It’s hard to believe that it has been over a decade since we’ve gotten a new Donkey Kong Country platformer. Retro Studios’ Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was one of the best Wii U games, but we’ve yet to get a new platformer in that style from Nintendo or Retro since. We won’t be getting a new Crash Bandicoot anytime soon either since Activision canceled Crash Bandicoot 5, which would’ve featured Spyro the Dragon. Thankfully, we’re on a bit of an upswing regarding the return of these kinds of platformers.
Donkey Kong Country Returns is coming to Nintendo Switch in January 2025. And Toys for Bob made itself independent from Activision to work on something (hopefully a new Crash or Spyro game). For those who can’t wait, a new game harkens back to the best of Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot. That game is Nikoderiko: The Magical World, which launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch earlier this week. It’s worth checking out for those who can’t wait any longer for the return of their favorite platformers.
Nikoderiko follows the genre formula to a T, down to a lighthearted, adventurous story needed to back everything up. Mongooses Niko and Luna are Indiana Jones-types who find a relic stashed away on a magical island, but it’s stolen by a villain named Grimbald. The rest of the adventure is about getting that relic back, and that will only happen after several worlds’ worth of platforming challenges.
Most of Nikoderiko consists of 2D platforming segments that closely ape the Donkey Kong Country formula. Niko and Luna’s jumps are weightier than those of Mario and Sonic. They can slam into the ground, pick up and throw objects, and the main collectibles in levels are letters that spell out Niko. Even the level design consistently pulls from Retro Studios’ Donkey Kong Country games.
Some set pieces are outright copies, like underwater levels that turn Niko into a black silhouette, minecart levels, and barrels that shoot the player around. It also sounds like Donkey Kong Country, as former Rare composer David Wise composed Nikoderiko’s soundtrack. Occasionally, levels will shift to play out in 3D. Here, the formula feels more like Crash Bandicoot beyond the fact that Niko is an orange and blue marsupial.
Its 3D platforming is often just about moving through very linear segments of stages where enemies and boxes are very visible in front of players. Niko has a slide attack like Crash, and there are lots of boxes around the stages for players to break. The most unique move in Niko’s move set is a glider, which is there instead of a double jump and allows him to stay airborne longer than Donkey Kong or Crash ever could.
For better and for worse, Nikoderiko plays very closely to its main inspirations. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time are fantastic games, so VEA games is emulating a winning formula. In lieu of new games in those series, I appreciate having a whole game full of new levels that follow that formula. That fresh feeling only goes so far when I feel like I’ve seen most of Nikoderiko’s tricks before.
Nikoderiko’s level design and art direction aren’t quite as memorable as its inspirations. Those games were simply more creative in coming up with new, never-before-seen ideas for their stages. If you’ve never played any of these games before, I highly recommend checking out Tropical Freeze and Crash Bandicoot 4 before Nikoderiko. For those of us feeling the pain that comes with a dearth of new platformers of a certain style, Nikoderiko at least understands what made those games special and offers more of a good thing. Hopefully, this is the start of a revival of sorts for these animal-focused platformers.
Nikoderiko: The Magical World is available now for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. It will come to PC sometime in the future.
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