A notable part of gaming that has faded out over time is all of the strange mascot platformers that came along during the 5th to 7th console generations. I won’t lie, I think they’re all kinda endearing to think about, despite how rough around the edges they might be. But I haven’t really been able to experience these really, so I’ve frequently been curious as to what they’re like. I mean, I really enjoy platformers, so why not give one of these a shot? I’ve had this one in my Steam library for a while since I got it for free when they were giving it out. It’s actually really nice to look back upon its circumstances as there was a great amount of dedication into making this easily available to those that just want to experience it. There were many people clamoring for his return once, and what was the most popular Kao game was re-released for them to show gratitude. It’s now regularly available for super cheap too, so you can get your hands on it without much trouble at all. Your efforts for preservation are nice, I admire that!

However, in hindsight I may have ended up setting my expectations for something like this a tad too high. I dunno, maybe it’s just me having played other, more notable 3D platformers before and getting used to them but I’ve set up a sort of subconscious feel as to how a 3D platformer is supposed to feel like. It’s this baseline that my mind pieces together on how I roam around and whatnot, and as such I end up surprised when the game turns out to be alot clunkier than I envisioned it to be. Oh, this old failed mascot platformer isn’t really that mechanically solid? Well... oops. Should’ve seen that one coming. I’d like to not let my more excessively optimistic expectations entirely bog down my view, so I’d like to acknowledge why I wasn’t tastefully entertained by this kangaroo’s shenanigans.

The subpar control is most notably to blame though, honestly. I probably would’ve been more tolerable of this had it been more rigid, but as it stands it’s just really uncomfortably stiff. It’s one of my least favorite types of bad control, when the overall clunkiness slows everything down to a crawl. It makes everything awkward to traverse over and around, and even deals collateral damage to the games pacing at times. I know I ended up noticing a tiring pace impact, especially when going around for all of the collectibles—but I’ll get to that a bit later. Though I can say now that any of the other gimmicks you take control of are also damaged thanks to that lovely clunkiness. None of them are really that notably different with how their feel is off, except for the basic swimming controls which I wanted to give a special shout out to solely because it decides to be uncomfortably slippery instead. Makes actually aiming at where you want to shoot at or even where you want to go a real pain. Good to know that I should play games like these to understand the early 2000s gamer’s distrust in water levels.

But also now that I’d like to go into the nitty gritty of the collect-a-thon shortcomings, I’m just immediately gonna come out and ask, could there have been at least a little more consistency with these things? A grand majority of them are just lying around in front of you on your linear path to the end, and others are more out of the way in different sorts of alcoves on those paths, which I’m fine with, really. But then I start having problems when the game goes and pulls the occasional dick move of having hyper specific locations for these things. Like, I think to myself on occasion, “Am I dumb or something? I’m missing like 25 stars, 10 crystals, and 5 stars on this stage. I’m pretty sure I skimmed through every area I could roam around in. What did I not see?” Then I go and look up the answer on where the collectables that are left are missing and it’s almost always some ladder placed specifically where it’ll blend in with the wall it’s on. (These ladders are ONLY EVER USED to reach these special collectable dump locations, even) Then there’s that one time where you have to blast a grate with a torpedo and it’s the only grate the torpedo will work on. Like, what the fuck?? No, I’m gonna call you out on that one! What the actual hell was that?! I just felt completely done with this game after, like, the fourth time it pulled something like this.

I haven’t even mentioned all the wasted potential lying around with the collectables either. You’re literally playing these levels mainly to get the 3,000 coins required to enter the final stretch, but I recall that I didn’t even have enough by the time I reached the last stage before then, and that’s the 2nd stage that just gives you 1,000 coins by clearing it. The most obvious idea you could’ve used here would be that if you diligently collected over the course of the game, you could’ve entered the final stretch early and skipped a portion of the game. But no, all you really can do is just collect at least 1,000 individual coins in the levels up until that point since there’s no real chance at a sequence break reward here. At that point it would be more interesting to see if it’s possible for you to skip enough coins to not get in at the point you’re intended to. There’s also the crystals and stars that are lumped in alongside the coins for some reason. The crystals mainly just amount to extra completion fodder unless you somehow care about the worthless minigames they unlock. At least the stars are actually more interesting since they unlock beneficial, powered up moves for you with every 50 of them you get, which is honestly nice to see.

But oh boy since I’m a sucker for completion I got reminded of some dumb completion bullshit I sent through!! Yeah, getting all the collectables wasn’t enough, I’ve gotta do 3 particular bosses without getting hit since I’m playing the new PC release. Most notably the final boss against the Hunter is what I’ve got my mind on. OOOOUUGH this boss. I’d like to let you know that this boss caused me some intense agony trying to beat it damageless. Don’t you just love it when a game has a perfect run challenge and doesn’t give you any sort of quick restart button? I sure do love that! Don’t you LOVE how the boss you’re fighting has attacks so broken that you can literally take random damage to absolutely fucking nothing at all? If you ever want to try this yourself, please just save yourself the headaches and abuse the sidestep on the final phase. It’s significantly easier than trying to keep him in a stunlock that he almost always breaks out of. (Thanks for the stunlock advice, lousy ass steam guides... You’re the same ones that told me that none of the collectables in this game were hidden well at all yet proceeded to never warn me about that one stray coin in the Abandoned Town stage. I’m gonna have trust issues thanks to you) Alright, this episode of XenonNV Complains About Specific Achievements is over, thank you for watching and be sure to tune in for next time.

But yeah, at the end of the day, I guess I’m real disappointed somehow. I dunno, I was expecting something rather mediocre from this—but also something kinda neat as well. What I ended up with was something unpleasantly mediocre at best, and just ended up draining out all of the goodwill it had left by the end. I admire the dedication behind it I suppose, but it’s just not enough for me to say it was a worthwhile experience, sorry to say.

I didn't have a clue who Kao the Kangaroo was until very recently when I discovered he was getting a franchise reboot, it looked really fun, and since I'm a platformer fanatic I wanted to give the old games a try. Although rough on a few edges here and there, still a quite solid 3D platformer. I'm still confused as to why the Kao the Kangaroo series hasn't gotten more recognition compared to similar platformers that came out around the same time, because it surely has it's own personality and identity.

it's competent, but that's all the positives i can say about it.
everything this game does, rayman 2 does better


and that's not even a particularly good game

It's alright, nothing crazy. The levels are pretty linear with occasional nook and cranny. The level design is alright, and the combat is fairly repetitive, there's not much enemy variety. There are frustrating aspects, like sections where you have to throw an objects at something and these are pretty slow and boring, and if you fail, you'll have to repeat them again, although there aren't many instances of this. The collecathon aspect is actually kinda lame. There's loads of coins that are only required for the last level to beat the game, aside from that there are stars, the only collectibles that are actually useful, as they augment abilities for every 50, like adding a glide ability to the jump, or making midair tail attack more powerful or allowing to roll indefinitely. Lastly, there are crystals that unlock worhtless mini-games, like button mashing for beavers to drop a tree, or button mashing for a race. There's not much to say really, it's a fine enough 3D platformer if you're starving for those, but if you want a great 3D platformer experience, play something else, like Super Mario 64, or Ratatouille for the Wii.

My endless hunt for good 3D Platformers continues with Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2, yet another game Nitro Rad talked about. However, even he was pretty lukewarm on this one, so my expectations were tempered here.

Firstly, let me say that this is yet another case of IGDB having the clearly inferior box art. The US version's has not only far better use of foreshortening and color contrast, but also a great metacontextual commentary on the game itself. Oh well.

Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 is by far the most popular game in the series, and you still may not have heard about it. I picked it up at a retro game store near my home despite how cheap the game is on steam sometimes (Once even being free).

I can't really say that this game is all that great. It's a pretty serviceable platformer, but it's not really unique in any way. As inconsistent as a game like Glover can be, I really appreciated the uniqueness of the movement, level themes, and music. Wait, no, Glover is a masterpiece, I meant Demon Turf. Anyway, Kao Round 2 doesn't really do anything unique at all. In fact, it's extremely derivative of Rayman 2. You start in prison, the second level is called 'The Great Escape', you gain a hover ability, etc etc... However, this game also lacks a lot of what I liked about Rayman 2: The great, cohesive variety and the good use of mechanics focused around a simple moveset. In these regards, this game is extremely simple with few interesting mechanics. Like, I can't think of anything interesting right now. The movement is also very barebones, although I liked the infinite roll you can earn near the end of the game. Despite how simple it is, this game holds your hands pretty much throughout the entire game. I guess it is a baby game, and you can skip any dialogue, but this was still somewhat odd to me. I did appreciate a lot of the more obscure collectible hiding places though, even if the gems are pretty much useless.

Despite that, this game does have better combat than Rayman 2. That's not because this game's combat is great or anything, and moreso because the combat of Rayman 2 is so mediocre. We have a 3 hit combo, aerial attack, roll, ground pound, and boomerangs. It's fine as far as 3D platformer combat goes, but the hit detection can occasionally be wonky. It also has boss fights, which was something Rayman 2 lacked. They're fine.

The story of this game is interesting. You have to get 3000 dabloons to go fight the boss, which may make you think this is a collectathon where you're given freedom in your stage choices, but nah. 2000 of these have to be gained through the levels you play through in a completely linear fashion. At that point, I don't get why they didn't just use a different macguffin or something. Also, I don't get why Kao didn't just beat up the guy demanding money like he did with every other guy. He had no problem stealing a guy's money and beating him up, so it's not a moral issue, and the guy doesn't look particularly tough. I dunno.

I know I've been pretty negative here, and honestly the only thing holding me back from giving this a 4/10 is how charming this game can be on occasion. Kao sounds pretty cute and his neck stretches out in water. So, 5/10 I guess. Maybe I'll lower it to a 4/10 later.

You know, I should really play the first one, especially since I have a Dreamcast. Let me go pick up a copy on eba-

O_O