Lumo (Nintendo Switch) Review

Lumo is the game that just keeps on giving and giving. It starts off looking extremely basic, leading a small character with a wizard's hat around box room after box room, but soon develops into a hearty adventure filled with a plethora of hidden secrets (rubber duckies, cassettes, gold coins to grab), numerous platform challenges to overcome (made tougher by the isometric camera angle), a whole host of collectible items (such as map pages), and even achievements to unlock as play goes on. It also comes with various different ways to reach the very end, housing some dastardly mini-games to take away from the main action, not in a relaxing manner, though, but in a "makes you scream in rage" way, as the difficulty of some can be rather high, to say the least. In a good way, though…of course!

It is the sort of challenge that leaves a massive sense of satisfaction when finally smashing through the finish line. That is just in Adventure mode, as well, where that are infinite lives, a map to try and get your bearings, plus a save game file. Rock into Old School mode and prepare for limits galore, no save, and playing against the clock. Just take a pause and imagine it. Gamers that missed the Ultimate Play the Game era will not know what has hit them.

Step into a new area and get ready to face floating platforms, ones that disappear upon touch, or those that flip to a different direction when landed on, or even ones that start to sink slowly towards certain doom, or some that are invisible to the naked eye, requiring a special light to be shined on them. Sometimes rooms will be filled with creatures trying to halt progress (poisonous spiders, projectile-firing wasps), and since there are no weapons in Lumo for defence, dexterity is your new best friend, with quick reactions - and sometimes a modicum of luck - required to overcome the vast array of hurdles placed in your way.

Slide boxes around, jump on special glowing ones that when leapt off of disappear and reappear wherever the character next leaps from, entice love-struck crates with cute little eyes (…) to hop around after you to then use them for reaching greater heights, or simply try to clamber up whatever can possibly be scaled to launch yourself off the top of the screen (yes, off the top…) into hidden passageways (trial and error is sometimes required to find them, but there are some indicators for those that know where to look!). It is absolute genius, and kept this very reviewer hooked until no more could be squeezed out of it, even keeping both RiME and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 from being fired up. Now that is some recommendation right there!