Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 – Review

Kao The Kangaroo Round 2 is the follow up to Kao The Kangaroo which was a fairly decent platformer released a few years back. JoWood have now come up with the second installment available on the next gen consoles and since the Xbox is my console of choice at the moment, I’ve been going a few rounds with Kao to see what he’s made of.

When you first load Kao The Kangaroo, you could be forgiven for thinking that it resembles Diddy Kong immensely. It has the same bright cheery graphics and a similar feel to it. This is by no means a smoothed out super sleek title, so don’t be disappointed that it looks a lot more basic than you may be accustomed to. What you do get is a very pretty platformer that serves a purpose with its graphics, it looks happy, it seems fun and it will no doubt appeal to younger gamers and those of you who like these cutesy, bright titles.

Kao is going to be your hero for the remainder of the game and he is a chirpy little kangaroo who for some reason has an American accent rather than an Australian accent. Kao is in a cell when you first start but with the help of one of his many animal friends he is released. Don’t worry, the irritating rapping parrot isn’t with you every step of the way in the game so persevere with it until you move on. Basically Kao has to save his animal friends from capture by the odd colonial colonel who has a very amusing accent and demeanor. In order to do this, Kao has to make his way through numerous missions each as cute as the last and within these he has to overcome nasty enemies, find coins, jewels, stars are so on. It’s a fairly straightforward platformer where you can see where you’re meant to be heading most of the time. Look for the coins and they will guide you and if you still get lost then ask one of your helpful animal friends. The actual platform aspects of this game are pretty good because the controls are well matched to the gameplay and I didn’t encounter any glitches or any real camera problems.

The controls are setup in a similar way to many platformers and they should instantly feel familiar to anyone who plays this genre of game often. You’ll be able to defeat most enemies by using a one button attack which utilizes Kaos boxing gloves and thumps your enemy. You can also perform the typical jump and thud move which pounds your enemy into the ground. There are some enemies which are tricky to overcome, don’t be fooled by the cute graphics and feel of the game, it can be tough. However, the one thing which is likely to frustrate the hell out of you more than anything else is the damn water. Kao can’t swim, he’s a kangaroo after-all and has very small arms… yet there is water EVERYwhere in some stages. I lost count of the number of times I fell into the water simply by overshooting a jump or sliding off a platform. It’s frustrating and you’ll die instantly. Be warned.

The sound on this game was pretty good. The sound effects are crisp and clear and you get a nice background ambiance throughout the game. The voice acting is hilarious and there are some very odd accents throughout the game which can at times distract you from what’s going on but don’t worry you won’t find it too difficult to figure it out. This game is fantastic for deaf gamers because there are subtitles all the way through so you don’t miss out on much at all.

Female gamers are going to like this as much as male gamers I should imagine. There’s nothing specifically aimed at female gamers and yes it’s another case of the hero saving the fair maiden however it avoids sexist comments and so on and is pretty female friendly. To be honest if you’re a huge platformer fan then yes you’ll like this game but if you feel that you’ve already run the gamut of platformers then this doesn’t really offer you that much diversity or originality.

Overall, Kao is a middle weight in the platforming genre. He is fun and cute, he has a nice little skipping motion that he does when he kills an enemy and he makes his way around the various missions in a cheery manner. The problem I have with this game is that it’s just too similar to the plethora of other games in this genre. There isn’t enough originality or unique unusual areas of this game to make you want to rush out and buy it. Kids are likely to love it however because it’s very child friendly and will give them hours of fun. For the adult gamer I think this is a little bit of a hit and miss title. If you have other classy platformers such as Crash Bandicoot, Ty The Tazmanian Tiger and so on then you’re likely to give this a miss. If you want to try a fun cute platformer you could do worse than this so if you’re made of money and looking for something very pretty indeed take a peek. It’s no knockout but it puts up a good fight.

Review by Tracy

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