Game Review – Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2

a friend ever true 

Developer: Tate Multimedia
Publisher: Tate Multimedia
Release: Jun 1, 2019
Reviewed: PC

Review copy provided.

If you should find yourself shocked that a Polish studio swiped an Australian animal for its game’s protagonist, rest assured, you aren’t alone. Tate Multimedia found a sweet niche back in 2003; opting for a furry marsupial which is widely regarded as cute and one which navigates the land by hopping make it an ideal mascot for a platformer, and while I didn’t have the privilege to play Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 in its prime, this port is a fantastic reminder of a few things. Firstly, cutesy characters are borderless. Between the fuzzy rock faces and blurred skies stirred and fried in Tate’s game engine (or any, for that matter), ‘nationality’ sort of disintegrates into oblivion. Secondly, gameplay-first, story-second adventure games are very badly needed in today’s narrative-driven-battle-royale-multiplayer-4K landscape. Our collective infatuation with graphical oneupmanship, hardware upgrades, and exponentionally slick-looking megashooters simply isn’t helping when it comes to delivering players the hassle-free experiences we grew up with. Sometimes, I find myself gazing at trailers, vexed by how the product seems concerned with conveying how stylish (or how close to emulating film) it is, as opposed to making sure its gameplay is actually interesting. By modern standards, Kao: Round 2 is far from the most stylish interactive toy on the block. Its soundtrack is, save from the hub theme and a couple of other pieces, musically deprived, and the narrative could hardly be called sophisticated. But good heavens does the entertainment value from leaping, punching and boomerang-hurling make up for every shortcoming in spades.

Jump Around

The purest joy one can obtain from platformers is the basic jump. This is just fact. It’s the first move we instinctively reach for on the game pad, long before special attacks cross our minds, and one which bears tremendous influence on how we feel about the game thenceforth; too short and we feel kinetically constipated, too high and it feels like the developer’s somehow miscalculated what the player needs to get from A to B. Let’s get this into perspective: Nathan Drake jumps like a drunken squirrel, whereas Lara Croft jumps more like a black-belt gazelle. Since Kao is a kangaroo, getting his jump wrong would be an especially grave error, but Tate Multimedia fills it with just the right momentum and vertical altitude, not to mention that super-satisfying boing! audio attachment. There’s also a double-jump move you pick up later on⁠—a rather natural extension of jump 101 that helps Kao reach higher platforms, and very often doubles as a safeguard against near-deaths. But jumping can only get you so far.

There’s a roll move which temporarily turns Kao’s body into a barrel that’s fantastic for knocking out enemies or coin-stuffed pots, a winged-helmet that helps you glide across platformless crevasses, and another nod to indigenous Australian history materialises in Kao’s go-to projectile class weapon: the humble boomerang. Apart from punching—a move astute readers will have already pieced together by virtue of Kao’s boxing gloves—that’s really all there is. And thank goodness for that, because a brief list of moves that has clear, meaningful application across multiple levels is infinitely better than a moveset that is extensive, unintuitive, and confusing (why can Yooka lick some flames but not all flames? How come Jak doesn’t high-jump unless you press L1 and R1 in a very particular way?). Punches don’t always land, and the enemy lock-on feature required for ‘egg-aim’ style precision boomerang chucking can take a few tries to activate (oh the horrors of the final boss!), so the gameplay is far from a perfect KO; but Tate certainly does enough to cultivate a sense of fun.

tie me kangaroo down

Depending on your perspective, including over twenty levels in a 3D platformer can sound either amazing or like a nightmare waiting to happen. Because Kao: Round 2‘s levels have decent length, thematic variation and an abundance of little challenges to complete, they fall into the former categorisation. Whether it’s an underwater level or snowboarding down a perilous mountain, there’s always a logical flow present in the environments; forests don’t feel like a string of game assets assembled together, ship interiors are more than just a stage made pretty with props and set pieces. Despite the barebones story—which bascially involves rescuing various species from a deranged animal hunter who’s forced them into unpaid labour—Kao’s world is convincing. Tate makes you want to explore the innards of an ancient temple to collect every single last ducat, crystal, and star (Kao: Round 2‘s collectibles), and that feeling never dies throughout the adventure, basic as it may be.

Enemies are diverse—from leaping piranhas, porcupines, and surprise bombs, to thorny tentacles, spiders, bees, and angry old men with clubs. It was with a general sense of anticipation I loaded up the next level in Kao: Round 2, eager to lay eyes upon which villains would haunt the vicinity, and even more eager to figure out the best way of thwarting them. Fortunately, it was only rarely that the attack styles were copied and pasted onto a baddie wearing a slightly different outfit, something which screams lazy development if done in excess and is difficult to recover from (see: corplets). Less forgivable is the soundtrack, which completely pales in comparison to games like Yooka, Odyssey, and A Hat in Time; generally speaking, it’s more akin to the synthetic beats of Jak and Daxter, so don’t go in expecting a Kirkhopian concerto. The greatest thing about Kao: Round 2—and what should be music to your ears—its successful attempt at effortless entertainment. I suppose kangaroos can’t be restrained, after all.

Conclusion

A simplistic but highly enjoyable 3D platformer whose reemergence in 2019 reminds us of the importance of putting fun gameplay first, and looks second. Audiophiles might want to look elsewhere, but retro gamers with a penchant for mascot-fronted games shouldn’t miss it—particularly for such a decent price of admission. Tate Multimedia would be perfectly justified in porting the rest of the franchise to Steam, and eternally adored by fans worldwide if it announced a new title continuing Kao’s adventures. #BringKaoBack

WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY IT:

• You have a lot of feelings (I mean, nostalgia)
• Your love of 3D platformers borders on religious conviction
• You prefer action over narrative

THE PROS:                                                                                   

• Simple, genuinely fun platforming
• Varied level design
• Effective moveset
• Great collectathon appeal
• Cringy but endearing voice acting
• Creative minigames

THE CONS:

• Can’t replay levels until main campaign is completed
• Turning controls wonky (especially for the seagull)
• Limited soundtrack
• Bosses too easy
• Lack of reward for completionists

Advice: Skip the latte/hot chocolate and hand over your coins to Tate Multimedia for a few hours of irretrievable 2000s joy.

Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 is out now for PC.

GAMEPLAY: ★★★☆

GRAPHICS: ★★★☆☆

SOUND: ★★☆☆☆

REPLAYABILITY:★★★☆☆

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OVERALL: ★★★☆

70/100

Purchase links: Steam