Leo’s Fortune Review

Leo’s Fortune is the latest game from Swedish game Studio 1337 & Senri LLC, the same guys who brought you the quirky but superb real time strategy game Devils Attorney so it has a great pedigree behind it. So here’s our Leo’s Fortune review.

Leo’s a very grumpy puff ball who has had his gold stolen from him who is on a mission to reclaim his stolen gold from his equally grumpy, and much more untrustworthy, family. Set across five very visually gorgeous acts, each level slowly pumps up the difficulty and takes you to meet another one of Leo’s distant family members. Along the way you have to solve all manner of different puzzles and, piece by piece, retrieve Leo’s fortune.

Playability

There’s only so much you can do with a platform puzzle style game, but that’s partly why we love them, and why they are so successful, and Leo’s Fortune doesn’t let us down. As you race around the worlds you’ll find a mix of mechanical based puzzles using rich physics and a dash of speed, racing and jumping, and the learning curve is really well done and spot on.

There are times when the touch interface lets the game down. I can’t tell whether it’s not responsive enough or whether it just doesn’t suit some of the more precise movements needed in some puzzles but I found myself change interface types in the options on a few occasions. It doesn’t happen often however and for the most part you’ll be flying along like a mad blue furry thing.

Graphics

From the outset the graphics are fantastic. Each act has it’s own look and the artwork is rich and really very nicely done. Even the little Leo has his own graphical flare with his blue fluff moving as you dash about and his oh-so-admirable moustache twitching as he mutters.

If you have a higher end tablet then you really do see the great artful at its best and I can’t wait to see this on an Android TV based Nexus Player.

Audio

The audio is great with a really pleasant soundtrack playing away in the background though you can’t disable the music aspect within the game. The cut-scenes are particularly well done with a lovely voice-over for Leo.

Overall

Leo’s Fortune is a great little platformer game and proves to be great value for money. It’s crying out for additional acts, and I hope that 1337 will release additional content in the future. That’s not to say it’s a small game, or is quick to play through, it would just be great to see a Christmas themed content option with a santa-clause themed Leo bouncing along some winter wonderland.

From the outset I couldn’t help but think of how this would play on a Nexus Player, Googles new set top device featuring it’s Android TV OS. This kind of platformer, with it’s lush graphics and puzzles, is ideally suited to controllers and would look stunning on a big screen. With games of this quality and price it’s easy to see why Android TV would be challenger to the current consoles for adhoc gaming.