The latest single player experience from the League of Legends-Universe will be released on November 1st. MeinMMO author Nikolas Hernes has already played Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story and thinks the game is perfect if you’re looking for an animated film for the Christmas season.
In addition to TFT and Legends of Runterra, the LoL universe has now also received several singeplayer games that give various champions a solo spotlight and expand the world beyond dry lore texts.
This year there was already CONVERGENCE and The Mageseeker. Song of Nunu is the first full 3D game in the LoL universe, and the game is worth playing, especially for the coming Christmas season, even if it has weaknesses in terms of gameplay.
You can find a trailer for the game here:
Song of Nunu brings a fan favorite from League of Legends to the game
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A story like Pixar
What kind of game is Song of Nunu?
The game’s presentation with a very rounded art design fits perfectly with the two characters Nunu and Willump and gives you the feeling of being in a Pixar film when playing. This feeling fits perfectly with the current colder season. The animations of the characters are appropriate, always likeable and highlight the personality of each character. Only Nunu’s facial animation is sometimes a bit too stiff for me.
The story doesn’t do anything particularly new, and Nunu and Willump’s journey feels like a familiar theme. As a fan of the LoL universe, it’s incredibly fun to be out and about in the Freljord and see how the well-known lore is expanded. I always found the narrated mysticism of the country with deities and past battles exciting.
And the landscapes and architecture that you explore are also beautiful and allow the cold and icy Freljord to shine with a lot of its own character and charm.
The friendship between a child and the last yeti
The biggest highlight of the game for me is the relationship between Nunu and Willump. For Nunu, Willump is not a farm animal or pet, but rather a partner and friend. They both have snowball fights together, get annoyed with each other, but also help each other and talk to each other when something is wrong.
Willump is reminiscent of a more childish version of Chewbacca because he can’t talk, but everyone understands him. Willump sometimes runs forward, builds snowmen on his own or just sits down. This ensures that Willump feels like a real character and not just an NPC dully following you around.
The dialogues and the dubbing, which I played in German, contribute to this and provide heartwarming moments that highlight the relationship between the two.
There are a few weaknesses in terms of gameplay
Aside from exploration in Song of Nunu, the core gameplay is solving various puzzles to progress. To do this, you sometimes do this together with Willump or individually as a nunu in coordination with a self-acting Willump. The most important item for this is the flute Svellsongur.
Like the ocarina in Zelda, you play different notes with it. On the controller, each shoulder button represents a note. You can play whenever you want, but the notes only have an effect in fixed puzzles. If you play something in free exploration, Willump will at least dance.
But you don’t need to expect complex puzzles, most of them are similar to sliding puzzles. They are never obsolete, but you don’t need to think long about them. For me, as someone who doesn’t like puzzles, this was great, but for people who expect complex puzzles, this could be a disappointing point.
The biggest weakness of Song of Nunu lies in the combat system. There is a light and strong attack, a ranged attack that can freeze, and a dodge roll. This is reminiscent of the Xbox 360 era, when brands like Spyro tried to establish a simple action combat system.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work so well here. The combos feel awkward and there is never a pleasant flow in the fight. Most of the time I used a single combo that was significantly more effective than the others. The ranged attack also doesn’t fit in comfortably with the other attacks and is actually only needed for certain opponents.
But you have to keep in mind that there are very few fights in the game and they don’t last long. So it never really caused any frustration for me, but it wasn’t fun either. Only the finishers when you kill an opponent are charmingly staged and make you smile every now and then.
Conclusion: Despite the small gameplay flaws, I had a lot of fun with Song of Nunu. Above all, the story, the animations and the friendship of Nunu and Willump suited me perfectly to the cold season and I felt like I was watching a good Pixar animated film. The puzzles are shallow and the combat system is not perfect. Due to the brevity of these segments and the brevity of the game in general, I can only recommend Song of Nunu to fans of heartwarming stories.
Of course, Song of Nunu is not the last game in the LoL universe. A crafting adventure awaits us next year:
In the new crafting game on Steam you can experience fun adventures as one of the cutest creatures in the LoL universe