Of all the League of Legends characters, I never quite thought Nunu and Willump would be the characters to get their own game. Publisher Riot Forge has been on a roll, putting out titles like The Mageseeker and Ruined King to expand the world of their popular free-to-play MOBA—and their latest (and sadly last) title, Song of Nunu: A League of Legends story, developed by Tequila Works of ‘Rime’ and ‘Gylt’ pedigree, continued that scope expansion and outreach to new audiences: this time in the form of a third-person adventure title that has players take on the role of Nunu, a little kid in search of his mother, and a chunky, four-handed yeti named Willump who watches over the little one.
But what follows is not only a fun ride through the Freljords, but also Tequila Works’ best title yet.
Frozen Bliss
Song of Nunu starts us off with little-boy wonder Nunu, a Notai youngling who stumbles out of a cave and proceeds to get smacked with a snowball by Willump. This moment really set the tone of Song of Nunu, a game that’s all about Nunu’s coming-of-age story as he sets out to find the ‘True Blue’ and hopefully, his missing mother. The great yeti Willump, too, tags along and makes sure that the little warrior is safe. From defense to free sleds, he’s not letting any adversaries from the world of Runeterra get to his best bud.
So naturally, you get to play both Nunu and Willump as you explore the Freljords—a frozen wonder or hellscape depending on the time of day. You’ll primarily play as the little flute player but switch to Willump as needed when he comes to scoop you up. Both characters feel great to control as they feature the right amount of mass and you’ll need the proper momentum to make jumps. There’s no need for precise jumping or anything as most platforms are giant landmasses or walls you can hang and grapple about.
But the more unique feature of Song of Nunu isn’t its world but Willump himself. This big spot of fur isn’t just a playable character but a tag-a-long. He’ll follow Nunu about his adventure, sit down, feel sleepy at random, build snowpeople, and chuck snowballs back at you if you instigate. There’s even a dedicated ‘hug’ button. Think of Willump as The Last Guardian’s Trico except he’s far more responsive and way better at solving puzzles. Plus he likes snowball fights and that’s easily a winning trait for a good friend.
Speaking of puzzles, that’s your primary gatekeeper in the Freljords. They don’t amount to anything difficult—most of the time you just need to tug on a switch or two. You’ll use Nunu’s signature flute to play Notai songs to activate nodes or carry magic from one spot to another, all conveniently controlled with the bumpers and triggers to play notes in the proper shapes that in which they appear. Sometimes you’ll need to use his flute in tandem with platforming sequences to get past a stone blocking your way, but ultimately there’s nothing extraneous to worry about.
Like the puzzles, the game’s combat system is straightforward. You’ll almost always fight as Willump and for that, you’ll wack foes with light and heavy attacks. You can mix them up for combos in conjunction with your jump button. Foes primarily consist of wolves but also elementals and things infected with Dark Ice. For some enemies, charging up Nunu’s snowballs with True Ice powers will be key to taking down these targets. But otherwise, combat sequences are short and frankly speaking, can be counted with both your hands.
I think what really works with Song of Nunu is how well the sequences are paced out. Cutscenes are frequent, but the game never dawdles too much on one kind of gameplay, and you’re always moving to new areas within the Freljord. These areas are gorgeously detailed, not just with their aesthetically pleasing art style but the scale and structure of the world. You’ll find creatures shaped like mountains, a city nestled deep within a mountain, and a fortress entrenched in the freezing tundras (ARAM fans say “hut”)—Song of Nunu really accentuates my favourite part of League of Legends: its spin on the Warcraft-style of heavy armour and intimidating character designs.
The best part? Song of Nunu keeps a fluid 120 frames per second on my (admittedly overpowering) Ryzen 9 desktop build and a range of 70-90 frames per second on my Asus ROG laptop. This is a great port, but it needs a borderless windowed mode option. This week, Song of Nunu also launches on Xbox consoles and for the most part the game runs well on the Xbox Series X. From what I can tell, it sticks to a 4K resolution whenever possible and targets 60 frames per second. It’s nice when it hits that frame target, but often the game will judder as the frame drops, likely because of the game’s triple-buffer vsync technique. Still, it’s perfectly playable and looks as good as it did when I played on PC.
Like Family
Song of Nunu’s narrative continues right off the origins of Nunu and William. This sort of setup can be a bit intimidating, largely because the world of League of Legends is huge, and picking a point on the timeline to jump right into can be a terrible idea when you’re trying to keep the player interested. Especially since I felt Song of Nunu leans very heavily on its story and setting over mechanics to keep the player interested.
Right off the bat, it was a little difficult for me to care for the plight of both our heroes. And the beginning of the game is slow enough that I was a bit absentminded in my progression. It’s when Nunu begins meeting other champions like Braum that things do begin to pick up. These fateful encounters are integral to Nunu’s development and thankfully it comes sooner rather than later. The climax and final sections of the game really shine thanks to fun encounters and a coat of polish that sheens all around Song of Nunu. The mechanics may be simple but the package is put together with great care.
One thing I want to commend is the wide range of not just available text localisations but also dubbing. Song of Nunu supports 16 languages and of that, 13 of them are fully voiced. This even includes languages like Turkish which are frequently underrepresented in gaming. When I saw that option I immediately switched to it and wasn’t disappointed. I felt the character voices fit, the direction was good, and Braum sounded all the better in Turkish.
From the beautiful presentation to the fun coming-of-age story, Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story is easily one of Tequila Works’ best. Fans of League of Legends have had their hands full with Riot Forge’s other releases and they can have another helpful serving of a fantastic adventure game. ∎
Unfortunately, recently Riot Games decided to shutter Riot Forge as a whole—leaving Song of Nunu as one of the publisher’s last releases. Worlds with potential were cut short if you ask me, especially since this game rocks.
Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story
Played on
Windows 11 PC / Xbox Series X
PROS
- Beautiful artstyle and great music/SFX mixed in with fantastic performance on PC.
- A slow start to what amount to be a fun adventure slash puzzler in the end, solid pacing.
- Great performances from the cast, especially in Turkish.
CONS
- A few brief but finnicky platforming bits and camera angles.
