kaze and the wild masks wears its inspiration on its sleeve; scratch that, it tattooed its inspiration across its face. kaze is basically a poor man's donkey kong country game. that's not necessarily a bad thing, though.

the level design is quite good throughout the game, the bosses feel climactic, there's plenty of stuff to collect, and the game feels pretty polished. also, weird compliment - the UI is like... really good. like surprisingly REALLY good.

the story doesn't make much sense, and i think the art and music are both just alright, but those complaints don't detract too much from a totally solid 2D platformer. it's nothing that'll shock you, but if you find it on sale, i'd pick it up. it's worth your time if this kind of 2D platformer is your thing.

Um jogo brasileiro baseado no meu Donkey Kong favorito que é o DK Country 2.

A Kaze junta o ritmo acelerado do Diddy com a mecânica de flutuar voando da Dixie, no modo normal de jogo você tem 2 vidas (assim como Donkey Kong Country) e até as fases bônus acabam sendo bem parecidas. As máscaras servem como os pets de DK Country 2, trazem uma leve complexidade a mais.

O jogo roda bem liso e não tive nenhum bug gritante e o visual do jogo faz jus ao "Art" de Pixel Art, tendo uns painéis bem bonitos.

Como nem tudo são flores, em questão dos inimigos (boss incluidos) achei eles bem simples e fáceis demais de lidar. O jogo não tem uma rejogabilidade muito alta, uma vez que você termina ele não tem muito o que fazer, correr atrás das conquistas é bem tranquilo e não tem muita exploração pra fazer.

Dito tudo isso, diria que é meu jogo "made in Brazil" favorito.

I’m not quite sure what the motivation was behind this. Looking at the description, Kaze is apparently a “tribute” to 90s platformers, but the devs seemed to have forgotten what was beloved about that era.

It’s a “tribute” to the 90s in the same vein as someone paying tribute the Mona Lisa by recreating it in crayon. Do you have fond memories of scouring each level for 100 coins in Super Mario World? Do you remember the slow, tedious pace of levels in DKC2? Do you get excited thinking about Mega Man X and its bosses that force you to wait around for their weak points?

Funnily enough, these were the most original parts of Kaze. There wasn’t a single memorable level or gimmick that wasn’t taken from another game, and yet its own ideas undermine the good concepts from which it stole.

The worst part is that Kaze is surprisingly competent. The presentation is on point, the overall artwork and character design is pleasant, and Nintendo’s four-step design process is adhered to. All this talent is wasted on a product with so little ambitious.

Kaze is forgettable, and that’s the gravest insult I could throw at it. It wishes for nothing but to remind you of other games you could be playing. It’s a product that will only be lost to the void of time, with no one appearing to salvage it with memory.

Uma grande homenagem aos clássicos jogos de plataformas, principalmente Donkey Kong Country.

A história é a básica dos jogos de plataformas, derrotar um grande mau para salvar alguém, no caso aqui o irmão da Kaze.

O gráficos são lindos, a pixelart é muito bem feita e caprichada, os cenários são muito coloridos e detalhados. As fases são únicas e cada uma apresenta um desafio diferente, não tornando o jogo repetitivo ou enjoativo. A trilha sonora é boa, mas nenhum pouco memorável.

A gameplay no geral funciona bem, tirando a máscara aquática que é um pouco travada na hora de nadar. Mas a máscara do lagarto pra mim é o principal defeito do jogo. Nas fases que você usa ela, a Kaze corre automaticamente pela fase inteira, e você precisa memorizar os obstáculos e pegar o time de algum saltos, o que pode não parecer algo que atrapalhe, mas acredite, você morre várias vezes até decorar o trajeto, o que pode ser frustrante. Mesmo assim, não é nada que prejudique muito a experiência do jogo.

A dificuldade é outro que ponto que chama a atenção. O jogo começa fácil, mas vai escalonando num ritmo que, perto do final, as vezes se tornam extremamente desafiadoras, mas sem serem injustas.

Os bosses são outro ponto alto, cada um possui uma mecânica única e requer uma estratégia diferente para derrotá-los e, diferente de vários jogos do gênero, eles são até que bem desafiadores.

Kaze and the Wild Masks é um jogo que homenageia os clássicos de plataforma e que em muitos momentos abraça essa homenagem, mas ainda assim consegue ser um único e divertido. Se você é fã do gênero, é um título obrigatório na sua coleção.

Can't throw a rock without hitting a review that compares this to Donkey Kong Country, specifically *2*, and then a series of opinions on whether or not it lives up to its spiritual inspiration. That's not happening here. All I care about is whether the game is fun on its own merits.

And it is. It's not perfect, for sure. Making a traditional platformer these days is a daunting task: you either go all in on a unique mechanic and build around it or you stick to meat and potatoes design and hope you compare favorably with the classics. This is the latter, for sure, although it has its own ideas here and there.

The art is lovely, that thin-pixel style. Tons of energy, tons of personality in the amusingly overdetailed vegetable enemies. Everything in the environment is familiar, easy to read, and the movement through said environment feels good. The jump jumps, the dash dashes. There's little bonus levels tucked out of the way for the watchful, hundred gem goals per level, finding the four letters of your name. Lots to collect, and it's easy enough to do so. I casually scooped up most on the way through, doubled back on occasion, apparently missed some secret levels that cost me the true ending.

That last sentence is key, though. I got to the last boss, hit its very real difficulty spike, powered through it in good cheer. The ending was obviously not true, the game politely noting I was short three gems, which in turn were hidden inside secret levels. I could go hunt for them, look up a guide. But I was done. The game is good, fun, but not great. Not enough to pull me in for the 100%, but a fun ride nonetheless.

A very polished Donkey Kong Country clone that is a good deal of fun while you are playing, but its the kind of game you will immediately forget about once you put the controller down. I don't know if I have ever played a game simultaneously so polished and so devoid of original ideas. It copies so liberally from DKC and occasionally Rayman Origins but doesn't build or twist the ideas in any meaningful way. Across all its levels you will not encounter a single idea or mechanic you have not seen done better in another game.

The titular Masks are absurdly underwhelming as they just recreate Squawks, the swimming mechanics of DKCR (seriously you need a powerup to have the exact swimming mechanics of DKCR) and a dragon power up which is a more complicated version of the mine cart levels. The tiger mask is the only one that isn't just a watered down Donkey Kong Country mechanic and it feels like it is from a bizarre better version of Kaze that we didn't get to play. The Dragon autorunner levels even miss the entire emotional core of what makes minecart levels work too. You roar when you get the mask and have a double jump and a dive giving off the feeling of power, its a terrible fit for recreating the minecart levels since the whole point of them being auto scrollers in a minecart is to make you feel like you are in peril and have little control of what is happening. If the team behind Kaze just put in a bit of creativity and actually think harder about why their influences do certain things their next game will surely be great but this is not that game.

um jogo que me conquistou aos poucos, no começo não estava achando nada demais, nada que já não tinha visto em outros jogos, e por isso estava demorando muito pra progredir por falta de vontade, mas enquanto fui passando pelos mundos o jogo foi me conquistando, level design único que só funcionaria nesse jogo, as máscaras são sensacionais, o jeito que exigem o uso, o jogo tem sua própria identidade, música legal, historia bonitinha embora simples, o suprassumo da pixel art, e também uma homenagem, Kaze and wild masks entra facil no hall da fama de jogos brasileiros, merece tudo que conquistou e amo como a dificuldade vai progredindo enquanto você fica bom no jogo e nas mecânicas.