Author: NGA - Kill Yesterday
Name: Kangaroo (Kao the Kangaroo)
Type: Platform Jump
Tags: Adventure, Collect
Issue Date: 27th May 2022
preface
Kao the Kangaroo is a 3D platform jumping action game developed by Tate Multimedia and officially released on May 27, 2022.
"Kangaroo Sky Pass" series can be traced back to the GBA handheld and DC console, did you play this game when you were a child, this is a reboot of the series, using a new engine production, the picture is earth-shaking compared to the previous game, but also the biggest factor that attracted me, and the action and other aspects are more outstanding.
The protagonist, Kao, is a brave kangaroo who embarks on an adventure to find his sister and father, the forest has been invaded by evil forces, and Kao must do his best to fight all kinds of enemies and beasts, fortunately with a master and mysterious gloves along the way.
Excellent art and bland levels
The art of this work is very outstanding, the color is vivid and fresh, there are a few screenshots in the store that look like the taste of "Ancient Confused Wolf", the jungle, snow mountains, caves, villages and other scenes are very beautiful, the overall style is unified, the elements in the scene are very rich, but it does not give people a messy feeling.
The overall rendering of the picture looks very comfortable, especially the performance of the sky is very good, and there is a feeling of walking into the animation.
The game's scene consists of several large box maps and adventure levels, which switch with the flow of the game, and these maps are scattered with a large number of gold coins and adventure levels that need to collect enough runes to open, and the gold coins here are different from the small levels and can be collected repeatedly.
Adventure levels are flow levels in the traditional sense, which is different from the type of pass I envisioned, medium in scale, relatively high in freedom, in addition to regular gold coins and runes, there are hidden content such as diamonds, Kao letters, challenge levels, red heart fragments, character life, etc.
The challenge level is scattered with a lot of rewards, but the risk is also multiplied, there are many traps and traps here, and if you are not careful, you will fall into the depths, but there is no punishment after death, the player can retry many times, and the system also sets a shortcut in the box court map that can be quickly accessed, so that you can re-enter the challenge level that has been encountered.
The coins collected along the way can be used to buy items such as Heart Shards, Character Lives, and Costumes in the Shop, each of the 4 Hearts Shards will add one block of health to Kao, and the costumes are freely matched to the appearance decorations, suitable for passing away gold coins that have nowhere to splurge.
In terms of level design, it continues the gameplay of the classic platform jumping game, moving platform, time-limited jumping, disposable platform, puzzle mechanism and other elements, and occasionally there are some bright places, and the overall design is more retro.
After obtaining the Mysterious Glove, you can smash some purple stones to open the purple hidden platforms, which are just a few more steps, and they are on the way to pass the level.
Easy battles with simple moves
Although kangaroos are famous boxing masters, a pair of talking boxing gloves is added as a weapon, and at the beginning of the story, we can control Kao to get this mysterious glove that has been sealed.
The combat aspect is very simple, the character action is relatively light, quickly press the attack button to clear the field, the move is only ordinary attack, jump rotation attack, down smash attack, roll attack and so on a few, and in addition to the full charge bar after the smash basically no linkage.
Mobs' health is very low, basic 3 general attack can be solved, there is no big threat, there is a charge bar below the upper left corner of the health, continuous attack can be filled, after full can cast the smash attack plus version, the range and damage are very high, used to fight the boss is also very good.
Characters can also pick up boomerangs and other objects that appear in the scene for ranged attacks, which are easier to use against some annoying ranged monsters, and can also be used to open some traps and traps.
The boss battle design is quite OK, generally has several stages, the attack method is some jumps can dodge the moves, basically testing the above operations, it will not be difficult to see the boss smoothly, and it will be easy to pass.
A bit of a dragging rhythm
The pace of the game is slower, which is the most uncomfortable point I have in the process of playing, first of all, there is no running operation, and the character can only maintain a gentle movement speed from beginning to end, which is especially evident on the box map that needs to be shuttled back and forth.
There is no linkage between the characters' moves, the rolling that can slightly speed up the running process cannot be canceled by other operations, and there is no mechanism for rolling after jumping, so it will give people a feeling of light and smooth animation and stiff and crappy.
Level design and head titles like Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario 3D World are too different, with decent overall performance, and some out-of-date prop placement and annoying platform jumps make the game more protracted.
The plot performance is also the hardest hit area for dragging down the rhythm, and the slow speed of character dialogue and cutscenes further deepen the slow pace of the game.
Also a 3D style platform jumping game, last year's release of "Matthew the Long-tailed Leopard Adventure" is more satisfying.
summary
The new Kangaroo Is More Suitable for Platformers and Passionate Players, with suitable platform jumping and combat difficulty to make the adventure easy, retro mechanics and simple collections that make people dream back to the golden age of 3D platformers.
However, it may seem dull for veterans familiar with platform jumping, too low difficulty is not challenging enough, and the depth of the system is not enough to support too long play time.
The game failed to control the rhythm, but this problem has little impact on the overall situation, want to try the platform game and do not want to be too embarrassed by themselves, then this game is more suitable, interested players may wish to pay attention to it.
Recommended players: casual players, platform jumpers
Steam Rating: 82% particularly positive
Personal rating: 7/10