In 2024, indie developer Vea Games released a love letter to Nikoderiko: The Magical World, Classic Platformers. Now they’ve improved gameplay and released director cuts to add new content, offering them as a free upgrade.
If you miss Nikoderiko for the first time, it’s a family-friendly platformer with an art style inspired by Saturday morning cartoons. Starring Nico and Luna, you can play in single-player or in a sofa cooperative. You will travel through the different worlds of the game for quest to retrieve ancient relics stolen from you by the evil baron Grimbold. And you can work with a mountain of animals to defeat his Cobbling army and save the local tribes.
Since the release of the base version of the game, the development team has received extensive feedback from players and worked to improve as much as possible with the director’s cuts.
“There are a lot of emails. I personally read and answer every email,” said Dmitry Smirnov, founder of VEA Games and director of Nikoderiko. “We tried to implement all the necessary features you wanted. There are many ideas in the game and there are ways to improve the game. It will help you make a good game into a great game.”
One of the biggest improvements to the Director’s Cut is the expansion of the difficulty options, targeting a wider range of players and experience levels. For hardcore players, there is a new hard mode with level modifiers.
“It’s going to push the players forward,” Smirnov said. “There are more challenges, more difficult but honest mechanics. We want to provide a soul-like gaming experience on family platformers.”
At the other end of the spectrum, simple modes have been made easier, lowering the barrier to entry for genres for younger players and games and platformers. After all, it’s a family game.
“We decided to make it more accessible for kids and younger players,” Smirnov said. “It was great to know that while we were developing Nico Delico, my kids could feel the same impression I had in my childhood.”
Following the theme of making Nico Delico accessible to as many people as possible, the director’s cut will add text and narration options to several languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. It will also be added for the first time for steam deck compatibility.
There is also a new secret eighth world for players to unlock, with their own hidden treasures and new bosses. The new world features new music from veteran composer David Wise, who composed the soundtrack for the base game. Wise has been involved in the game for over 30 years and is perhaps best known for his work composed in the Donkey Kong Country series.
“For my fourth birthday, I got a present, and it was in the land of Donkey Kong,” Smirnov said. “I’ve always loved playing with my brother. I was so inspired by the graphics and the music with mystical vibes and atmosphere that I changed a lot of direction in my life.”
In addition to all the new content from the director’s cuts, we also refine what was already there. Graphics have been upgraded, animations have been improved, and performance is optimized across all platforms.
If you’ve already purchased Nikoderiko, the Director’s Cut is available as a free update and is compatible with previous saved games, so you don’t have to start over again. For Achievement Hunters, this update adds new trophies and achievements to the right platform.
If you’ve never got it before, the director’s cut has replaced the base game on all platforms. So you can get an expanded version if you buy it now. It’s available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Amazon Luna, so it’s probably safe to say you can access it. It also sells quite regularly, so you can always register your wish list on the platform of your choice and buy it at a comfortable price.
For collectors between you, a physical release has recently been announced and is due to be released on August 22nd. The base game will be available on its own. There is also a collector’s edition that comes with the game, David Wise’s Soundtrack on CD, and an official art book with around 100 pages.
For more information, see the game Official Website Or join the community Twitter For updates.
