Although it may not be as well known or remembered, KAO THE KANGAROO is the name of a quite popular platform video game franchise back in the year 2000.
The games were developed by the Polish studio Tate Multimedia, who released 5 games for multiple systems between 2000 and 2005, later freeze to the brand for an indefinite time. In the year 2020, and on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the kangaroo’s birth, Tate announced that he was working on a revival of the saga, which finally became the game that concerns us today, the sixth iteration of the adventures of the marsupial boxer.
KAO THE KANGAROO is available for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch and PC.
PINEAPPLE GO, PINEAPPLE COME, THE BOYS ENTERTAIN.
As there is not a more or less stable plot line in each Kao title, but each one is almost independent of the other and they only share the fact that the protagonist is a kangaroo, on this occasion the story they want to tell us is that in An Australian island paradise lives Kao, a brave young marsupial who is the son of Koby, the strongest and bravest warrior in the village. It turns out that Koby disappeared a long time ago because he would have gone in search of the Eternal Warrior, a being with a malevolent power capable of upsetting the very balance of reality. Not returning, Kaia, his daughter and also Kao’s sister, goes out to look for him. Kaia does not return either, appearing in a dream to Kao warning him that she too has succumbed to the power of the Eternal Warrior and that Kao is the only one who can rescue them both and stop this danger.
Kao then decides to go in search of his family, but not before asking advice from Walt, a martial arts master koala who is not only the boy’s sensei, but also an old friend and companion of Koby. Walt informs Kao that his father left behind the Eternal Gloves, a pair of boxing gloves that pack tremendous power but have their own consciousness, so they can even corrupt their wearer. Fearing no danger, Kao decides to wear them and go on his adventure. Now he must travel the world on the trail of his father, a mission that will lead him to cross paths with other martial arts masters, former friends of his father, who have now also fallen under the influence of the Eternal Warrior’s power. .
JUMP, JUMP, JUMP, LITTLE LOBSTER
The new version of the adventures of KAO THE KANGAROO he is totally a platformer oldschool, like those that filled the shelves at the time of Playstation 1. The reminiscences to the saga of CRASH BANDICOOT They are not sneaky one bit, both in the design of levels, characters, challenges and gameplay mechanics.
Kao goes through a series of very colorful maps that are divided environmentally in the classic way of “water map, fire map, ice map, jungle map” and so on, with the typical dangers of the scenarios of each zone. For example, in the fire levels, falling into the lava makes us lose a life, while the floor of the frozen levels makes us slip and have less control over the character. Each of these worlds begins on a main stage that functions as a kind of lobby, where Kao can talk to other characters, acquire items such as lives or extra energy hearts, or change his outfit, paying with ducats, the currency of the game. game, which can be collected by hundreds in each level. In each lobby there are multiple doors that lead to different sections of each world, but to open each new section we must pay an amount in runes, an item that is obtained scattered throughout the world and is the most important object in the game, without which You can’t move forward if you haven’t found the minimum amount needed to open the next section, so you’ll have to be careful to search for its location in detail on each level or have to repeat until you find more.
As I said earlier, each level is riddled with multiple enemies and challenges. As for the enemies, Kao deals with them with fist blows. Fighting is very simple, the kangaroo simply has a three-hit combo that fills an upper bar, which once completed allows us to launch a more powerful and devastating blow. We can also roll to dodge blows, hazards or even hit some enemies, jump and swipe with the tail in the air to reach items or raised enemies, and perform a dive that hits an area. The tail hit also allows us to return projectiles that are thrown at us, as long as we do it with perfect timing.
Each stage also has many hidden sections, puzzles, and collectibles, all of which require the use of other moves or abilities. Kao can double jump, use his ears to hang from elevated sections, stretch his neck to reach items, or even use different types of items on his gloves to turn them into fire or ice, allowing him to activate certain mechanisms or access to other areas.
Once we go through all the levels of each world and if we have managed to collect the minimum amount of runes necessary, we can finally access the last door of each mapping, where a confrontation with a terrible boss awaits us, which we must defeat by learning how to react to his attack patterns and which move is the right one to deal damage.
COLORIN COLORADO
The time has come to evaluate the technical aspects of the game, and the truth is that the title is a roller coaster in this aspect, with multiple ups and downs. To begin with, although the controls are simple, sometimes the jumps are quite imprecise, the distances are not entirely clear and even the kangaroo does not properly grab onto platforms that it should be holding onto without problems, with the consequent loss of our life . In addition, since there are not many restrictions regarding the places we move around, it is very easy to get immobilized behind a door, wall or plant, with a kind of clipping which causes our character to be trapped without being able to move. While none of these errors happen very often, when they do happen they are quite annoying, especially in sections that require speed or some long or not-so-easy puzzle solving. Even on more than one occasion some of Kao’s moves just stopped working or some item suddenly disappeared, which didn’t get fixed until I exited the game and loaded my save once again.
Graphically the game looks quite nice and very, very colorful. The models of the main characters and enemies are well made, the movements are fluid and the levels are full of details. It is really very nice to go through each of the scenarios, very happy and full of life worlds that automatically transport us to our earliest childhood, where we went through so many worlds like this more than 20 years ago. Be careful, it is not that in this aspect the game is not simple, but it is precisely that simplicity that gives it that load of nostalgia and enjoyment of each sector through which we move. The only negative point in this aspect is that, although the scenes that tell the story of the game are made with the same graphics engine in real time, Kao will always appear in them with his default clothing, no matter what suit we are in. using at all times. This really takes a lot of the immersion out of the plot and would also have been very easy to implement.
The sound, unfortunately, is not on par with the other technical aspects. The melodies are all extremely simple, to the point that some others are just a handful of sounds in a loop, which are even constantly repeated throughout the level, which at times becomes annoying. The voices, on the other hand, don’t sound so bad, but there is a lot of overacting and half-stiffened dialogues, but hey, it’s not the most important thing about the title. The effects fulfill their function without much fanfare.
OH I CAN’T GET MAD WITH YOU
I’m not going to lie: despite not being a wonder, KAO THE KANGAROO It is an absolutely enjoyable game. Especially for those of us who are already “great” and grew up and trained as players by smashing titles like the one at hand. Its premise is basic but very attractive, it can be played, it is not difficult (any player with a minimum of experience is not going to have any problem advancing), it looks very nice and also undisguisedly hits us with a terrible slap of nostalgia and fills our hearts.
These are things that many games cannot boast of. If we ignore minor gameplay and technical problems (and most of them can be fixed with eventual patches) we will soon end up hooked on a game that is definitely beautiful, fun and not at all pretentious, whose sole objective is to provide us with a good pair of hours of entertainment.