New Super Lucky's Tale: PS5 Review

New Super Lucky's Tale launched on PlayStation 4 in August 2020, months before the PS5 even hit shelves. Five years later, developer Playful Studios has finally shipped a native PS5 version. The upgrade adds 4K resolution, 120fps performance, and DualSense functionality. Nothing else has changed.

The Same Fox, the Same Book

Lucky Swiftail is a fox on a mission to recover missing pages from the Book of Ages, a reality-warping tome stolen by Jinx, a sorcerer who betrayed the Guardian Order sworn to protect it. The story sends Lucky through themed hub worlds to fight Jinx's lieutenants, a crew collectively called the Kitty Litter, while rescuing members of his own family along the way. Narratively, this is lightweight stuff. Jinx is a cartoon villain with cartoon minions, and the plot exists mainly to string together a series of platforming stages. Cutscenes play out in-engine with subtitled dialogue over Simlish-style gibberish. The worm NPCs sound like Minions knockoffs. None of it aims for emotional weight, and none of it needs to.

Each hub world contains a mix of level types. Standard 3D platforming stages sit alongside forced-perspective 2D side-scrolling segments, auto-running dungeon runs, and standalone puzzle rooms called foxholes. Every main stage holds four collectible pages: one for completion, one for gathering 300 coins, one for spelling out L-U-C-K-Y by collecting individual letters, and one hidden behind a secret puzzle. Fox-themed puns run through the whole thing. The hub areas themselves hold additional coins, hidden pages, and a costume shop where extra currency unlocks new outfits for Lucky.

How Lucky Moves

Lucky controls with the kind of analog responsiveness that a 3D platformer needs to get right. A light tilt on the stick produces a trot. Push it fully and Lucky breaks into a sprint, arms windmilling. He can swipe enemies with his tail, stomp them Mario-style from above, and burrow underground to pass beneath walls, floors, and obstacles. The burrow mechanic gives the game a slight mechanical identity. Diving below the surface to dodge hazards or hunt for buried secrets adds a movement layer that most games in this space skip.

Each level tests some combination of these tools. Platforming sections demand precise jumps and well-timed stomps. Puzzle rooms ask for block-pushing or navigation logic. The 2D stages compress the action into tighter corridors with more focused challenge design. No single mechanic outstays its welcome because the game rotates between ideas quickly. One level has Lucky herding chickens. The next asks the player to tilt a pinball-like orb through a maze using the DualSense gyroscope. The variety is deliberate and mostly effective.

Difficulty and Accessibility

New Super Lucky's Tale is not a hard game. The opening hours pose almost no resistance, and even later stages keep the challenge gentle enough for younger players. Page requirements to unlock the next hub world are relaxed enough that a player can advance through the story without clearing every level or grabbing every collectible. A six-year-old tested on the original PS4 version could handle most of it, needing help only on some of the trickier collectible hunts.

The difficulty curve does rise, gradually. Later hub worlds introduce more complex multi-stage levels and tighter platforming windows. But experienced players will still find this closer to comfort food than a test of skill. The design prioritizes accessibility across age groups, and it hits that target. Players chasing completion or a platinum trophy will get more resistance from the collectible sweep, particularly from tracking down every set of Lucky letters in longer, more elaborate stages.

PS5 Upgrades and DualSense Issues

The PS5 version runs at native 4K and up to 120 frames per second. The higher framerate makes movement feel more responsive during precise platforming, and the visual bump sharpens the game's already colorful art style on modern displays. Characters, environments, and animations all benefit from the added resolution, though the underlying assets remain identical to the PS4 build.

DualSense haptic feedback adds subtle texture to actions like burrowing underground or landing from a jump. The effect is restrained and fits the game's tone without calling attention to itself. Tilt controls are a different story. The gyroscope-based puzzle levels, where players guide an orb through a maze by physically tilting the controller, feel worse on DualSense than they did on DualShock 4. One reviewer burned through 23 extra lives on a single tilt level. Whether the issue is calibration, sensitivity tuning, or the physical difference between the two controllers, the result is the same: these sections feel punishing in a game that otherwise avoids frustration. I think the tilt puzzles are the weakest part of the package, and the DualSense implementation makes them harder to tolerate than they were on PS4.

Players who own the PS4 version can import their save data, but the transfer has problems. Progress carries over, but trophies do not sync correctly. Out of 42 previously earned trophies, only two registered on the PS5 version in at least one case. Whether this is a pre-release bug or a permanent limitation remains unclear. There is also no confirmed free upgrade path for existing PS4 owners, with the PS4 version currently discounted to £7.49 on the PlayStation Store.

What Holds It Back

The inability to save and quit mid-level is the most persistent design friction. If a player returns to a completed stage to grab a missed collectible, say one letter from the L-U-C-K-Y set, there is no way to save that progress and exit. The player must finish the entire level again. In early stages, where levels are short and simple, this is a minor inconvenience. In later stages with multiple sections and longer playtimes, it becomes a grind. This was a known issue in 2020 and remains unfixed.

Camera control has improved from earlier versions of the game but still misbehaves in tight spaces. The camera can clip into geometry or lose track of Lucky in enclosed areas, forcing the player to wrestle with angles during sections that demand accuracy. The game also plays it safe mechanically. Lucky's moveset is functional and satisfying but never evolves or deepens. No new abilities unlock as the game progresses. The burrowing, tail swipe, and stomp that Lucky starts with are the same tools available at the end. For a collect-a-thon built on revisiting levels, this flatness limits the sense of progression.

A 2026 Release Without 2026 Ambitions

New Super Lucky's Tale exists in a post-Astro Bot world, and that comparison is unavoidable. Astro Bot pushed the 3D platformer forward with inventive mechanics, spectacle, and deep DualSense integration. New Super Lucky's Tale does none of those things. It is a 2020 game with a resolution and framerate bump, released into a market where the genre's bar has shifted. The art style holds up well. The character designs remain appealing. The environments are bright and readable with strong color work that benefits from the 4K output. But nothing about this release suggests a studio building toward the future of the genre.

I find it hard to understand why this port took five years and arrived without a single piece of new content, a new level, a new costume, or at least a properly functioning trophy import. The game underneath is still good. Lucky still controls well. The level variety still works. But releasing an identical product half a decade later, at a time when the competition has moved ahead, makes the whole package feel like a contractual obligation rather than a creative statement. The question multiple reviewers raise is fair: why is this not New Super Lucky's Tale 2?

Verdict

New Super Lucky's Tale on PS5 does exactly what it did on PS4, only sharper and smoother. New Super Lucky's Tale is a solid 8/10 platformer game for PlayStation 5.

Pros:

• Native 4K resolution and 120fps deliver a noticeably cleaner and more responsive experience than the PS4 original.
• Level variety keeps the pacing fresh across 3D stages, 2D segments, puzzles, and mini-games.
• Accessible difficulty and relaxed progression requirements make it a reliable pick for younger players and families.

Cons:

• No save-and-quit option forces full level replays when returning for missed collectibles, and tilt controls on DualSense feel worse than on DualShock 4.
• Zero new content, broken trophy imports, and no confirmed free upgrade for PS4 owners make the value proposition thin for returning players.

The 3D platformer genre has few entries on PS5, and New Super Lucky's Tale fills that gap competently. It does not push the form forward or take creative risks, but the core loop of jumping, collecting, and exploring remains well built. For players who missed it on PS4 or want a low-stakes platformer between bigger releases, Lucky's adventure still delivers.