Dark Light

22 years after the first Kao the Kangaroo Game, Tate Multimedia has revived this cult classic platformer for the fans. This time, Kao (Pronounced Kay-O) has to leave behind his village to find his sister and discover the secrets left behind by his father. By punching crabs, slamming Toads and dodging Lava you have to cross dangerous and secrets-filled levels, that are littered with collectables and items that the OG platformers offered. But, can you take down the fighting masters across the world that are now corrupted by dark power?

Kao the Kangaroo is a 3D platformer developed and published by Tate Multimedia and was released on May 27, 2022, for PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Ka-Powlicious Recap

The game begins with Kao having a nightmare that his sister was in danger and in the need of rescuing. After waking up, he realizes that his sister had left the village and hadn’t returned. This wasn’t the first time, since in a very similar manner Kao’s father also disappeared and was never found. The only thing that Kao could hold on to him was his memories until he found his gloves that had mysterious dark powers.

Embarking on the journey with his teacher, Kao has to cross and fight through dangerous lands that are even more vicious due to the influence of dark powers. Will Kao be able to make it alive through the dense dark forests? Or will he be burnt to a crisp in the deep caves surrounded by lava? That’s on you, to find out.

Slam-Dem-Mechanics

Kao the Kangaroo is a decent effort in reviving the old classic 3D platformer experience using modern bells and whistles. The game has a bigger scale, smooth controls and refined fighting mechanics. There are mainly only 3 ways you can deal damage to opponents or items around you – Punch, Roll and Jump Slam. While punching, your character will auto-lock towards your nearest enemy, filling up the rage meter that can be redeemed for a K-O punch. While rolling and jump slams work quite normally, Jump Slams are often quite weak and not a great choice of offence.

So, while you get an active fighting experience, you might soon get bored doing the same things. But to solve that, Kao the Kangaroo offers special attack types throughout the game. While occasionally you can find boomerangs to throw at enemies or trigger traps, you will also find glove upgrades. These glove upgrades come in the form of Fireballs that can put your gloves on fire, allowing you to unleash devastating blows and burn anything that comes your way. You will also find more types of upgrades throughout your run.

The level design of Kao the Kangaroo is very close to what I call perfect. Especially if you’re the quintessential ‘90s baby and had the privilege of playing 3D platformers, this will be a nostalgic trip in the best way possible. On the other hand, Kao the Kangaroo might only be short-lived experience compared to recently released platformer games.

The world is filled with many activities and multiple paths, allowing you to choose any path you want. But hey! Don’t worry, you won’t get lost. The paths are quite easy to figure out, and even if you hit a very shady cave or a place where you shouldn’t be, you are quite possibly close to finding secrets and collectables.

While the only important collectables are health upgrades and 1-Ups, you will also find the Alphabets ‘K-A-O’, diamonds, and lore. For many people it is fun to find every little collectable and get the highest score, but for me, after a while it just became tedious and highly unrewarding. Personally, not a great fan of Collectathon these days.

Lookin-Tough?

Kao the Kangaroo has a beautiful world filled with life and Lush Green visuals. It gives you the freedom of exploring each and every corner the way you want without a time limit. You’ll find a variety of biomes on your journey throughout. From dark forests to underground caves, you might even end up in icy mountains. While the game generally looks good, the art design comes off as uninspired and lacks optimization in some parts of the game. Most of the assets are repeated all over the place and the limited enemy types offer not much challenge.

Sadly, the game is devoid of moments that make you go “wow”. Even the Knockout Punch is just a slow-motion punch to a single enemy and does not visually give the feedback of a heavy hit. Overall, visually the game may look pretty at first, but it is severely lacking a unique visual identity. The OST is okay, but the dialogues are utterly disappointing in terms of delivery and writing.

Jumping to the Conclusion

Kao the Kangaroo is a decent reboot that may satisfy the series’ long-time fans. While it ticks all the checklist for being a classic platformer offering well-designed platforming, it has its own list of flaws.  While the game looks quite charming from the outside, there’s anything hardly original or unique that justifies the price tag, particularly for a newcomer. Still, if you’re a fan of the series and have a soft spot for the series, pick it up during sale.

Disclaimer: The review code was provided by the publishers with no riders.

FINAL RATING: AVOID

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