Leopold the Golden is a fuzzball engineer who has amassed a huge fortune during his illustrious career. But as we all know in video game land any fortune is ripe for the picking and Leopold soon finds out his fortune has been stolen and he must now hunt it down.
To help him find the thief and his fortune it has been scattered across twenty four levels which he must traverse to meet up with one of his relatives who he assumes has robbed him of his gold. For obvious reasons these relatives live if far off obscure lands which are populated with traps and puzzles. To help you negotiate there puzzles you can jump, glide and make yourself smaller or larger. Controlling Leopold is very intuitive and each of his abilities is easily called upon when needed and you will need them a lot.Fortunately, there are plenty of checkpoints if Leo happens to meet his untimely demise.
Along the way you will come across many logical puzzles and traps that you will need to outwit using your abilities. The further into the game you get the harder the puzzles become. Picking up pieces of your golf along the way also reveals more about the mystery of who stole your gold. When you have completed each level you are scored on death's, time and how much gold you collected throughout the level. This factors into your final star reward which determines your ranking on the online leaderboard. And if you unlock all three stars in your ranking you will unlock a bonus level.
When the story mode has been completed a new hardcore mode is available. In this mode your objective is to complete as many levels as possible without dying. While this ramps up the challenge the game it still way too short and can be completed in a matter of hours. Experienced gamers may get more game time out of the hardcore mode.
The audio and graphics both deserve a mention. The look of the game is never the same and changes from one level to the next which can't be said of most platformers these days. A lush and cartoony world is complimented by some truly funny voice acting especially when meeting members of Leo's family and a simple but merry soundtrack that happily plays in the background.
When all's said and done Leo's Fortune is perfect family fodder. It's just challenging enough for children and the hardcore mode will appeal to the more seasoned gamer. In the end, Leo’s Fortune is a fun and addicting platformer/puzzler that is suitable for gamers of all ages and experience levels.
Review copy supplied by XCN.
Game: Leo's Fortune.
Genre: Puzzle.
Developer: 1337 & Senri.
Publisher: 1337 & Senri.
Platform(s): Xbox One.