Song of Nunu Review
Song of Nunu Review
Song of Nunu is a magical adventure that harkens back to the formative years of 3D platforming on the N64, but with a much more heart warming story of a young boy and his best friend, who just happens to be a yeti. Song of Nunu is loaded with influences from the mid 90’s including games like Banjo Kazooie with how Nunu and Willump traverse the world and even The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with how integral learning melodies are to completing puzzles in this frost bitten adventure.
Song of Nunu is about a young boy on a quest to find his mom along with the help of his best friend and father figure, Willump, who is the last known yeti alive. The journey of these best friends takes you across frozen lands, inside dreams, and through magma filled dungeons with a solid pacing that moves along briskly during its 8-10 hour campaign.
The adventure is fairly linear and the journey consists mostly of exploration, puzzle solving and music playing. All of these aspects are very fun, especially the magical flute aspects, which the game lets you figure out. The way that the game emulates the flute playing by using the triggers and bumpers of the Steam Deck feels very immersive and rewarding. By the end of the game, there are some challenging songs that are required without any broken notes. The platforming and controls are tight, the climbing feels reminiscent of Uncharted and the puzzles are mostly broken down into large areas that feel Tomb Raider-esque with plenty of switches and levers.
The game opens with a glimpse into a sinister ending with Nunu all alone in the middle of a blizzard. The dire situation and the intrigue of how these legends arrived there, you feel instantly immersed in this world. The adventure of how these events came to pass is unfolded across magical lands with the discussion between the young boy and his yeti friend. The heavy lifting of the story is done by Nunu, as only he can understand his yet friend and with the strength of the voice acting, this becomes a very effective method to deliver the story to the player.
Out of tune
There isn’t any major problem with Song of Nunu, the issue is that the game just lacks challenge. The game is too easy and there is no setting for difficulty. The focus of the game is on the story and growth of the characters but a little more challenge during some of the combat sections would have been appreciated. The few combat encounters, the sledding sections and even the final boss all feel almost impossible to fail. It felt like a missed opportunity not to have a small upgrade tree for combat or exploration, as riding on the back of the last known Yeti seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity, especially when you consider the origin of these characters.
The other issue with the level of difficulty for Song of Nunu was that the challenge for the game was more centred around its puzzles and music playing. However, at almost arrival at a new puzzle section, the character would immediately hint towards what needed to be done. This removed a little of the player agency for coming to the solution on their own terms and in turn, removed some of the satisfaction with solving some of the enjoyable puzzles.
Playing on the Steam Deck, which was Steam Deck verified worked great, although there was minor dips in between major areas of the world, but this was never an issue during any of the combat or platforming sections.
Verdict
Snowballs fights, dancing around fires, and sliding down icy hills on the back of a yeti are just a few of the things you will be doing in Song of Nunu and these aren’t even the best parts. Song of Nunu is short, but it is a fun and heartfelt adventure that captures a lot of the same magic of those classic 3D platformers it was inspired by.