‘Kao The Kangaroo’ Review: Comfortable But Uninspired

Games ‘Kao The Kangaroo’ Review: Comfortable But Uninspired Mitch Wallace Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about gaming hardware, software and news. May 28, 2022, 05:48pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Kao the Kangaroo Credit: Tate Multimedia Colorful 3D platformers, much to my chagrin, are a bit of a dying breed.

We did get the excellent Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time back in 2020, and Double Fine’s recent Psychonauts 2 was absolutely brilliant. I’ve yet to play the lauded Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart , though I thought indie gem Tamarin was a lot of fun. But despite all the generally good reviews for these titles, 3D platformers are, rather sadly, few and far between these days.

This is especially so when compared to how many cutesy jump-fests the industry pumped out a few decades ago. They just don’t generate the kind of revenue they used to . Kao the Kangaroo , a full reboot of the three-game Kao franchise that started with a cherished Sega Dreamcast original ( in Poland, at least ) back in 2000, attempts to fill this ever-widening void.

It’s an absolute throwback to a very specific period in gaming history, albeit updated with modern graphics and higher production value. Is it fun? In a been-there-done-that sort of way, sure. Is it a creative, reimagined iteration that pushes the genre forward? Not by a long shot.

I don’t remember much of the story from the original Kao games, and who does honestly, but this new release has our hero kangaroo searching for his lost father and sister. You meet a whole cast of anthropomorphic animal characters along the way, seemingly plucked straight out of a low-budget Dreamworks film. None of them are particularly interesting or memorable, including titular Kao (pronounced K.

O, by the way). Then again, has he ever been memorable? Kao the Kangaroo Credit: Tate Multimedia MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry Cutscene dialogue is usually done with voiceover (a notable plus) but it’s contrived at best, wooden and flat at worst. The writing is jokey, punny and boasts a kind of unoffensive charm that should keep kids relatively entertained and adults rolling their eyes.

It’s reminiscent of awful cinematic sensation The Room: Endearing terribleness, I’d call it. You’re tearing me apart, Kao! In this sense, Kao the Kangaroo zeroes in on its target audience, naïve children, though I think it could have been executed with more sophistication. Kids entertainment doesn’t have to be dumbed down, and Kao plays to the lowest common denominator, both in terms of its story and generic gameplay.

Weirdly and conversely, there’s plenty of adult-centric pop culture references sprinkled throughout, like “Hello darkness, my old friend” and “I came here to kick butt and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubble gum. ” If you indulge in this reboot for more than five minutes, you’ll realize how much Kao the Kangaroo swipes from other properties, unapologetically so. In terms of structure, the game is set up like a million other 3D platformers.

You’ve got themed open hub worlds that lead to individual levels, which then open up as you track down enough runes to unlock them. Each group of hub levels culminates in an uninspired boss encounter, most of which are pretty enjoyable, if unmemorable. Kao the Kangaroo Credit: Tate Multimedia You collect currency (Ducats) as you play, coins that can buy Kao new cosmetics (like a cool retro 128-bit Kao), and diamonds, collectibles that, as far as I could tell, seemed to serve no real purpose beyond general game completion.

Slightly more challenging bonus stages called Eternal Wells break up the typical adventure action and seem well-suited for speed-running. Light puzzle-solving via elemental boxing glove power-ups round out the collect-a-thon blueprint, because Kao the Kangaroo , much like its predecessors, borrows a lot from other 3D platformers. The first game on Dreamcast was basically a Crash Bandicoot clone of sorts, and this new game follows suit, but without all the wild creative abandon found in Toys For Bob’s masterclass.

It’s got Ratchet & Clank rail-grinding and grappling. There’s Super Mario 64 sliding. It’s got that thing from Crash games were you grab hold of a roped or chain-linked pathway above and traverse while hanging, only this time it’s with Kao’s ears and you can stretch him out to reach crates (another borrow from old Naughty Dog games).

Hell, there’s even run-from-the-boulder style segments. Except, you know, it’s a gorilla on a log instead. That, and you’re not riding a tiny polar bear or wily warthog.

Kao as an IP has never hidden the fact that it’s derivative, and in my opinion, the games have been fun despite this. Still, it can feel egregious at times. All these years later, Kao the Kangaroo continues to stay vague and hazy about its own identity.

Kao the Kangaroo Credit: Tate Multimedia Combat is surprisingly fun, if overly simple. Boxing glove combos are enjoyable to pull off, especially with the slow-motion finisher that can be applied to weakened enemies. Rolling to dodge during lock-on is solid and sending a projectile back at an angry backpacked simian is always satisfying.

Disappointingly, fighting is not particularly difficult, as I was dying to label Kao the Demon’s Souls of kangaroo games. No such luck. Visually, Kao is alright to look at.

It’s bright, whimsical and calls to mind similar games of yore, showing off pleasing colors, enticing reflections and inviting environments. The Skylanders -esque music is good but it can get really repetitive, to the point of aggravation. That said, there are some overarching technical issues with the game and they do detract from the overall experience.

Graphical and texture pop-in are relatively common, especially when loading into a new area. Less excusable are music tracks that play loudly when they shouldn’t and serious errors in hit detection. Frozen crates and barrels are notorious for losing their interactivity once the ice is melted, leaving you punching at inanimate objects in vain.

For the most part, our marsupial controls really well. Movement is tight and the running animation feels good, as does double-jumping. The one big exception for me is the awful grappling, which seriously almost made me throw my controller out the window in nerd fury.

What’s strange is that these directional problems only occur at some grapple areas, not all. Kao the Kangaroo Credit: Tate Multimedia Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong, but the controls in these instances are not intuitive at all , because at the end of certain grapples, even if you’re pressing forward on the analog stick, Kao will abruptly (and randomly) throw himself off to the side, resulting in needless death. The mechanic almost feels technically broken, like there’s a glitch in the dismount input.

Regardless, I loathed every grappling segment, simply because I never knew if it was going to be an okay one or a very not okay one. On another note — and this kind of thing drives me crazy — the developers didn’t include an in-game option to invert the camera. On the Steam version, I was able to invert the camera through Valve’s meta launcher menu, but the Xbox version I tried had no such system-level option available, and was therefore borderline unplayable for a neurotic inverted gamer like myself.

Hopefully, this will get patched soon. In the 10-ish hours it took me to complete the game, I had a good time with Kao the Kangaroo , but it was in spite of its problems. Tate Multimedia’s reboot is cozy in a nostalgic way and scratches that old-school 3D platforming itch.

However, control anomalies, technical issues and extremely derivative, soulless game design make this one hard to recommend to anyone but the most dedicated 3D platforming afficionados. Final Review Score: 6. 5/10 Platform Reviewed: Steam Publisher: Tate Multimedia MSRP: $29.

99 Also Available On: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S Disclosure: Tate Multimedia provided review codes for coverage purposes. Mitch Wallace Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.