go back to now and then. One of my favourites being the Crash Bandicoot series. I already reviewed the series a while back, but all three games in the original trilogy are excellent. They’re games I can always go back to and have a good time.

When it comes to 2D platformers though, well I’m a bit more hung up on choice. But the Donkey Kong Country series is always a great go to. Another series I’ve looked at, I consider that original trilogy to be some of the finest platformers of all time, and the newer games by Retro Studios are just as good if not better. DKC and Crash are both top tier gaming experiences for me, even if they are ball bustingly hard.

But sometimes it’s hard to pick exactly what you want. I love Crash and Donkey Kong but I can’t play both at the same time. If only there was a game that combined both series so I didn’t have to choose between them. Well that’s where Nikoderiko: The Magical World comes in.

This was a game that piqued my interest immediately. Just based on the first trailer it was obvious what games they were aping, and while indie 3D platformers have an issue with relying too much on nostalgia bait, I couldn’t resist this one. a game that combines two of my favourite series? Of course I’m going to check that out.

Nikoderiko was developed by VEA Games. I don’t much about these guys because, well this was their first game. It’s their big debut. They seem like one of those “indie” studios. You know the smaller studios we call independent but they’re really closer to AA. We really have a labelling issue in gaming don’t we.

Anyway, the game looked impressive based on the trailers. It’s obvious that the game was made with passion and love for the genre. But that doesn’t always lead to a great final product. A game that chases after it’s inspiration can become lost in the shadows of its inspiration. But they can also evolve from those inspirations to become wholly unique. So which category does this game wind up in. Both actually.

Nikoderiko is an odd one. Because at it’s core it really is just a Donkey Kong Country clone. From its visuals and music right down to how it plays it really does copy Donkey Kong Country’s homework down to the letter. But by mixing it with the influences from Crash it does create a pretty unique mix. Or it would if it actually leaned into that more.

When I went into this, I was expecting a game that was 50% DKC and 50% Crash. Maybe not that even a split but I was expecting the influences to at least be even. Turns out it’s nowhere near that. The game is more like 90% DKC and 10% Crash.

The Crash Bandicoot influences are kept only to a handful of 3D segments. And I do mean handful because these sections are so infrequent it’s easy to forget they’re in the game. This game really is just a Donkey Kong Country clone through and through.

Now that isn’t a bad thing necessarily. I like Donkey Kong Country and Nikoderiko has a lot of what I like about it. The game feel and controls are certainly on point. It’s got the same kind of bouncy physics DKC had and the move set is nearly identical too. You’ve got a slide that acts as this games roll, you can do roll jumps off of platforms like you could in the Country games though in this case I guess we’d call it a slide jump, and you can pick up and throw objects including barrels. You got to have barrels.

The only thing missing is the ability to pick up and throw your partner because this game doesn’t have a partner system. It has two playable characters, Niko and his partner Luna, but they play exactly the same. You can swap between them on the map screen but it’s purely cosmetic. Much like how they treat Crash and Coco in the newer Crash games. Really, Luna is only here so the game can have a co-op mode. Nice to have I guess, but I’m not the biggest fan of co-op in platformers so this is just a whatever inclusion for me.

There are some moves Niko has that the DK crew did not though. A wall jump, a glide and a ground pound. That helps them feel a little different. At least from DKC. Because at one point I realised that the main collectibles, the Fireflies, looked a lot like the Lums from Rayman. And that’s when it hit me, the game isn’t just copying from Donkey Kong and Crash, it’s also copying from Rayman too. Because those three moves? all taken from the most recent Rayman games. So the split is more like 90% DKC, 9% Crash and 1% Rayman. A weird concoction to say the least.

There isn’t a whole lot of originality in how this game plays, but it does play well. The controls are snappy and responsive, and the overall feel of the game is satisfying. It still feels good bouncing on enemies and the level design is pretty consistently strong. There really wasn’t a level here I hated. I had a good time throughout most of the adventure.

The game isn’t as challenging as it’s inspirations though. For one there’s no lives system so you can retry as many times as you need. Niko also has actual hit points unlike Crash or the classic DKC games. Three in total which is less than the new DKC games when factoring in partners, but the level design is also a lot more manageable and health pickups are plentiful, so those hit points go a long way.

So it is a lot more accessible than the original Donkey Kong Country games were. Granted the newer DKC games are also much more accessible, but they pack a bit more of a challenge in their level designs. Nikoderiko is fairly breezy by comparison. It gets tougher as it goes on, and the final bosses and Secret World can be a pain, but it’s nothing anyone who has played these kinds of games can’t handle.

Each level will provide a unique gimmick to make them unique, and there’s enough variety in them to keep the game interesting. There’s just one problem, all of those gimmicks and ideas the game throws at you are all taken directly from Donkey Kong Country. I am not kidding. And I don’t mean in a more general sense like having a mine cart or rocket barrel themed level, which it does do, because a lot of games have those. No I mean very specific ideas that Donkey Kong Country used.

There’s a level where you bounce on giant tires trying to crush you, just like one of the lost world levels in Donkey Kong Country 2. There’s a level with invincible enemies that need to be stopped by a red light, just like one of the levels in Donkey Kong Country 1. Even the rocket barrel themed stage has a section where you’re chased by a giant flying creature that shoots projectiles at you from behind, just like the giant bat level in Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Nikoderiko is a clone in the closest definition the term can be used without becoming a complete copycat. Because everything it does it copied from its original source. I don’t mind a game playing like another. Some of my favourite indie games were clearly inspired by the classics. But when you’re copying entire level gimmicks and not adding much of your own ideas to it then this raises the age old question, why would I play this game when I can play another game that does the exact same thing but better.

This is why the game not leaning into the 3D elements more is a really big negative in my opinion. Because that’s where the game starts to become a lot more unique. That was what drew me to the game in the first place, and the fact that it’s barely even a factor in it is really disappointing.

Granted a lot of the 3D sections are stolen from Crash, there’s even a chase section in one level, but having a Donkey Kong Country game in 3D is something we haven’t really had before. We’ve had 3D Donkey Kong games yes, but never with the Country style of gameplay.

But the game doesn’t lean into that enough. So for the majority of the game you’re just playing “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Donkey Kong Country”. And while some fans might be happy with having another DKC game, even if it technically isn’t, I’m not one of them. I’ve played the Donkey Kong Country games, I love them to death, but I have already played them. I don’t need a retread of something I’ve already experienced. Not unless you bring something new to the table.

This is a major issue that a lot of indie games don’t seem to understand. Yes, there are franchises out there that are woefully underutilised. Gameplay styles that could use another go around to flesh them out, but at the same time those games already exist. We’ve already played them and we can replay them as often as we want.

We don’t need new games in those styles. Not unless you innovate and add new ideas. Otherwise all you’re going to be is a hollow repeat of games we already have. It’s how you end up with games like Wild Blue Skies. A shameless and blatant copycat of Star Fox 64, that rather unfortunately released at the same time as an actual Star fox 64 remake. Guess which game the Star Fox fans ended up liking more.

Ok, maybe I’m being a bit unfair here. After all, Nikoderiko is available on everything while the Donkey Kong games are exclusive to Nintendo platforms. So if you want a Donkey Kong styled game but don’t own a Nintendo console this is a good alternative.

Then again if you only own a PlayStation or Xbox then chances are you aren’t interested in Donkey Kong to begin with. If you were you’d already own a Switch. So, I can’t imagine there’s much appeal to this game outside of Nintendo platforms, which already have the DKC games on them. Maybe PC players have a bigger interest, but they have a way of playing the Country games too. It’s not a legal method but when has that ever stopped them.

But is the game at least good? It’s one thing to be unoriginal, but it’s another to be outright bad, and I wouldn’t say Nikoderiko is. When viewed in a vacuum it’s a perfectly competent and fun platformer. But the problem is we don’t live in a vacuum. We live in a world where Donkey Kong and Crash Bandicoot exist. And as someone who has played those games many times over the years it’s hard not to be put off by this game’s complete unoriginality.

Thing is, despite it being a perfectly fine platformer on its own, it’s also far from great. There are some big issues holding the game back. Namely the lack of polish. Graphically I think the game looks pretty good. It’s bright and colourful, the designs are pretty fun and harken back to classic mascot platformers of old without feeling too derivative, and there’s enough variety in the level themes to keep things visually interesting.

It’s a good-looking game, but it’s also got a lot of technical issues. There is a lot of texture pop-in in this game. When starting every level the textures would take a second to show up. Guess they feel like being fashionably late. Strangely the texture pop-in is worse in the cutscenes. Not the big cinematic cutscenes, which look fine, but just in the scenes where the characters are talking. For some reason the textures on NPC’s take an obnoxiously long time to load in and it makes them a little bit creepy actually. Like we’re talking to zombies or something.

While we’re on the subject, I’m not a fan of these dialogue sequences in general. I don’t really care about the story in these games, and while the world here is pretty neat, these dialogue sequences just drag the pacing down. The writing isn’t bad. It has a fun Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe, but they go on a bit too long and feel unnecessary.

The characters in them don’t even do much in terms of gameplay. In Donkey Kong Country there were other Kongs that would do different things when you visited them. Candy and Wrinkly saved the game, Cranky gave advice on where to find secrets, Funky took you to previous levels, you get the idea. They weren’t just characters with fun personalities; they had a gameplay purpose.

Here the characters don’t do anything. They’re just there to… I don’t know actually. Add to the world building I guess, but they don’t even contribute much to that since the story is not really important. There’s an owl wizard here and I couldn’t tell you anything about him other than he has a Scottish accent. Because ultimately, he isn’t important to the story which isn’t important to the game.

It’s obvious a lot of effort went into this. They wanted to give the characters a lot of personality, and while they succeeded at that, even if the personalities are a tad derivative, this is all effort spent on something that ultimately doesn’t matter to the game. This is not a story heavy game, so we don’t need to have this much dialogue. They should have used that energy on, I don’t know, polishing the game.

Speaking of which, let’s continue with the technical issues. Like the frame rate. Yeah, this game’s got some frame rate drops, but I only noticed it in one level. The game runs smoothly 99% of the time, at least on the Series S which is where I played it, and even when the frame rate did drop it wasn’t so bad it was unplayable. It’s still not great but it’s not the worst I’ve seen.

The more egregious technical issue is the load times. I thought we were past long load times, but apparently not. The load times here were almost a minute in length, and keep in mind I played it on the Series S. I can’t imagine what it’s like on something like the Switch.

I don’t know if these technical limitations are due to the game being poorly optimised or a lack of time and budget. I played the Director’s Cut version, which was a free update that added new content, so it could go either way. But regardless, while the artistry of the game is there, it obviously needed a bit more time in the oven.

Mind you that’s only the graphical issues. The gameplay also has some issues regarding polish. Hitboxes aren’t quite right and you’ll sometimes get hit by something that wasn’t close to hitting you. The game’s camera can also have some awkward angles which makes judging distances a tad frustrating. Neither of these happen frequently enough to ruin the game, but they happen just enough to be a frustration.

These aren’t so bad in the 2D segments, it’s in the 3D segments where they poke their ugly mug in. The 3D sections are the least polished overall, and that’s a shame because, again, it’s the most interesting thing about it. It really makes me wonder if these 3D segments were last minute additions because they feel like a bit of an afterthought.

But these technical issues are things I can adjust to. The major issues in my opinion come down to how the gimmicks and the collectibles are handled. Let’s start with the latter first. This game has a bunch of collectibles in each level, but we can split them into two camps. The first are the basic collectibles that act as currency, the fireflies, the jars and the coins. The second camp are the collectibles used for completion, the NIKO letters, the Keys and the diamonds.

I am going to be blunt, the only two collectibles that matter are the Keys and the Diamonds. The Keys are found by completing the games Bonus levels, and I will give the game some credit here. The bonus levels are all unique challenges. Which is better than the more recent Donkey Kong Country games that have four or five of them that repeat. So Nikoderiko leans closer to the structure of the classic DKC games which might be more appealing for those who didn’t fully like the approach Retro Studios took.

But these Keys are used to unlock levels in the games Secret World. Just like how the Bonus Coins worked in Donkey Kong Country. Yet another thing it copied, but we already went over that so I won’t harp on it anymore. Fun fact though, this Secret World wasn’t in the original release. It was only added in the Directors Cut update. Meaning originally the keys were frigging useless. And people accuse the AAA space of releasing unfinished games.

The diamonds had a similar issue. They are the equivalent to the big DK Coins, the larger collectible that’s far more well-hidden than the rest, and are used to unlock the games secret final boss. There’s one in every level, and you’ll need to look around if you want to find them all because some of these are pretty deviously hidden.

These are the only real collectibles that actually matter. Everything else is pointless. The NIKO letters do absolutely nothing. Since there’s no lives system they don’t give extra lives, and they don’t unlock extra levels like in the newer DKC games. They do nothing. They are simply there to add to the game’s completion percentage. That’s it. It’s pretty lame I can’t lie.

But then there are the basic bitch collectibles, and it’s here where I realise that gaming has a bit of a problem with life systems. I am personally not a fan of lives in videogames. I think they’re a bit of an outdated concept and think that we could create more interesting failure states in gaming without them. The problem is that some genres are so closely tied to the usage of lives that removing them can create more problems than it solves.

For platformers specifically, the reason life systems exist is to not just create a sense of tension and a fail state for the player, but to incentivise level exploration and collectible hunting. In the DKC games in particular, the reason you go for the Banana’s and coins is to get more extra lives to allow more chances in the games various challenges. Something needed in games as hard as Donkey Kong Country.

Without a lives system, these don’t do anything. So why would you bother collecting them? You wouldn’t, and that’s an issue Nikoderiko runs into. Because the game forgoes a lives system it creates less of an incentive to go for the collectibles. What’s the point if they don’t help you after all.

The game tries to rectify this by having a shop system, but unfortunately it sucks. Most of the stuff you can buy is just gallery shit. Character models, concept art, music, that kind of thing. I like these kinds of behind the scenes materials, but the way the shop handles purchasing these items is baffling.

See, you can’t just use fireflies to buy these things. You need to use fireflies in conjunction with jars, which are rare collectibles that are harder to get, in order to buy anything in the shop. Because of this, you will need to grind if you want to actually buy everything, and most of you probably will not bother. Because why would you. It’s just to get crap you’ll look at once and not bother with again. It’s not worth the effort grinding for these.

I just don’t get why they designed it this way. It makes the basic collectible pointless because it does nothing on its own. Just have the fireflies used to buy things. Or if you really want the rarer currency use jars for the fancier stuff like the character models. They did actually design the shop with two tiers of items, but both require the jars and the fireflies. Why? This isn’t a mobile game where you have multiple currencies to scam the audience. You don’t need this. Just have the fireflies, don’t overcomplicate this.

So inevitably you’re going to stop caring for the shop, and when you stop caring for it then going for those collectibles is pointless. Which is bad because a lot of the game’s challenges revolve around getting these collectibles. Meaning that half of the level design is rendered a complete waste, all because they removed lives without considering how it would impact the rest of the game.

Thing is I still went for every collectible I could despite not caring about the shop. Simply because I’ve played so many other platformers that going for this stuff is purely instinctual. I can’t help myself. But most of you reading this will not care and will likely skip past most of this. Meaning the game has no incentive to actually explore the levels.

And most people didn’t. the achievement for completing the game 100% only had a completion rating of 4%. Meaning the vast majority of players either didn’t finish the game, or didn’t bother going for the collectables. At least on Xbox. For most games this isn’t a huge deal, but for platformers where completing them is half the fun? That’s outright pathetic. And all because most of the collectables aren’t worth a damn.  

The only part of the shop I found remotely interesting is being able to purchase mounts, this games animal buddy equivalent. These also have their own currency with the coins you can collect, but at least you only need the coins for them. So they can make a competent shop system they just chose not too. That’s good to know.

Being able to buy mounts is actually a decent idea. Because it lets you use these mounts in levels where they otherwise don’t appear. It helps make the levels easier without making it too insulting like the items in the new DKC games were handled. The only ones you can’t buy are the bat and the seahorse since those are made for specific levels, but every other mount can be summoned in any level. In designated areas, which are short and become increasingly rarer as the game goes on. Goddamnit game.

But at least it let’s you use these mounts more. Which is good because they don’t show up that often. In fact, a lot of the game’s ideas don’t show up that often. Most of the unique level gimmicks only appear once and then they’re gone. None of them come back which can make a lot of them feel underutilised, underdeveloped, undercooked, and suffix beginning with under.

Now in the games defence, this is how Donkey Kong Country and Crash handled their level gimmicks. Most of them were one and done too which is fine. It means that nothing overstays it’s welcome and that the game has a healthy variety in its level design. But here’s the thing, those games would still bring some ideas back to expand upon them.

Take the mine cart levels for instance. In the first Donkey Kong Country there were two, one where you jumped with the cart and one where you jumped out of it. Both of which showed the idea in different ways. The Crash games would also use vehicle sections multiple times that would add new challenges and ideas to them each time. This helped make them feel like fully fleshed out mechanics and not just a random gimmick they threw in.

Nikoderiko never quite understands this. It only ever uses ideas once, maybe twice if you’re lucky but only thanks to the secret world. There’s one mine cart level, one rocket barrel level, which is on a dragon to be clear, and because of that all of its ideas feel like gimmicks. Not fleshed out mechanics that add variety, but random bullshit that pretends at variety.

It makes the game feel shallow. After I completed it, I didn’t feel that satisfied because it never felt like the game ever really got going. It just kind of ended and that was it. Even the secret world wasn’t that fulfilling to complete. It’s not like these ideas are bad, but they feel surface levels. The beginnings of ideas that needed another level to really flex their stuff.

The one highlight to the game I will give it are the boss fights. These are really fun. They provide a decent challenge, and they make better use of the 3D gameplay. I really liked these, even if the final boss was a bit too long for my liking. It’s the one big bright spot I have no major qualms with.

I hate writing these kinds of reviews. Not because they’re negative, because honestly a negative review is the most fun to write, but because it’s a negative review that I don’t want to be negative. I don’t want to be this critical of Nikoderiko because it’s not like I hate it. I can see the talent and passion of the developers. This was made by people with a clear love of mascot platformers, and you can feel that love while playing it.

Especially in the music. The soundtrack is fantastic and really captures the spirit of the Donkey Kong Country series while sounding just different enough to not be too derivative. Thanks in large part due to it having the same composer. Yeah, David Wise worked on the music, and it shows. It’s some good stuff; I might give it more of a listen later.

But between the reused ideas, the poor implementation of collectables, it not leaning into its unique ideas enough, and the overall shallowness of it all, I came out of Nikoderiko underwhelmed. It’s a game that gets lost trying to copy its inspirations, and because it doesn’t do anything of its own to stand out, it just makes me want to play those games instead.

I’ve played a lot of indie platformers that take inspiration from other games, but the best of those will have a distinct identity. Gravity Circuit is clearly inspired by Mega Man, but it is still its own thing. Pizza Tower is clearly inspired by Wario Land 4, but it is still a different experience. Nikoderiko is clearly inspired by Donkey Kong and Crash and just feels like Donkey Kong and Crash.

If there’s one thing to learn from Nikoderiko it’s never copy something too closely. Otherwise you’ll have nothing unique for people to like about you. I do hope Vea Games give this another shot in the future because they clearly have a lot of potential. If they lean into the mix of 3D and 2D gameplay it could be a pretty great game. As is though, it’s another retro inspired indie platformer in a crowded sea of much better options.