Nikoderiko: The Magical World

Nikoderiko was provided by Knights Peak for review. Thank you!

Are you ready for some classic platformer action? Well, Nikoderiko: The Magical World is following textbook examples of successful platformers from years past, but that isn't always a recipe for success. However, that's not the case here.

As soon as you start Nikoderiko, you can see what I mean when I said they follow examples of previous platformers. The inspiration from Donkey Kong Country is unmissable. It might even go beyond inspiration. You start in a jungle-themed area on an island, the antagonists are somewhat reptilian, and the game's music composer is David Wise, who worked on the soundtrack for the Donkey Kong Country series. You even collect the letters N-I-K-O as you progress through each level.

The storyline is also pretty generic. You're treasure hunters trying to retrieve a treasure taken by an evil baron and his army. It's not too dissimilar to DK having his bananas stolen.

So, Nikoderiko doesn't exactly win points for originality. That being said, it's a solid platformer. The controls aren't necessarily tight; they're a bit floaty, but that seems to be by design, as the Donkey Kong Country trilogy also had some momentum when it came to physics in the air. Once you get used to it, though, Nikoderiko feels like a classic platformer from the 1990s, and that's not a bad thing in my book.

Enemies are also fairly typical platformer affairs. Some have defenses on the top, some on the side, some have none at all, and others take multiple hits to defeat. The variety and imagination behind these designs don't quite hit the heady heights of Mario games. Still, they do the job, considering that Nikoderiko is on the shorter side, with the game taking less than 10 hours to complete.

Surprisingly, the game does have difficulty options. I played through on the "Normal" option and found that the game provides a decent challenge. Most of the levels will be simple enough, but the odd one might trip you up, and the boss battles at the end of each world do require concentration and memorization of patterns to beat. I wouldn't say it's as difficult as the Donkey Kong Country (Returns) games, but it's not as easy as a Mario platformer.

Nikoderiko does tap into that sense of excitement you got from finding secrets in ye olde platformers, too. They are everywhere, and the newly released Director's Cut upgrade added even more to the game. Usually accompanied by a serotonin-boosting sound effect, coupled with pretty collectibles adorning your screen, it's a great feeling when you find a hidden passage or bounce off an enemy's head to reach an otherwise inaccessible area. The game beautifully captures the feeling my younger self got from these discoveries.

However, I feel like Nikoderiko lets you down in a couple of areas. There is a lack of clarity in some situations, particularly in levels where you are walking towards or away from the camera, like in old Crash Bandicoot games.

Depth perception is also a big issue. The game puts a blue circle below you while you are in the air, but from this camera angle, I still struggled to work out how close I was to enemies. Also, several times, you are in cannons (equivalent of Donkey Kong Country Barrel Cannons) and have to shoot through a circle of rotating items. The problem is that the game does not indicate whether you will hit the top or bottom item in the ring.

I wouldn't have minded if these game sections had been removed entirely. I get that the developers wanted to try something a bit different, but switching between a side view and a third-person view and adjusting to the controls mid-level doesn't feel the best, and the camera is even more work to get used to, just for a short 1-minute section of a level.

Unfortunately, many boss battles take place in this third-person-like camera angle, which can be pretty frustrating when they are the hardest parts of the game.

Another issue I had with the game was that sometimes the camera wouldn't follow the player closely, resulting in me walking into or hitting enemies offscreen. This usually happens with vertical movement, but it can happen horizontally too. Also, at a later level, I jumped into an automatic cannon that began a sequence that fired me straight into an enemy before I regained control of my character. It was probably just bad luck that the enemy had patrolled to where the cannon was placed, but it shouldn't be possible for an enemy to patrol there in the first place.

Spinning it back around to the positive, though, and that's the game's presentation. Although new and not relying on nostalgia, the characters have their charm. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy them being voiced in parts of the game, but it works out ok, if you don't mind a bit of cringeworthy dialogue here and there. The world is also lush, vibrant, and nicely stylized, with lighting put to good use in the levels. This is backed up by the music by David Wise, who does an excellent job capturing the feel, as you might expect given his reputation.

If you have an itch for a game that feels like a classic 90s platformer but with the visuals of a modern title, then Nikoderiko is worth your attention. You can also play through the game in a two-player local co-op mode.

Nikoderiko: The Magical World - Steam Deck Performance

Nikoderiko runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck. The only issue I noticed was that the game only runs in 1280x720, not 1280x800, so you will have black bars above and below the game. Controller support, however, is excellent, and it is the ideal way to play.

The graphical settings are combined into one Quality setting, which you can adjust, but it does have some scalability. Because of that, I'm offering two setting presets today, although one is mostly for Steam Deck OLED users.

Recommended Settings - 60 FPS

For most users, this is probably what you'll want to run. Set your in-game quality setting to "Average, " then impose a 60 FPS frame limit in SteamOS.

With these settings, the game can run at about 70 FPS, but locking to 60 saves some battery life and makes the experience stable. Steam Deck LCD users get no benefit from anything above 60 FPS anyway.

The power draw depends on the stage, but it falls in the 13- 15W range for most levels. Some levels, especially at night and with water, can push it up to 20W, though. So expect around 3.5 hours of battery life on an OLED model and around 2-2.5 hours on an LCD. Temperatures were in the 60- 70 °C range.

Framerate Settings - 90 FPS

If you really care about a smooth framerate in your platformers, Steam Deck OLED users can lower their graphics Quality to "Low" in the in-game settings and keep their frame limit at 90 FPS/Hz in SteamOS. The game will run at a stable 90 FPS, and although we lose some nice lighting and shadows, the stylized nature of the game means it still looks decent.

Power draw for these settings is similar, around 13W-15W, with spikes up to 19W on some levels, so your battery life will be about 3.5 hours on the Steam Deck OLED. Temperatures were again in the 60- 70 °C range.

Dialogue Scenes:

Sometimes, dialogue on the world map causes severe performance issues, which heavily impacts FPS. Fortunately, no gameplay occurs during these scenes, but it can be a bit jarring. Expect sub-30 FPS in these moments.

Accessibility:

Nikoderiko is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to accessibility. It just offers the option for subtitles and disabling camera shake.

Conclusion:

Nikoderiko doesn't do anything new in the platforming space. But what it does do is combine multiple ideas from other successful platformers and bring them together to make a competent platformer in its own right. Does it match up to those that inspired it? No, it doesn't, but if you are a platforming fan, you'll still have a great time with this one.

As for Steam Deck performance, it's very good; the graphics settings mean we can comfortably run at 60 FPS, even bumping up to 90 FPS on the Steam Deck OLED. The controls work great, and although the battery life isn't the best, the game also isn't very long, either.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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