Nikoderiko: Magic World – Director's Cut as Free Upgrade

In 2024, independent developer VEA Games released Nikoderiko: The Magical World, their love letter to classic platform games. Now, they have released a director's edit that perfects the gameplay and adds new content and makes it a free upgrade.

If you missed Nikoderiko for the first time, it's a family-friendly platformer with artistic style inspired by Saturday morning cartoons. It plays Mongoose Niko and Luna and can be played in a single or sofa co-op. You travel through the various worlds of the game to seek out ancient relics stolen from you by the evil Baron Gribold, who can work with the Animal Cavalry to defeat his co-creation army and save the local tribes.

Since the release of the basic version of the game, the development team has received extensive feedback from players and has worked hard to improve as much as possible in the director’s layoffs.

“We have a lot of emails; I personally read and responded to every email,” said Dmitry Smirnov, founder of VEA Games and director of Nikoderiko. “We try to implement all the necessary features you ask for. The game has a lot of ideas and how to improve the game. It really helps us make a great game a great game.”

One of the biggest improvements in the director’s cut is the expansion of difficulty options, which targets a wider range of players and experience levels. For hardcore players, there is a new hard mode with level modifiers.

“It will push the players,” Smirnov said. “There are more challenges, more difficult but honest mechanics. We want to give you an experience like Soulslike game in a home platformer.”

On the other end, make Easy Mode easier, thereby reducing entry barriers to young players or players in the novice game or platformer type. After all, it's a family game.

“We decided to make it easier for kids and young players to get it,” Smirnov said. “When we developed Nikoderiko, it was great to know that my kids would be able to have the same impression as I did in my childhood.”

The director's tailoring with the theme of making Nikoderiko visit as many people as possible is to provide text and voiceover options for multiple languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. It also added Steam Deck compatibility for the first time.

There is also a new Secret Eight Worlds for players to unlock with their own hidden treasures and new bosses. With the new world, new music from veteran composer David Wise, he created the soundtrack for the base game. Wise has worked in the game for over 30 years and is probably famous for his work in the Donkey Kong Country series.

“I had a gift on my fourth birthday, that was the Donkey Hole Country,” Smirnov said. “I have always loved playing with my brothers, which has changed a lot of direction in my life because I was inspired by graphics and mysterious and atmospheric music.”

In addition to all the new content in the director’s cut, it also refines what already exists. Graphics have been upgraded, animations have been improved, and performance has been optimized on all platforms.

If you have purchased Nikoderiko, the director's cut is available as a free update and is compatible with previous save games, so you don't have to start over. For Achievement Hunter, updates add new trophys and achievements on the appropriate platform.

If you've never chosen it before, the director's cut will replace the basic game on all platforms, so buying it now will give you an extended version. It's available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Amazon Luna, so it's safe to say you can access it. It can also be offered for sale regularly, so you can always be willing to list it on your preferred platform and buy it when the price is comfortable.

For the collectors among you, a physical release has been announced recently and is scheduled to be released on August 22. The basic game will be released on its own, and there will also be a collector's edition, the soundtrack of David Wise on the CD that comes with the game and an official art book, with about 100 pages.

For more information, check out the game's Official website Or join the community twitter Used for updates.