Have you ever performed a brand new recreation that feels solely recent whereas concurrently hitting a nostalgic nerve? A brand new recreation that simply launched however unlocks some reminiscences of previous titles you haven’t performed in years?

That’s what occurred to me once I tried Lucky Luna, a brand new cell recreation that pushed me outdoors of my typical consolation zone. It’s the newest recreation accessible by Netflix, and whereas I by no means thought I’d by no means contact the streaming service’s video games, I’m glad I gave this one a attempt. To my shock, it introduced me again to the times of a few of the Nintendo DS’ most artistic titles.

DS days

I’ve a fairly set rotation of recreation genres I take pleasure in: motion video games, JRPGs, and traditional platformers. After not venturing outdoors of my sphere for some time, I began to starvation for one thing new. Then I noticed Lucky Luna in the course of the Netflix Game announcement block of GameSpot’s first annual Swipe Mobile Showcase. It’s a platformer that takes the standard gameplay philosophy of the style and throws it on its head with a gimmick that feels straight out of the DSi and WiiWare period.

Lucky Luna has some sidescrolling platformer parts, however it’s largely constructed round vertical exploration. During my spelunking journey, I swipe left and proper to maneuver my character by a maze of platforms and mine shafts. I used to be given the non-obligatory duties of amassing rocks that mainly act as cash, discovering secret tiles, and getting by the degrees as shortly as attainable. In addition to clearing ranges usually, I attempted to earn a 100% completion price on all its ranges.

All this comes collectively to create a platformer that looks like a cross between Pac-Man and Wario Land. It’s a easy, intuitively managed expertise that instantly hooked me as I attempted to good my stage runs. But there’s an added twist to this vertical platformer: You can’t leap.

That easy omission is what provides the cell recreation its distinctive taste. Instead of leaping, you must Goomba stomp enemies and use environmental parts like water spouts to make leaps or gradual your fall. It’s such a easy idea, however it’s all packaged in a method that saved me coming again for extra as I used to be pushed to beat each problem with the perfect scores attainable.

While the distinctive hooks make it a standout cell recreation, the aesthetics particularly spoke to me. Lucky Luna is a really stylized recreation utilizing detailed sprite paintings. Everything has a cool-toned, neon-ish, easy look, creating a superb ambiance for our mysterious protagonist, Luna, to discover whereas discovering her reminiscences.

Lucky Luna looks like a recreation from a extra experimental period — one which transported me again to a time when firms would take gambles with smaller releaseds, launching them on early digital storefronts like Xbox Arcade, DSiWare, and WiiWare retailers. If that is the path Netflix is transferring in — bringing that period of hidden gem curiosities again for cell units — then I may need to pay extra consideration to what video games can be found with my subscription, quite than simply utilizing it to rewatch One Piece.

Lucky Luna is on the market now on iOS and Android units when you have a Netflix subscription.

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