It’s been a hot minute since I last played a good ol’ fashioned mobile platformer, so imagine my delight at discovering that Leo’s Fortune has made its way to Google Play Pass. Leo’s Fortune is a traditional platformer for Android starring a fuzzy, squishy, blue ball with googly eyes and a fabulous mustache named Leopold.
Leo’s grand fortune goes missing one day and he suspects his relatives, Cousin Victor, Aunt Olga, and Uncle Sergej, of being the culprits. Following a trail of dropped gold coins across the world, Leo will traverse five stages to get to the bottom of the crime committed against him. This charming title has held up shockingly well to time and may yet make its way to our list of best Android games.
The appeal of Leo’s Fortune is that it’s a classic, straightforward return to platforming. Using simple tap-and-drag touchscreen controls, you slide Leo left or right across 2D levels, solving light environmental puzzles and avoiding deadly obstacles along the way.
The real fun comes from Leo’s inherent silly physicality. As a puffball, Leo can inflate himself while jumping to initiate a slow gliding descent, squish himself down to fit into tight spaces, or expand to manipulate buttons and other objects in the world.
The real fun comes from Leo's inherent silly physicality as a puffball.
After the initial tutorial level, things really start to heat up with hazards the likes of which I haven’t seen since Hollow Knight’s Path of Pain. There are more buzzsaws and spikes than you can shake a stick at!
To top off the rock-solid gameplay, Leo’s Fortune has lovely graphics and backgrounds, a great soundtrack, and a suite of bonus levels to be unlocked if players can get all three stars in the basic levels. Bonus stars are awarded for collecting all coins, completing a level within a certain time limit, and not losing any lives in the process.
There aren’t many major shortcomings of Leo’s Fortune, but it can be a very short game if you don’t struggle with the levels. In some players’ eyes, the short runtime may actually be a positive thing, since Leo’s Fortune naturally lends itself to speedrunning, but for others, this might feel like a net negative.
The other small complaint is that Leo’s Fortune does very little to challenge the player beyond nailing the right inputs. There are no bosses or battles here, so the platforming is either going to be what makes or breaks the game for most people. If you’re not hooked by the first few levels, you probably won’t much incentive to continue on.
Leo's Fortune is a short game, especially if you find the levels come easy to you.
All told, Leo’s Fortune is a charming platformer with a big personality and classic gameplay that’s hard to beat. The clean, concise level designs make this a perfect game to play in short bursts or to blast through in one go and see how short you can get your total run time. If you liked games like Bubble Tale, this is a definite win for you.
Stacked up to modern mobile platformers that have more to offer, I’m not sure if Leo’s Fortune is still worth the $4.99 price tag, but if you can get it for free on Play Pass it’s a killer deal for a fantastic little game.
A classic adventure platformer with big personality and charm for days, Leo's Fortune should be in every platformer junkie's gaming library.
