In a far away world there lives a fox named Lucky and his sister, Lyra, who are the protectors, or "Guardian Order", of the Book of Ages, inside of which exist large worlds with diverse characters. There also lives a sorcerer cat named Jinx, who, alongside his offspring, the Kitty Litter, have the notion of stealing the book for their own nefarious purposes. In a quest to find his inner power, Lucky proceeds into the book to find the many treasures within its pages- the keys to stopping Jinx in his tracks- while also meeting a diverse variety of characters, including the Kitty Litter.
The plot is slightly adjusted in New Super Lucky's Tale, in which Jinx decided to betray his friends to obtain the Book of Ages, banishing those who opposed him into far worlds. He eventually cornered the remaining Guardians in a game of "Cat and Fox" (as Jinx says), only for it scatter its pages across these worlds, suck up Jinx, the Kitty Litter, and Lucky elsewhere. It's up to Lucky to find the pages and stop Jinx's plans for good!
This game provides examples of:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
- Lucky wears shoes and a cape.
- Wormals are giant worms who wear accessories, such as hats.
- Achilles in His Tent: Happens to the Phantasmic Four when their get their ecto kicked by the horde of bad guys Jinx's Bedlam Box unleashes on their cemetary. Lucky has to get them to come out to help him progress.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the loosest sense of the word. In the original version of the game, the Kitty Litter were just evil, no questions asked. Here however, when you read between the line, there are hints that their motives and goals might have more to them than just 'we're the bad guys.' Jinx betrayed the other Guardians soon after his world vanished, leaving himself and his kittens the only cats left, if you talk to him in his golem disguise, at one point he says how who is the hero and the villain is decided by who writes the tales, and when he gets his hands on the complete book, he'll say how he can now rewrite history...
- Adorable Evil Minions: The Kitty Litter and nearly all standard mooks fit this trope. Outright acknowledged in-universe with Wigglers (the large bright-pink worms).
- Amusement Park of Doom: The Carnival Court level in Hauntingham has this aesthetic, natural considering the world it's in, but is actually quite the opposite, packed with fun mini-games and challenges for the player to beat. That being said, the Ferris Wheel is most definitely not safe.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes/Cosmetic Award: Reaching certain milestones or accomplishing certain things will unlock outfits from Geovanni's shop. For instance, collecting all of the pages in a world unlocks that world's boss's clothes tailored to Lucky's size. Getting all 16 hot dogs in Foxington, the world made of Brutal Bonus Levels, unlocks Howdy's Hidden Hotdog Hat and Smiley's Secret Sausage Smock. Together, Lucky resembles a hot dog cart vendor.
- Art Evolution: Lucky's design is less simplistic than in Lucky's Tale. Exaggerated when the release of New Super Lucky's Tale with the prologue and the final cutscene is drawn in hand and Lucky and Jinx can talk straight.
- Camera Abuse: Lucky is the major offender here. Move the camera around him while he's standing still and he'll move his head to continue looking at it, at least as far as he's able. Will make it a little difficult to snap photos of him looking at stuff.
- At the start of Tess's boss battle, her MiniMech will accidentally swat two Mooks flying near her, sending them crashing into the camera lens.
- Cats Are Mean: Jinx and the Kitty Litter, the game's villains, are all cats.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Lucky's pet pig, Piggy, the alien villain Gloop, have no appearance nor mention in Super Lucky's Tale, effectively retconning them out of continuity.
- Collision Damage: All of the enemies will damage you by touching. Unless they're stunned, at which point you can defeat them by running into them (causing Lucky to kick them).
- Darker and Edgier: While not particularly grim, New Super Lucky's Tale plot raises the stakes considerably. Like when the Guardians are on the run from Jinx, or Lyra is an illusion to Lucky at the finale.
- There's also the rather unpleasant reveal in the Stinger of the Postgame Foxington world that Lucky's older brother Lucas may have betrayed the Guardians to work together with Jinx and the Kitty Litter.
- Defector from Decadence: The Penultimate Warrior is a light version of this. At best he seems to disdain the rest of his people's turn from their warrior ways to more peaceful ones, at worst he thinks they're wimps. He's still a heroic character, but don't expect his training to be filled with hugs and juice cleanses.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: Do fear the reaper enemy. But the undead and ghosts in Hauntingham are probably some of the most genial and pleasant depictions outside of Casper.
- Double Jump: Present, and necessary for much of the platforming.
- Evil Is Petty: While fighting Jinx in the first game, one of his bullet patterns spells out 'LUCKY SMELLS'.
- Expy: See if you can guess who Hauntingham's Phantasmic Four are supposed to be based on their roster: Mr. Phantasmic, Brother Grimm, Tommy Torchwood, Susan Spectral. I'll wait.
- 'Mr. Phantasmic: That cat will bring DOOM to us all if he's left unchecked.
- Fast Tunnelling: Lucky can quickly burrow down to retrieve coins and other secrets beneath the ground.
- Foreshadowing: On Gilly Island, as she prepares for her party, Lady Meowmalade frequently also expresses the hope that "HE" will be coming. The player is probably meant to assume she's referring to her father Jinx, but by the end of the boss battle, her intended guest of honor hasn't arrived. After combat dialogue reveals that she was actually expecting her number 1 fan Lucas Swiftail. In the stinger ending this same character appears to rescue Jinx and his Kitty Litter.
- Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: While Lucky ran on four legs in Super Lucky's Tale, its remaster makes him run on two legs.
- However,
Word of God states that Lucky is more than capable of running on all fours should he want to
.
- However,
- Funny Animal: Lucky is an anthropomorphic fox.
- Genre Throwback: The game is inspired by 1990s collectathons like Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon, and Super Mario 64.
- Goomba Stomp: One of Lucky's two methods of combat and actually his more effective one since his Tail Slap only stuns enemies.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The main thing to collect here are the four-leaf clovers. There are also coins to find, as well as the scattered letters of the word LUCKY.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: If any enemy mook in the game has a projectile attack, chances are Lucky can swat it back at them to take them out. Played with by a later version of the bee enemies, who fire multiple stingers in succession, with the second one destroying a returned first projectile.
- Hypocrite: Jinx disguised as a rock golem asks Lucky if he really knows who the heroes are, as history is written by the winners. When he says this, it sounds like a Villain Has a Point moment. Then Jinx gloats prior to his boss battle that he's found the nexus of the world's magic and plans to use it to rewrite the entire damn Book of Ages to suit himself and his own whims. After trying to kill Lucky in a previous level and tricking him into handing over the book using an illusion of Lyra... yeah, he's just crazy.
- Kid Hero: Lucky and his sister are young foxes who protect the Book of Ages.
- Leet Speak: Ch1p talks like this whenever he experiences a malfunction.
- The Maze: One of the flavors of level in the game. In addition to Tess and Anna Lyd's own trials, there are two main levels (in VeggieTown and Gilly Island) wherein Lucky must navigate a top down maze to find various points within and then make it to the center.
- Meaningful Rename: When the Yetis turned from Blood Knight to Technical Pacifist, they changed the name of their home from Dropkick Canyon to Wrestful Retreat.
- Post-End Game Content: Foxington, 20 new levels that test Lucky to allow him to become an official Guardian, 4 new costumes to unlock, and even a stinger ending. It started out as Downloadable Content, but the Updated Re Release has it as a Playable Epilogue.
- Pungeon Master: The Mail Golem makes several bad puns in his loading screen messages.
- Shout-Out: One 2D section of "Securing the Talent" (part of Gilly Island) involves Lucky climbing to the top of the stage, dodging rolling spiked logs being tossed around by a yeti.
- In turn, Gilly Island itself is named after the TV show Gilligan's Island.
- There are plausibly two shoutouts to the Monkey Island series. The Mystery Character who is spying on Lucky in every level is reminiscent of Fester Shinetop from The Secret of Monkey Island. The boss of Wrestful Retreat are like cat versions of comically inept pirate Mr Fossey and the enormous gorilla LeChimp from The Curse of Monkey Island.
- "Umm, this isn't the Octo you're looking for."
- Lady Meowmalade is named after the song "Lady Marmalade" by Labelle.
- The Soggy Boggy Boys are named after the Soggy Bottom Boys, the fictional band from the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Tess, and her rival Anna Lyd, are the smartest members of their respective teams and both are depicted with thick glasses. (And to add to Tess's character, hers have a large crack in one of the lenses.)
- Speaking Simlish: The only characters in the game to speak in full, comprehensible English are Lucky, Lyra, and Jinx and this is only in the Updated Re-release. Everyone else simply alternates randomly between strings of gibberish whenever speaking. Jinx himself speaks in such a way in certain key moments.
- Spelling Bonus: Each level has five letters that spell out "Lucky". Collecting all of them gives you an additional page.
- Spin Attack: Lucky's main attack is to spin in order to strike the enemies with his tail and stun them.
- The Stinger: At the end of the Guardian Trials. Jinx and his Kitty Litter are behind bars when the door to their cell is opened by Master Mittens and an until then unseen fox wearing a guardian sigil who offers the group a ride.
- Stumbled Into the Plot: In New Super Lucky's Tale, the villain Jinx says Lucky is this, saying he's come into the plot "medias res". In truth, Lucky's family have had a real stake in things from the beginning.
- Surprisingly Creepy M Oment: Most of the game is quite bright and lovely. Then you reach Hauntingham, where the color palette darkens, enemies and levels become more formidable, and Jinx shows up personally. Enhanced by being after Gilly Island, which has a sunny summer vacation vibe to it. This does not extend to Hauntingham's resident ghosts, however, who are actually quite affable.
- Take That!: Combines with Shout-Out in the Eight Fold Path level of the Wrestful Retreat world is a sky high obstacle course where Lucky is told "If you want to reach enlightenment, you can't just fly over your problems." A subtle dig at another foxy hero known of flight.
- Video-Game Lives: Lucky gets 5 lives per level before he has to restart it. Moreover, he also has 3 hearts, and life is only lost after all three are depleted, which restarts him at a checkpoint within a level.
- Villain Has a Point: Sheriff Wurmful admits that, craziness aside, Tess did have a point about VeggieTown needing to modernize its farming and harvesting techniques. They will hopefully forego the giant chickens for their own renovations though.
- Virtual Paper Doll: A variety of outfits and hats for Lucky can be purchased to be mixed and matched however you please. Of course a matching set causes Lucky to do funny poses when selected.
- Written by the Winners: Jinx asks Lucky if Lucky is really the hero. After all, the person writing the tale decides who's the villain and who's the hero.
Come on!
