Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story review

The last few years have been pretty busy for Riot Games. With the Arkane series doing great numbers on Netflix and now approaching half a dozen spin-off games for its seminal League of Legends property, Riot’s ability to adapt and surprise has been impressive. The fact that none of the spin-offs have been the same genre is even more exciting. We had turn-based RPG The Ruined King, isometric dungeon-crawler Mageseeker, and side-scrolling Metroidvania Convergence, and now we have Song of Nunu, a 3rd-person adventure aimed at a younger audience.

It follows the titular Nunu, a young boy looking for his mother as well as any remnants of his lost people, allied with Willump, a powerful yeti terrifying to anyone but Nunu. Together they must cross the perilous frozen wilds of the Freljord and contend with the villainous Lissandra, who invades Nunu’s dreams and seeks an ancient weapon at the heart of a colossal mountain.

Armed only with snowballs, Nunu must defer to Willump to fight off wolves, sprites and krugs, while he uses his magical flute, the Svelsongur, to manipulate the environment and clear the way. And when I say this is aimed at younger players, I mean it. The biggest challenge comes from some of the head-scratching puzzles, but even then Nunu has Atreus’ habit of just calling out the solution after a while. And like Kratos, Willump is mainly there to break things and lift Nunu to higher ledges.

But I’m not comparing this to God of War in any meaningful way. Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story is much simpler than that. Most of the game is spent using the flute to solve simple input puzzles that are only challenging until you’ve gotten your head around which button corresponds to which note. Inbetween, you’ll climb ledges, explode colour-coded flower blooms with snowballs, and use Willump’s ice powers to create climb points and stepping stones across water. There are brief asides where you’ll journey to areas not covered in snow, but not many.

While Song of Nunu is certainly bright and colourful, it’s not the best-looking game of its kind. Environments are very samey and low detail, and though the game occasionally goes for spectacle, it rarely manages to really impress visually. Perhaps it’s because Song of Nunu is for youngsters that it feels much less interesting than previous League of Legends Stories. It does bring in other Champions like Braun, Volibear, Ornn and the aforementioned Lissandra, but that’s the kind of fan-service you’d expect, and which will only appeal to LoL players. They might come for the tie-in lore, but unless they’re under 12 they’re not likely to stay.

Combat is a simple affair of whaling on an enemy until they can be finished by holding the button down, upon which Nunu and Willump will do one of a surprising number of cinematic finishers. Even boss battles don’t put up much of a fight, given that they heavily telegraph attacks and, in some cases, wait until you’re actually out of the way before attacking.

What Song of Nunu lacks in challenge and thrills it mostly makes up for with charm and likeability. Nunu is a cute character and Willump is adorable, though they have a habit of hijacking the camera to talk exposition at you in almost every new area and whenever you find collectibles like murals and special Stanzas for Nunu to play on his flute.

The story never really goes anywhere dark, despite the narrative device of Nunu’s nightmares and dreamlike search for his missing mother. There are also times when it feels like you’re just solving puzzles for the sake of it, and it all starts to outstay its welcome throughout the back third of the game. I was willing every puzzle to be the last one by a certain point, and that’s not a good sign. I think I’d just had my fill of the characters and the scenery by then, but I’m hardly the target audience.

Despite some pretty visuals and endearing character interactions like snowball fights and the little high-five-belly-bounce you do after solving a big puzzle, Song of Nunu ultimately feels quite flat throughout. Compared to the other League of Legends Stories we’ve had recently, it definitely feels much more generic and a little too by-the-numbers. Younger gamers and die-hard fans will find a lot here that appeals, but for anyone else there’s little to get excited about.