Kao the Kangaroo (2022)

Kao the Kangaroo
Finally, the long awaited return of Kao after 17 years of waiting
Genre(s): Platform Adventure Platform(s): Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Xbox One PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X/S Release Date: May 27, 2022 Developer(s): Tate Multimedia Publisher(s): Tate Multimedia Series: Kao the Kangaroo Predecessor: Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano

Kao the Kangaroo (Polish: Kangurek Kao) is a platform video game developed and published by Tate Multimedia. It was released in May 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It is the fourth installment of the franchise, a reboot of the series, and the first title released after Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano in 2005.

Plot

Set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, a kangaroo fighter named Kao sets off on a journey to search for his missing sister, Kaia, and discover the secret of his long-lost father, Koby. To do this, he must battle the famous "fighting masters" who are being influenced by a dark power, and ultimately face the powerful Eternal Warrior who threatens the balance of the world.

Why It Rocks

1. The graphics are absolutely great and look impressive, even for 2022 standards, Kao's design is really great to look at and the graphics are really colorful to the point of almost being at the level of a 3D Mario Switch game, The Legend of Zelda Switch game, or even Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, it also feel like a Pixar animated movie.
   • Not to mention that it had lot of stylish effects, such exemples are when Kao give an attack to an enemy, or the water itself that had a great style and look detailled overall.
   • Even the Switch port, in which the Switch is know for sometime butchering the graphics and overall experience, here the graphics are just as good as the other versions since it still look colorful and detailled.
   • The animation are great and are extremely fluid, comparable to the best looking Rayman and Crash Bandicoot games, and don't had any problems.
2. The gameplay is once again fast-paced and even very varied, even if this game is slightly repetitive, and the beat em' up gameplay style is very fun to play and the platforming sections are even better this time.
3. The game is challenging, and it is way more challenging than the previous games (with the exception of the terrible GBA game, of course), and while the game at times can be frustrating, the difficulty is still balanced and had a great checkpoints system and give a fair amount of lives so it doesn't become too unfair, this show how well designed the game is, much like Rayman Origins and Legends.
4. The game had a lot of great humors, with lot of jokes that are funny and some of the characters such as Kao are funny too, even the animations and voice acting can make us laugh (even if the voice acting is decent)
5. As usual, the artworks look very cool and here they are very detailled as well as being colorful.
6. The controls are very solid because they are tight and responsive, and are way faster than the previous games, which mean that the game will never feel sluggish at all, thank to how well made this game is.
7. While it don't have as many dubs as in Round 2, the voice acting is really good in all the dubs, since the voices fit the characters and the voice acting can make some lines funny.
8. Good soundtrack composed by Patryk Scelina that range from epic to relaxing, in fact the soundtrack is so good that you may want to play the levels longer just to listen to them, or even download the soundtrack on your PC, phones and tablets.
9. Amazing combat that is even better than the two previous games, as here it got way more deep and is extremely fun, which is what make this game so fun in the first place and the better thing about this is that there's a lot of sections where you must defeat the enemies, which mean that there's a lot of combats in the game, which is cool.
10. There's still an upgrade system, which mean that you can get a bigger healths bar, or being stronger, which is also cool as well and would help you if the difficulty is too intense.
11. Absolutely great level design that is just as great as Round 2, but despite that, the level design is designed to be challenging and the levels will mostly expect a lot from the players, especially because it had hard puzzles, challenging beat em up sections, and the platforming was made more challenging in comparison to the first three games which had pretty easy platforming with barely any challenge, especially in Round 2.
12. There's tons of replay value, even this game was short, lasting for 4-6 hours, you can collect the remaining runes. To unlock the areas, you must find the runes.
13. There's also has a tons of costume, you can customized your character, including the classic Kao's designs.
14. The plot, while sometimes generic, is actually decent and get darker in the last half of the game.
15. The hub world is way better than the previous games since here there's more things to do such as talking to peoples, you can even explore the hub world that is quite big, and because of that, the hub is basically a massive step up from the previous games, especially Round 2 which had an hub world that is somewhat empty and there's wasn't that much to do aside from doing mini games or destroying the crates.
    • Even better, there's more than 4 hub worlds, which is rare in games like this, even for the 2020s standards.
16. The game got a lot of DLC that are just as good as the main game and guess what ? The DLC are actually expansion of the game length by offering different levels to the point that you feel like you play a sequel of the game, and the levels are fairly long, so at least they know how to do good DLC unlike most developpers nowadays.
17. Awesome boss fights that are the absolute best in the entire franchise, since they are more challenging and had more unique paths than before, also there's a lot of them, and all of them feel different enough to stand from another boss, which is also a cool feature.
18. There's a lot of great characters in this game which had more roles than all the previous games combined (well except the first which only had Kao and his friends along the hunter which had almost no personality), and most of them are fairly likable and even funny, such as Kao himself for exemple.
    • Additionaly, we now know more about Kao's family, since now we know that he had a sister, and we know his mom and dad, though the former was maybe made just for this game or might appear in the future games if the franchise continue to do games.
19. It is one of the few reboot games of 2020s decade that is done right, since here it not only keep the original games atmosphere but also add things that are welcome addition.

Bad Qualities

1. While the challenge is great in this game, it can be a little frustrating at times either due to the platforming sections that can be a little too hard or the fact that there's a lot of enemies to kill, or even the puzzles themself can sometime be way too hard to understand.
2. It is a bit short, lasting only 4 to 5 hours.
3. Some might find the platforming sections a bit janky because the jump are very fast but it still well designed enough.
4. While story is decent, it can be generic, sometimes.
5. Unlike Round 2, there's not that much dubs and some of the languages present in that game such as the French dub simply doesn't exist.
6. The Switch port, while great port, has some framerate issue and some areas are low quality.
7. Some peoples might dislike Kao voice due to it not completely fit him, though his voice remain decent.
8. While the voice actor is decent, is rather mediocre.
9. Some Missed Opportunity: There's some features that can be missed from Kao 2 or Kao 3, such as Snowboard, Gadget level, or gliding.
10. Some of the jokes can be weak and outdated.

Reception

Ratings

Aggregate score	Score
Metacritic	70/100 (Xbox One)
Metacritic	69/100 (Xbox Series X/S/PC)
Metacritic	65/100 (Switch)
Metacritic	63/100 (PS5)
Publication	Score
IGN	7/10
Nintendo Life	7/10
Shacknews	6/10
Nintendo World Report	7/10
Hardcore Gamer	3/5

Critical Reception

Upon release, Kao the Kangaroo received mixed to positive reviews by critics and is considered to be the second best game after Round 2, if not the best game of the Kao franchise, the gameplay, combats, graphics and soundtrack we're praised but was criticized for being sometime frustrating, the voice acting and plot.

Trivia

• The team experimented the multiple ideas to bring back the series, including a remake of Mystery of the Volcano and a “more advanced” game starring a much older Kao. In the end, the team settled on doing a full-blown continuity reboot.
• the game draws inspiration heavily from Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time and Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
• It is the first title in the series to be released since Mystery of the Volcano in 2005, 17 years prior.

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