Kao the Kangaroo (2000)

Kao the Kangaroo (2000)
A game about a kangaroo was a really cool idea, and this game prove it.
Genre(s): Platform Action Platform(s): Dreamcast PC Release Date: POL: November 23, 2000 EU: December 8, 2000 NA: February 16, 2001 Developer(s): X-Ray Interactive Publisher(s): WW: Titus Interactive Licomp Empik Multimedia Successor: Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2

Kao the Kangaroo (Polish: Kangurek Kao) is a platform video game developed by X-Ray Interactive for Microsoft Windows, Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance.

Note: This page only focus on the PC and Dreamcast versions, for the GBA version, click here

Plot

Kao is a young kangaroo living with his family in the jungle when they are one day captured by a ruthless hunter and his goons. It's up to Kao to drive the invaders from his home and save his family.

Good Qualities

1. The idea about a video game starring a kangaroo was a really good idea and this game prove it, despite that this game isn't really the best platformer game (although this game still decent), though the second one execute this idea in an even better way.
2. The graphics are pretty good for a 2000 game, especially on the Dreamcast version, as the characters models look sharp, the colors palette is really good and there's a unique amount of environnements that look great for a early 2000s game.
   • The levels environnements also are very varied since it feature forest, boat ship, and mountain, all of them look great and quite polished, even though some of them aged a bit, and of course all of those are colorful.
   • The characters designs are also really cute, and Kao model ressemble his PAL box art counterpart at 95%, which is quite impressive for it's time, though he was designed with a 3D model rather than being hand draw like most games of it's time.
3. Lot of creative levels since most of them feature very good level design and are mostly linear in a good way, also some of them are pretty challenging, it's not too hard nor too easy to beat them, meaning that the game difficulty is quite balanced.
   • For exemples, the space themed levels are some of the best in the game due to being challenging, this also count for the Egypt since it is well designed and fun to play, despite the clunky controls.
4. Amazing soundtrack, especially Level 1 where it sound quite catchy, and a lot of the musics in this game are very good and had different styles, making the soundtrack varied, also the soundtrack had musics that fit the game overall light tone.
5. While the overall controls of the game are clunky to use, they are very responsive and the game is designed with the clunky controls in mind, so at least the game isn't awful because of that, even though they had some flaws (see BQ#3).
6. The game feature 30 levels, which is a huge number of levels for it's time, and as stated before, they all are unique to play, although all of them are really short to complete.
7. While they are terrible, the bosses are pretty decent since their concept are unique and they had paths that are fun to learn, the bosses even manage to be hilarous.
8. The game feature a huge variaty when coming to the gameplay itself, and fearure at least three style of diffferent gameplay in it, these include snowboarding, jet skiing, pod racing, and other activities, this also make the game less repetitive.
9. The game has very interesting mechanics like flying on the kite or swimming on the water scooter, thanks for that the gameplay doesn't seem to be repetitive.
10. The North America box art is very cool looking, as it had a very good background to look at, and Kao design is way better than in the Europe box art, which was decent but lazy since his design was just taken from the in-game model.
11. This game is basically if Bubsy 3D was done right, since it had similar style of levels (for some of them), and the controls are somewhat similar but way better here, also it is helped by the fact that this game contain 30 levels.
12. It spawned two great sequels and a reboot in 2022 that are even better than this game.

Bad Qualities

1. The GBA port is a horrible port and one of the most glitchy game of the GBA, yes it's that bad.
2. Plot-Hole: It is never explained how Kao did get away from the trap he did got in, also another plot hole would be in the end where it isn't explained how the hunter got in the prison by the kangaroos.
3. While the graphics are good, they doesn't really look like a Dreamcast game and instead look like a N64 game, which is mostly because of the low resolution textures and the characters models looking a bit outdated.
4. Sometime, the game can had some awful levels since either they are poorly designed or because they contain a lot of awful enemies placements to the point of making some of the levels frustrating at best, or sometime a level can had very poorly designed platforming sections, and because of the bad camera, they can be even worse at times.
   • Level 28 is easily the worst level of the entire game, since it is a horrible maze like level where you will most likely get lost, and the fact that there isn't any maps present in that level make everything much worse than it's already is, it is even filled with some of the worst platforming sections of the game and the camera is at it's worst in this level, in fact you cannot complete this level without a video, and even if you watch a video, it is possible that you may get a hard time to complete it due to how long it is, the best way to beat it is watching a speedrun of the game or watching a video the same time you play the level.
5. The bosses are terrible since they are very simple and while they are unique, they aren't even fun to fight due to all these flaws, though they are not as bad as those of the GBA version.
6. The combat compared to the later sequels is extremely awful and is easily the worst point of the game since there's some issues with it:
   • First off, you attack only one time and doesn't had any combos, and while it doesn't sound bad, here it is very bad because the hit-detection is terrible.
   • The hit-detection of every moves is terrible, and while the collision at times isn't that good, at least it isn't as terrible as for the combat.
   • Also, the worst thing of all is that despite that, they didn't even tried to implant a upgrade system, which would have been better, howewer that system would later appear in Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2.
   • The tail attack isn't bad, in fact it is the best attack of the game, but it had wonky hit-detection, though that move is decent.
7. While still decent, the controls had some flaws, and aren't as good as the controls in the next games:
   • As stated before, they are clunky, which can make this game a bit hard to play as first, though this isn't the biggest problem of them and you eventually get the hand out of them due to being simple to use.
   • They are very slow to use, this is mostly because Kao doesn't run fast and because of that, you will need to jump often so that the game play faster, although you might get used to.
   • Despite all of these flaws, the controls aren't as horrible as in the Game Boy Advance game.
8. False Advertising: The back of the box say that the game feature 45 levels but instead it had 30 levels, unless they counted bonus stages.
9. This entry didn't aged well compared to it's sequels and the 2022 reboot.
   • This is mostly because of the controls problem (see BQ#3) and because the game being very slow.
   • In a similar vein to the first Tomb Raider game where Lara doesn't get much moves, here Kao doesn't get much abilities to use, since he can only attack with the punch one time in a row, and cannot roll, unlike the next games in the franchise.
   • The combat is also a big victim of this, since as stated before, the combat is extremely awful and not that great to use.
10. Sometime, the game design is a little bit poor, as in some sections of the gamew the controls are reversed for no reasons, which might make some of the sections extremely frustrating, though it isn't as horrible as the game design in the GBA version.
11. The hit-detection isn't the best, since when you try to hit enemies with your punchs, it is hard to not miss it and the fact that the combat is awful make this even worse.

Reception

Kao the Kangaroo received mixed reviews by critics, on Metacritic it got a score of 63 for the Dreamcast version, and a 60 for the PC version

On Gamefaqs, the Dreamcast version had a score of 3.03 based on 45 users, and the PC version got a score of 3.42 by 26 users.

Trivia

• During development Kao was known as Denis the Kangaroo.

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