The 2D/2.5D platformer has become a somewhat neglected genre in recent years. Aside from Mario Wonder, many of the main standout series have been dormant for some time. A few months ago the cancellation of Crash Bandicoot 5 was reported and it’s been 10 years since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (6 since the Switch port). As a big fan of this style of game I was pleasantly surprised to hear about Nikoderiko – through a YouTube advert of all things. Initially, I was concerned that the game would turn out to be Crash from Wish but the full game is a well-made and polished platformer that is a welcome addition to the genre.
Moving away from the antipodean marsupial of Naughty Dog’s series, you play as a pair of mongooses (mongeese?) who are depicted as Nathan Drake style treasure hunters – a portrayal which feels like a deliberate nod again to Crash’s original developers. This conscious reference is confirmed late in the game when a side character incorrectly identifies Niko and Luna as bandicoots, a clear sign both of the self-awareness of this game and also its meta sense of humour. The broader story is that the Cobra King has stolen a treasure chest found by the mongoose pair and they must venture across the land to track it down again.
Graphically, Nikoderiko is very much in keeping with the style of its influences. Bright and bold cartoony visuals abound with a variety of traditional biomes all present and correct. Enemies are very reminiscent of both DK and Crash’s foes, with the boss battles perhaps being more influenced by the former with larger-than-life encounters. Both Niko and Luna are well designed but it can be a little too easy to get them mixed up when playing in coop.
To make your way through the 30 or so levels of this adventure you’ll be running and jumping in very traditionally organised levels with regular checkpoints and lots of collectables. Instead of the genre’s popular double jump, the two heroes can glide across long distances (a characteristic that would better suit a flying squirrel surely?) Enemies can be defeated by jumping on their heads or using your slide attack, the latter also being needed to traverse small gaps at times. At set points during levels you’ll also find barrels and chests that you can pick up to throw at more stubborn enemies. Towards the end of the game some challenging combinations of enemies require you to string together all your abilities in order to overcome them.
The majority of the time you’ll be travelling from left to right in the style of Donkey Kong Country with the occasional swimming level included for variety. The latter control really well and aren’t the low point that subnautical sections often are. You even unlock animal friends to help you through some levels with these often being designed around the special abilities of each. Alongside these level-specific appearances, however, you can also buy extra uses of the mounts to bring along to other levels – although this wasn’t something I used in my completed playthrough.
More in keeping with Crash Bandicoot, though, are the parts of some levels where you turn away from the camera (and less often run toward it) and take on a third dimension. These are a relatively smaller part of the game than the 2D sections but play out almost identical to the Bandicoot, even to the point of having some of the same issues with depth perception at times. Boss fights vary between the different perspectives too and are mostly challenging enough to be fun without being too annoying – unless you are trying for some of the more tricky boss-based trophies.
In terms of collectables, there are fireflies that serve as your main currency, coins and trophies that are used to unlock extra material via ingame lootboxes, letters that spell out NIKO (in a huge borrowing from DK), and finally large purple crystals. There is one crystal hidden on every main level and finding some of these adds an extra layer of exploration to your travels. The aforementioned lootboxes are not as egregious as that description might suggest since they are entirely self-contained and don’t require any microtransactions although some grinding will be necessary if you want to unlock everything.
Finally, one of the most positive aspects of Nikoderiko is the ability to play the whole game in local coop, with two players controlling each of the mongooses. This is always a huge addition to a game and should be celebrated. The main question with any single-screen coop is how it handles one player being too far ahead and Nikoderiko goes for the bubble mechanic. The trailing player will lose a heart and teleport back to the leading one in a protective bubble. This can be a little annoying, but as long as one player survives then the game continues so it isn’t as frustrating as it could have been.