Had this on PS5 already but I held off buying the PC version since it had Denuvo. Really happy that they not only removed Denuvo, but also brought the game to GOG making it completely DRM free :)
It’s a really fun Donkey Kong Country style game but it also has elements from the Crash Bandicoot games as well.
This game tries very hard to be something you've played and enjoyed before.
It looks and somewhat plays like Donkey Kong Country
It has something that looks suspiciously like the Lums from Rayman Origins/Legends, and secrets hidden in the same way.
It has areas which go 3D like Crash Bandicoot.
It has a lovable idiot main character like too many of them were trying to be.
Bright and colourful, if you liked the sound of the above you're likely to like this game.
However, the controls are a bit floaty and occasionally means you'll miss jumping on enemies because you go just a bit too far.
Simlarly there's a slight bit of jankiness to the animations which mean things will pop in and out of a pose noticeably.
To beat it I took around 8 hours going for as many secrets as I could. That leaves the secret world, which will require secret keys found in the main game to unlock levels in. And to get to the end of that you'll need every gemstone in the entire game.
That might be a turnoff for you if you're the kind who MUST finish all content. For me, I'll likely chip away at collecting things for a while yet. The game is quite enjoyable.
Consider this game if you're itching for a cute not too hard slightly janky mascot platformer.
yes i didn't play it, as it wont allow me to play the game unless i accept the EULA and there is a number of gripes with it, the worst being that they use data from your computer, worded in a fashion that means My.Games can use ANY data on your computer, and with ANY third party. it's an insanely long read, particularly for a single player/co-op title.
A decent DKCR clone. I wish they would have forged their own path a bit more. The part that really made me role my eyes was the bonus stage, running around on 8-bit art of the character. Directly taken from Mario 3D World. The art work is gorgeous and creative, while the gameplay is creatively bankrupt. But at least they're ripping off one of the best, Retro Studios.
The only negative I really have is the floaty controls. Sometimes they play a smoothing animation and other times it snaps to the new animation causing inconsistency in player movement. It's not terrible, but it'll lead to a few unfair deaths.
For some reason the devs seem to hate PC gamers. The PC version released months after consoles, yet they still saw the need for excessive DRM. They obviously got over that since we now have a DRM free version on GOG. However, damage was already done. I know plenty of people who avoided this game because of Denuvo and have since forgotten about Nikoderiko. Hopefully the devs learn from their mistake.
I bought this game to enjoy with my three kids and have played the game exclusively using the co-op function.
Pros:
Nice character design
Good/engaging level design
All three of my kids (ages 3-5) absolutely love this game a.k.a. It is very child friendly.
Cons:
The writing is the weakest part of the game. It suffers from stereotypically bad millennial writing and most of the lines are just ripped out of movies (but done in a very lame way).
The multiplayer works but is very rough around the edges. The camera will often start following the wrong person instead of whoever is in the lead and it doesn't zoom out to accommodate multiple people playing. Because the camera doesn't zoom out the players must keep closely together or they will constantly have their character thrown off screen and killed.
Despite a couple of short fallings I think this is a very solid game and I have no problem recommending it.