Kao the Kangaroo [Xbox]

Tate Multimedia’s Kao the Kangaroo is a reboot of the 2000 title of the same name, which was originally released on the Dreamcast. It’s a title that neither of us had played before, so we were really interested in seeing just what Kao has to offer. Jumping on the nostalgia bandwagon following recent Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon titles, Kao is a brightly coloured, whimsical platformer filled with collectibles to find and areas to explore. Taking on the titular role of Kao, you’ll set out to find your missing sister, Kaia. Kao gains a pair of magical, sentient boxing gloves that once belonged to his father - who disappeared in similarly mysterious circumstances - and these allow you to hop and bop your way through the world whilst you try to get to the bottom of what has occurred.

There are different things for you to find along the way, from the abundance of gold coins which can be spent at the available shops - these are emblazoned with D for ‘Ducats’ which was a bit of a strange choice, given that these were used in Europe, not Australia - as well as diamonds, and Runes - which are the main progression-linked items in the game. You can explore side paths to find additional rewards, and there’s lots of secrets to be found - such as the classic, behind waterfalls.

The visuals are gorgeous, though there were a lot of pop-in texture issues, along with strange, instantly disappearing enemies once you’ve hit them a few times. Not falling down before fading out, like you sometimes see in games, just simply poofing out of existence on the third hit. There are different costume pieces that can be purchased from the store, such as sunglasses, new shorts and even a classic styled skin - though sadly all of which reverts back to standard during cutscenes. Voice acting was a bit unexpected, with the cast sounding completely un-Australian, and in all honesty, pretty jarring for the most part - especially when the soundtrack engulfs the dialogue, making it really difficult to hear. The soundtrack is decent, with joyful, fun tracks that work perfectly with the platforming style - they’re actually almost reminiscent of a lot of the tracks from classic 90s platformers we’ve played.

The movement and combat can feel quite erratic, with it sometimes feeling fantastically satisfying - from tail-whipping enemy projectiles back to them and rolling around the levels - whereas other times it feels disjointed. There are four bosses to face off against on your journey: Terror, Jayabaya, The Oldest One and The Eternal Warrior; all of which have typical platformer-boss styles, and are rather simple to defeat. You’ve got checkpoints throughout levels to save progress and respawn when you die, and these can be punched repeatedly to gain some coins as well as a heart to replenish your health - though you’ll often find that you don’t actually need any of the extra hearts that you find. As you progress to new areas, you will gain new powers that can be utilised through collecting Totems, such as Fire Totems, and these allow your punches to deal elemental damage - though only for one hit until you collect a new Totem. These are only really used for puzzle solving however, and not for the main combat in the game - which seems like they missed a trick here.

There are Eternal Wells that act as optional challenges, and these vary from combat challenges to platforming ones, and these do well to break up the core gameplay a bit. Once you’ve completed each of these once, they can then be accessed via the hub worlds, if you want to give them another go. As well as new clothing, you can purchase lives and heart pieces from the shop, using the Ducats you’ve collected, and Kaopedia content can be unlocked by collecting KAO letters throughout the levels, detailing Characters, Treasures and Movesets.

Overall, we found Kao the Kangaroo to be a fun, if somewhat shallow, platformer - and one that is well suited to kids due to the simple gameplay and basic storyline. With around 6-8 hours or so of content, Kao the Kangaroo packed enough of a punch to keep us interested throughout, and whilst there were a few things that failed to hit the mark, we had a decent time. If you want to hop into Kao, you can get it for £24.99 on the Xbox Store.

In the end, we decided to give Kao the Kangaroo the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.

Are you interested in Kao the Kangaroo? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Tate Multimedia for the Kao the Kangaroo Xbox review code!