After I talked to Riot Forge Inventive Director Rowan Parker earlier this yr, he made it clear the writer needed to do justice to your favourite champion. He acknowledged that Nunu and Willump is not the most well-liked decide on your common League of Legend participant, however I am prepared to guess you may begin to see extra of the duo after Track of Nunu: A League of Legends Story.
That is as a result of Track of Nunu: A League of Legends Story is likely one of the most stunning and charming adventures I’ve performed this yr. Partially, that is because of the beautiful visible design by developer Tequila Works, however a lot of it’s accredited to the great relationship between Nunu and Willump, which is sufficient to heat even the Grinch’s chilly coronary heart.
Adventuring Via Freljord in Track of Nunu
I like a great 3D platformer, and Track of Nunu takes DNA from that style and infuses it right into a linear, however general satisfying journey. This isn’t probably the most difficult or feature-rich platformer, however what’s there’s a good companion to the charming narrative and excellent visuals.
Weirdly sufficient, Track of Nunu jogs my memory quite a lot of God of Battle: Ragnarok. Not due to its chilly, Nordic setting (although that performs slightly half within the feeling), however due to the way in which it approaches its puzzles interwoven with bursts of fight and narrative.
Let me get one factor out of the way in which: fight is about as fundamental as it will probably get. Gentle and heavy assaults can be utilized on enemies throughout encounters; although, you will not get a lot of an opportunity to make use of these assaults as I might most likely depend the variety of battles on my fingers.
The true meat of the gameplay comes from intelligent puzzle design. Usually, you may enterprise from one space to the subsequent and, like God of Battle, you may encounter giant and exquisite rooms stuffed with interactable objects or platforming segments. Quite a lot of these puzzles leverage Willump’s yeti powers or Nunu’s small measurement.
In different phrases, Willump is the Kratos to Nunu’s Atreus; whereas fixing puzzles Willump and Nunu work collectively as a group. This lovable duo will usually banter and discuss issues out to present gamers a small trace for these puzzles, however nothing that’ll give away the answer outright.
For some puzzles, you may need to make use of the momentum of a swinging object to platform to the opposite aspect of a room or hit switches to orient objects within the appropriate manner — it is nothing tremendous difficult, however puzzles have simply the correct amount of issue that you simply’re left feeling happy.
Willump has the ability to plow throw limitations and create ice platforms on water and freeze waterfalls, however Nunu is only a regular boy. Fortunately, he has a flute that has very particular powers, certainly. Runes and partitions have notes inscribed on them, and by taking part in these notes together with your flute, Nunu can create magical results.
The flute provides slightly further to the puzzle design by tasking Nunu to play a sequence of notes, although I discovered myself having slightly an excessive amount of bother taking part in them. There’s 4 buttons complete for the flute, however these notes will be mixed to create new sounds and the designs of the notes change.
For the longest time, I could not keep in mind which observe was which. The designs are slightly too ambiguous and do not correlate nicely with the button every observe belongs to. One answer can be to switch these notes with the D-pad as an alternative of the bumpers and triggers, or maybe make the designs a bit extra recognizable. Or higher but, give us a reference sheet to drag from and memorize.
Track of Nunu’s Winter Wonderland
I’ll now proceed to gush in regards to the artwork model for Track of Nunu, as a result of it deserves nothing much less. I can’t emphasize sufficient how a lot I like the look of Track of Nunu. It is one of the vital well-executed visible kinds for a online game I’ve performed this yr, which is excessive reward contemplating there have been a lot of fine video video games popping out.
Enable me to make one other God of Battle comparability: By all means, a snowy and desolate setting must be boring and monotonous, however God of Battle and its sequel discovered a strategy to make areas really feel recent. Track of Nunu is way the identical because it portrays the forlorn, chilly area of Freljord in a various and thrilling manner.
Every space portrays Freljord in an interesting manner as we be taught extra about its wildlife, monsters, tradition, and extra. Close to the beginning of the journey, I used to be blown away by the atmospheric surroundings; ships caught inside large frozen waves and exquisite glowing vegetation inside caves are just the start of what you may see.
Whereas the platforming in Track of Nunu is not all that complicated, the prospect of seeing what new spectacle lay forward saved me going. Thoughts you, Track of Nunu is not leading edge with its graphics, however the general design and aesthetic is executed so nicely that it will not matter.
It’s kind of of disgrace to have encountered some main body drops as I entered new areas or turned a nook in Track of Willump. With a recreation as stunning as it’s, I might have preferred a constant 144 FPS, however I believe there could be a problem with loading in new areas with out loading screens. That brought about vital drops for a second, resulting in some stuttering.
Willump and Nunu are the Stars of the Present
The handful of characters you may meet — together with the eponymous duo Nunu and Willump — are lively of their animations and mannerisms. Nunu is a curious little one brimming with life, although Willump was positively the bigger focus for this recreation. He is portrayed with a lot element and life, that I simply fell in love with the massive ol’ man.
When Nunu is strolling on his personal as an alternative of on Willump’s again, the yeti may take a relaxation when you’re fixing puzzles. Generally he builds snowmen or creates cave work as you are catching as much as Willump. There’s a number of totally different foolish animations to see. These animations did not have to be in Track of Nunu, however these mannerisms communicate to the care put into improvement.
This can be a narrative-based journey, so I used to be happy to discover a story that fleshed out Nunu and Willump’s character an incredible deal. I definitely did not count on a yeti that may solely communicate in goofy yeti noises to be such a heartwarming character. In fact, you may come throughout different champions from League of Legends lore as nicely, which is all the time a deal with for followers.
Track of Nunu: A League of Legends Story Evaluation | Remaining Ideas
Track of Nunu would not reinvent the wheel, however it definitely excels on what it units out to do. Certainly, with its excellent artwork route, it presents a worthwhile and heartwarming story of a boy and his yeti whereas fleshing out the League of Legends universe only a bit extra.
Track of Nunu: A League of Legends Story was reviewed on PC with a duplicate supplied by the writer over the course of seven hours of gameplay – all screenshots had been taken through the means of assessment.