Kao the Kangaroo: Preview

Written by: David Cameron

I remember Kao the Kangaroo that released back around 2000 on a handful of systems, I played the game on the Dreamcast and yes it was a competent game it wasn't anything special. The graphics were probably the stand out feature back then, as the character movement just felt a little off but then again if you go back and play most of the mid budget platform games back then they will all have a little jank to them.

So what we have here is a reboot of the game that's coming out in time for the summer. The game I guess is similar in style to the Crash Bandicoot games when Activision started to release them for all platforms and they became more open in the level design. But I guess if you've never heard of the series till now all you need to know is that its a family friendly platform game, that got some average reviews at the time.

Thanks to the developers of this remake/reboot we have been able to spend around half an hour jumping and bashing our way through the game. You are a smart talking kangaroo that wears boxing gloves to fight enemies. There are so many items to collect in this too so if you enjoy some of Rare's work keep your eyes peeled for this. When I say many items I believe I counted at least seven types of collectables in the game. 

The game looks very nice but has that strange budget look, similar to the Yooka-Laylee game where it has a too shiny look and just makes the game look cheap. Happily though the main character Kao has had his movements totally overhauled and he is fast and smooth in his movements, kinda what you'd expect in a modern 3D platform game. He can double jump (always a bonus), punch, spin attack and he can slide plus more to discover. His movement really helps in exploring his new world. 

Like most cutesy 3D platform games they hide the simple fact that its no kids game with a much higher difficulty that I was expecting. I will say that I feel that the game could be a nice fun distraction but I'm torn with the simple fact that who is this for? The people that played the original because that's not many, or is it for kids again that's not a great fit because of the difficulty of the game. So we have a 3D platform game that looks good but nothing outstanding and if this is more then £20 this could well fail like the original.

Written by: David Cameron