Super Lucky's Tale recently received an expansion which takes the eponymous fox to Gilly Island. The content offers a lot of levels and sticks to what made the base game rather enjoyable. This time around though, the platforming feels smoother and there are less camera issues. Developer Playful took the criticism to heart and built upon that. It's a shame that the expansion doesn't offer as much content as the base game, because it feels much more polished than before.
Super Lucky's Tale starts off when the antagonist Jinx steals a mysterious artifact called the Book of Ages. The Book of Ages contains entire worlds and simple creatures who are no match Jinx's spoiled children. It's up to Lucky, a cute little fox who wants to be a hero, to save the day. Just like any platformer, you need to run, jump, spin and burrow your way across a wide variety of environments including deserts, castles, forests and much more.
Gilly Island picks up right after that. Fresh from his victory over Jinx, Lucky is looking forward to a day off in Foxington. Unfortunately, the Book of Ages has other plans, and Lucky is once again sucked in, this time emerging in a tropical paradise.
Despite its beauty and renown as a popular vacation destination, it's quickly apparent that something is amiss on Gilly Island. Lucky learns that singer Lady Meowmalade has hijacked the island to throw the greatest party ever seen to celebrate the release of her latest single. Now he must rescue the island and its vacationers from Meowmalade's chaos before it ruins their fun and ultimately wrecks havoc across all the worlds within the Book of Ages.
The story is simple but the gameplay offers some variety. Just like the base game, Gilly Island is filled with classic platforming challenges, mind-bending puzzles, mysterious foxholes, and treacherous obstacle courses. You'll meet a diverse cast of new and old characters as you burrow your way through numerous levels.
The goal is to go from one of Lady Meowmalade's music stands to the next, destroying the speakers which are blaring her somewhat annoying and repetitious track. While there might not be as much content as the original game, the refinements Gilly Island brings to Super Lucky's Tale are noticeable. For that reason alone, the $4.99 price of admission is well worth it if you own the base game.
Super Lucky's Tale still runs at 1080p 30 FPS on Xbox One and native 4K 60 FPS on Xbox One X. The resolution upgrade, in this case, isn't as important as the frame rate upgrade. The game looks great on both systems due to its native presentation, however, the Xbox One X version has a clear advantage here. Not only does it look better, but it also feels better when you're jumping and burrowing.
The Xbox One version is difficult to control because it suffers from increased input lag. While every game exhibits this to some degree, no matter how minuscule, doubling the frame rate helps make Lucky's handling a lot smoother. This seems like the primary reason why Super Lucky's Tale feels that much more precise on Microsoft's new console. It's hard to go back to the standard Xbox One version because of this. Luckily, Super Lucky's Tale is Xbox Play Anywhere so you can experience it at a higher frame rate on Windows 10 in addition to Xbox One X without purchasing another copy.
When we reviewed Super Lucky's Tale last year, we said that it suffered from poor camera controls. Instead of moving freely, thumbstick motion caused the camera to rotate in a rigid manner. While the camera controls are still somewhat rigid, you don't need to adjust them because the game almost always gives you an optimal angle. There aren't that many issues with depth perception in Gilly Island as there were in the base game.
Overall, Gilly Island is a good expansion which should be seen as more of a refinement rather than a game-changing addition to Super Lucky's Tale. You can grab it at the link below for $4.99.
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