Of all the old school 3d platformers
that could have got rebooted
i think kao the kangaroo is probably one
of the last ones people would think of
we're not talking banjo or cronk or
something like gex or even blinks you
know games that sold well and are still
remembered and continue to be culturally
relevant in some way but ko oh he's one
of the long forgotten a trilogy of
fairly basic action-adventure
platformers hopping from dreamcast to
ps2 with all three available on pc as
well the third game was a windows
exclusive and it barely even left poland
we didn't get that one in most countries
that's for sure they weren't the most
amazing games in the world ko1 was a
pretty mediocre crash clone where you
run kind of slow and ko round 2 was more
or less a simpler
clunkier take on rayman 2. nothing
terribly impressive but day it was solid
enough it was kind of fun and how could
you not love those big old goofy eyes
this seems to be the one people remember
the most it even had a psp port which
had a completely different name for some
reason and i i still can't get over how
bad that box art is this has got to be
one of the goofiest examples of trying
to make a box art appeal to americans
ko3 felt more like an expansion to the
second game than anything having
identical gameplay graphics while being
rather short in length too it carried an
indiana jones sense of adventure as you
explored ruins temples and volcanoes
with higher focus in the puzzle solving
this time around as well the funky jams
were exchanged for more ambient pieces
making ko3 a surprisingly gentle and
atmospheric experience
i've got some pretty fun memories of
going through all these games and
checking them all out except the game
boy advance version that thing was so
bad i flushed it down the toilet anyway
they may not be the best 3d platformers
around but they are incredibly charming
from the music to the character design
to the fantastic environments and set
pieces for one reason or another i found
myself really loving that little
kangaroo and i don't think i'm the only
one who does i've read a lot of comments
over the years from people sharing fond
memories of ko many of which coming from
poland of course and it seems to me the
developers over at tate interactive also
share that love like i remember when
they re-released ko round 2 on steam
they did it for only 2 freaking dollars
they didn't care about making a whole
bunch of money or anything like that
they just wanted people to more easily
be able to play this thing again and
that is pretty damn commendable you know
like we live in an era where a lot of
old games get remastered which is super
great but sometimes they're a bit too
pricey it's like do i want to pay that
much money for a 15 year old game you
know what i mean but
this was something different this was a
re-release based entirely on just love
so i'm sure many of you were fairly
befuddled to see a kao de kangaroo
reboot but me i wasn't all that
surprised i know there's passionate folk
over there that genuinely care about
this little kangaroo but even still it
is pretty wild seeing it actually happen
i know passion is unfortunately only as
useful as opportunity so when that
trailer finally busted out it almost
didn't even feel real it didn't feel
like they were just rebooting it either
but more so like they truly wanted to
figure out what an original modern take
on the series would look like you know i
live and die for underappreciated
platformers like this so a game like
this getting made is almost like
christmas for me
uh they of course sent me over a review
code for free i got the ps5 version
that's gonna be the version i'm playing
i uh got the little guy installed just
over there so uh yeah ko rebooted how
did the game turn out while we played in
c
the game begins with ko chasing his
sister kaya through a hazy purple area a
big spooky teeming guy appears at the
edge of a cliff and gobbles her up ko
then leaps into action and oh wow i
guess we're already in control we beat
the crap out of a bunch of frogs and
then we get another cut scene where ko
wakes up from a dream
interpreting it as some sort of message
ko then declares that he has to depart
on a quest to save his sister and his
father who's been missing for quite some
time now man the story is so different
than before in ko1 and 2 you're just
trying to save your animal friends from
this evil hunter guy but
here the hunter is nowhere to be seen
it's like this big quest to save your
family from forces beyond the eternal
dimension or
something like that it's a totally fresh
story with a completely fresh cannon
that new character design is quite a bit
different than before it doesn't have
those balloon eyes anymore which i do
dearly miss i thought he had a really
cute little dumb design it was really
goofy and great but here he feels a lot
more like a spunky and heroic teenager
yeah it definitely doesn't have the same
appeal as the original character but as
a brand new original interpretation of
what this kangaroo hero could look like
i do really like it it's a very clean
design i like how expressive he can be
and the animations do have quite a bit
of life to them kyle's trying to tell me
something maybe she knows what happened
to dad well i'm not gonna pretend like
it's the best voice acting in the world
or anything close but i do really
appreciate them using a polish actor for
ko giving most the characters natural
polish accents does make the game feel a
lot closer to home and fifty percent of
the time she walks one hundred percent
of the time
the writing is pretty hit and miss for
me like if some of the jokes do land it
did get the occasional chuckle out of me
those were the days
yeah those were the days indeed
it's a pity that now there are no days
but sometimes it feels like they can't
go two minutes without trying to make
some sort of forced pop culture
reference fly my pretty fly
i mean hey a roo tube here and a chew
bubble gum there that's fine that's fun
wouldn't want that on ruthube but how in
the hell are you making arrow to the
knee jokes in 2022
someone's going to take an arrow to the
knee and the next you know there'd be
nowhere to come back to maybe it
wouldn't be so bad if they didn't feel
painfully shoehorned in but it feels
like she said that for no reason
so before too long we'll find herself in
the first real level and it's gonna feel
mighty familiar to anybody who's played
the second game the move set the level
design the visuals it all feels like a
new version of ko round two so what do
we got here there's the standard double
jump for comfortably leaping across all
of those simple gaps there's a roll move
for dodging stuff and getting underneath
any narrow passages finding some secrets
that way grand pound for bopping those
big buttons a punch and a tail whip
attack for when you're attacking guys up
in the air though unlike previous games
there's no longer any sort of hover move
ko2 had those weird i don't know helmet
and knee wings i still don't know what
this is supposed to be but uh ko3 had
that parachute which i actually did
really like um but here there's nothing
like that at all i mean i guess the
double jump is already more than enough
to make landing easy but i just kind of
missed those set pieces from ko3 where
you're like gliding through canyons and
stuff though there is a new grapple move
you never complain about one of those
took me a couple of tries to really get
a feel for the physics on it the way it
whips you forward is a little bit weird
and jarring at first but with good
timing you can really launch yourself
forward it's a super fun move chucking
those boomerangs is once again a staple
but this time you're not going to be
holding on to a collection of them to be
used as strictly combat projectiles
anymore now it's more like when you'd
pick up some object in ko2 and would
chuck it at something and knock it over
or something like that you'll pick one
up by knocking open one of these little
rock things and from there you can throw
it at the nearest switch or webbing or
or whatever it is you gotta hit you can
also pick up these little charges
that'll give your boxing gloves an
elemental attribute for example there's
fire gloves for burning stuff up and
beating some heat into those furnaces
there's ice gloves for freezing over
ponds and pools you can skate on them
and explore all around and there's also
wind gloves for moving around objects
from afar good for both puzzle solving
and ripping the footing out from
underneath these losers
it is always funny you can even
supercharge the boomerangs with these
elements making fire boomerangs or
burning stuff up from afar or maybe ice
boomerangs for freezing waterfalls so
you can climb up and buddy oh my god we
gonna talk about that freaking ledge
grab dude it is god deer the very frame
you enter that ledge grab you're able to
jump right out of it and it controls so
freaking well every obstacle where
you're jumping from ledge to ledge to
climb up something or something like
that yeah it all feels fantastic now you
were able to do this in ko2 and 3 as
well but buddy it did not feel this
freaking good back then
the combat's pretty different though
this has seen a total overhaul so in ko1
it was as simple as it possibly could be
you just hit the guys and they hit you
and that's that but uh ko round 2 had a
little bit more focus on it it kind of
felt like a way clunkier version of
rayman 2's combat you know it's all
about that lock on and trading
projectiles and jumping around and stuff
but here the focus is back on throwing
those punches attacking will now have ko
whip himself towards the nearest enemy
closing any small gaps just like how
psychonauts 2 does the roll move is also
a lot more helpful as a dodge because
it's way more responsive this time so
it's really good for getting out of any
tight spots you also get to toss out
some satisfying aerials in the midst of
the chaos enemies will sometimes take
the high ground either by standing on
something tall or by flying around in
the air platforming is all about jumping
after all so in my eyes any good
platforming combat is going to involve
jumping in some way landing enough hits
will build up this meter here which once
full will allow you to use a heavy
attack you get a bass drop and ko sends
out a shock wave obliterating everybody
around you you know i have to admit this
is actually rather satisfying combat it
is simple and kind of button mashy and
you know a little repetitive yes but the
back and forth between landing those
hits and getting to bust out the
explosion it's a pretty satisfying
gameplay loop that never really manages
to overstay its welcome the fights never
go on way too long or anything so it
ends up feeling like a nice empowering
change of pace that's sprinkled lightly
between the platforming and exploration
the lock-on is absolute garbage though i
mean i found it helpful for dodging
attacks from larger guys and bosses
every now and then but man this thing
just pulls in way too close for comfort
why are we so close to the ground why
are we looking upward why can't i see
anything the lock on in ko 2 and 3 was
fine the camera hung back and you got
two visual confirmations that you were
indeed locking on but here it's like god
it's just so much more playable if you
ignore it and just let the camera hang
back naturally
after we're done that first opener level
we then arrive at hopulue village which
serves as the game's first hub world and
it is it is so apparent so quickly that
they put a lot more work into this hub
world than previous games
while i do fondly remember the dark
pirate aesthetics of ko2's hub world
it was pretty void of anything to
actually do mostly just existed for the
cutscenes to unfold i mean they didn't
even have very many parts of it actually
go to the different levels for most of
them you would just open a level select
by talking to an npc ko3's hub world was
a little bit better i liked a little
village here by the beach but again
there wasn't really anything to actually
do outside of talking to a couple of
npcs you couldn't even go inside any of
the houses but these new worlds have so
much more going on there's collectibles
to find you can buy items there's all
these characters you can talk to each
with their own funny dialogue you can
even go inside all of the houses i hated
that you couldn't do that in ko3
you probably shouldn't have let me
though all i did was break their stuff
oh that was the light up whoops so uh
you might have noticed that i said first
hub world yeah there are four of these
in total actually outside of the
kangaroo village we also have a little
forest area that's littered with papayas
and monkeys that are worshipping a false
messiah there's the snowy mountains
where you got these himalayan temples
towering over you with mountain goats
everywhere and lastly there's the
eternal island a carnival from hell
that's been tainted by the eternal realm
and obviously each hub area will house a
handful of levels each and you actually
go to the level by going to the level
you go to the volcano by going up to the
volcano you go to the woods by going
over to the woods they're doing the
thing that i wanted ko2's hub world to
do to gain access to a level you'll
first have to collect enough runes to
break open the big purple barrier in
front of it you know just like getting
enough stars or jiggies or something
like that you can find these by either
playing through levels or by simply
exploring the whole world around you the
attention to detail is just outstanding
like everywhere you look you can find
all these funny little objects that tell
a story like these weight benches where
somebody was bench pressing balloons
visual design is just excellent like
like how easy it is to tell where all
the levels are you can see all these
pockets of purple energy in the distance
that is visual design 101 right there i
gotta say like the ko reboot has hands
down the best hub areas in the entire
series i was hoping i'd be able to say
they outdid themselves and yeah they
absolutely outdid themselves each level
is going to unfold in a pretty linear
manner but you can find a bunch of
off-beaten pathways and secret rooms as
well so there's plenty of reason to keep
looking around the obstacles are all
pretty easy going the jumps are all
pretty simple and you'll have your
occasional puzzle or fight or mechanism
to interact with it's just like the old
games a very basic action-adventure
platformer so now that the game has
polished gameplay that's you know fun
enough it's really just down to the
environments to carry the rest and
boy do the environments carry the rest
they did such a good job on them every
level is just brimming with bright
colorful detail they're all really
interesting locations that are fun as
hell to explore you got this giant juice
factory that's making the rivers run
bright orange with papaya juice
platforming across these giant fats that
are churning it like butter there's a
volcano with this gigantic laboratory at
the centers you have all these crooked
pipes all over the place there's a
himalayan hot spring retreat complete
with showers and spas and you're just
going in and ruining everyone's day and
don't even get me started on that final
world it's a big spooky carnival
hallways are cluttered with traps and
hellish circus scenery chain chomps
except they're like these big freaky
pairs of wind-up teeth trying to get at
you you're gonna be platforming through
some pretty cool scenarios one thing you
won't be doing however are those uh
high-speed sections that ko2 had they
were kind of jank and you would die a
lot but they were kind of fun so i was
hoping to see like an improved version
of that here but i guess they figured
not to revisit that idea there is one j
sequence but it feels a lot more like a
crash bandicoot boulder level the
snowboarding doesn't come back either
which i kind of hope to see uh it was
like so bad at the first game barely
even playable you had to go like one
mile an hour you were just guaranteed to
die um and it was so much better in the
second game so i was hoping well maybe
we'd have another step maybe we'd have a
really cool and fun snowboarding mini
game here but oh well though the
grinding from ko3 does make a comeback
it's that magnetic kind of grinding that
you've seen in games like this and this
and this but uh while i do kind of find
the sword of grinding a little bit
tiresome and quite overused in games i
do like how they implemented it you know
instead of feeling like a cleverly
disguised quick time event for the sake
of variety they're efficiently used to
bridge different level chunks really
nicely so it feels less like oh here's
the part of the level it's a rail time
to push the right buttons and react to
the obstacles it's more like just a
thing to get you back to a previous area
quickly and they just throw some coins
at you along the way they even blend a
couple of them into these sliding
segments here i feel like they work
really well here i mean you know a
slide's all about that forward momentum
so throwing a couple of rails in there
just makes a whole lot of sense the
checkpoint system is based on ko round 2
so you're not going to be collecting and
manually placing checkpoints like the
first game if you're a fan of demon turf
didn't bring that idea back you just see
a bell you ring it and that's where
they'll put you if you fall off the
stage or if you run out of health losing
all your health of course will cost you
a life which uh like never happened to
me you do like the game hands out lives
like candy but it also hands out heart
containers like candy so before i knew
it i was practically invincible i had so
much health nobody could kill me i
literally died twice in the entire game
you see all this footage where i'm
showing you the ghost animation i had to
die on purpose to get that
that is pretty awesome though the the
classic animation there it is a little
bit different though yeah you're not on
angel anymore and it is way briefer but
hey i'm always glad to see them bringing
back a lot of those iconic visuals from
the old games he'll even still jump rope
if you let him idle for a while and how
can you have a k.o the kangaroo game
without the neck thing this was like my
favorite thing about these weird games
when you go in water and his neck
inexplicably extends to keep his head
above water so he can still breathe it's
never explained it's never acknowledged
it just is they still do that here but
it's
it's nowhere as apparent the bodies of
waters aren't nearly as deep and on top
of that they're a lot harder to see
through so it's like yeah yeah he's
doing it but it's kind of hard to tell
they're definitely not trying to hide it
though because you can use the neck in
an all new way when you're grappling
those mesh ceilings you can hang down
and grab anything below you that is just
that is just great he even still uses
his freaking ears to climb god like so
many aspects of this character have been
completely preserved in this reboot
there were a handful of things i did
find myself missing though like how we
would pretend his boxing gloves are
binoculars when he would go in first
person like come on that was adorable or
how he would skip around joyfully every
time you want to fight he doesn't do
that anymore i guess it is hard to
complain too much because they really
did go all freaking out on the overall
presentation for this thing it is a damn
gorgeous game i especially love all of
the crookedness you see in a lot of
areas they don't do it as heavily as in
games like rayman or psychonauts but
they do lean into it enough to give it a
personality that manages to go beyond
the obvious toys for bob comparison but
hands down the single greatest detail
they included in this entire game are
all of the crabs they conveniently stick
right at the edge
of big ass cliffs
bye like you can't resist he's right
there
there's no penalty you can't not you
have to good to see you okay well one
more
what get
there we go
all right so at the end of each hub
world there's going to be a boss fight
bosses were never really a strong suit
of the series in fact in the first game
they're straight up terrible but here
they're actually pretty decent not
amazing nothing is going to knock your
socks off or anything but each fight
does manage to feel fresh they all have
a handful of interesting moments that
keep you changing your strategy you're
not going to find yourself just doing
the same thing over and over so it is a
really big step up over previous games
you know now that i've been playing this
for a little bit it's it's actually
pretty wild to me just how much they
improved here like not even just stuff
like the level design the boss fights
and that sort of thing but just
generally improving the feel of the
controls and everything like
you pick up the controller and you push
the buttons right it's like this is
undeniably ko the kangaroo this is the
same move set the same controls and
everything
but it feels so new it's like tight and
precise and it's smooth as butter it is
it is just so surreal playing this
another big improvement comes from
something they didn't do and that is uh
making the vehicle stages return they
don't have a single vehicle mission in
this entire game which is definitely for
the better i never liked any of them at
all especially not the freaking plane
level in ko3 that was boring as hell no
extra characters either you're not going
to be playing this gadget this time
which i also don't really miss that much
but even though ko is only playable all
on his lonesome you can spruce the guy
up with all of these unlockable costumes
they even have the one from ko3 well
let's be real that doesn't matter at all
because you can also unlock the classic
model dude if you're not sold on his new
design you don't have to be collecting
all three letters of ko in each level
will unlock another hat for purchase not
entirely sure what unlocks the skins i
think that might just be from beating
the levels themselves but either way i
ended up having access to the classic
skin really early on so you don't really
have to play all that far into the game
before you can kick it old school i also
kind of like this dark k.o skin if
there's anything that will always remain
a guilty pleasure for me it's evil
versions of the main characters i will
always appreciate getting a goofy dark
side version as a skin
man i found myself a lot more impressed
with this game than i expected to be i
mean like it is still just a basic
adventure platformer it's not ever going
to impress anybody in the way that any
of the big guys will but it's well put
together it's charming as hell and most
of all it's pretty darn fun i had a
blast slamming through this game dude
and it's decently meaty too like it's
not all that short a game uh you got
four whole hub worlds with a good chunk
of levels each in a boss fight took me
probably about seven eight hours to
complete but of course that would go on
a little bit longer if you wanted to go
back and 100 each level and like get all
the costumes and stuff it's also not
that hard a platinum trophy to get to if
you care about that sort of thing my
only real gripes are all just technical
things you know sometimes the animations
don't really convey what's happening all
that well or they might feel kind of
rushed or weak here and there when a
minor character appears you know nothing
you wouldn't already expect occasionally
from a smaller budget title but what i
did keep noticing was a lot of sound
mixing issues you know sometimes after
doing a bonus level i'd return to the
main level and the music would just stop
[Applause]
really awkward some parts of the game
also felt weirdly quiet like there
weren't enough sound effects for what
was going on these weird sheep things
for example they make a sound when
they're prepared for launch but
not
when they launch just the little things
here and there that made some areas not
feel quite as full of life as others it
is important to note though that i am
playing the game a week before release
you would know it from the release of
this review it's a bit late but i was
playing it early so i would imagine a
lot of these things are probably either
going to be fixed or may have already
have been fixed knock at all the gun to
the game's head just because the pot
animations didn't play sometimes you
know i do know some people did have
issues with the autosave not working on
some versions though
not sure if that's still an issue or not
but i'm sure it is something the
developers are aware of and will patch
in time games pretty much available on
everything it's on ps4 and 5 switch
xboxes and pc of course right now it's
up for 30 bucks u.s 40 canadian if you
like casual platformers with vibrant
levels and great visual design then it's
not a terrible price but i would imagine
most people are probably gonna wait for
it to go on sale i think it'd make for a
perfect kids game like i could easily
see this being a fantastic choice as
somebody's first platformer very solid
game to introduce somebody to the genre
with but uh if you're looking for
something that can challenge you then
you might not really care a whole lot
about it you're probably better off
playing something like demon turf or
blue fire or a
silhoue sybil if you're looking for
something real brutal i would say it's
totally worth it if you are a big fan of
ko the kangaroo though you're pretty
much going to be getting a totally fresh
take on the second two games and i do
have to say going at something familiar
and having it feel totally new
that is a really cool feeling man it is
just still so
weird that i'm playing a new ko the
kangaroo game dude i mean like i had to
keep stopping myself every now and then
just to just to really take in just to
remind myself how
cool it is that this gets to freaking
exist i mean it is really it is really
not often that we get to see a little
guy like ko get a big new shiny release
that looks like something like this so
man here's the freaking 3d platformers
dude here's to the freaking underdog
dude i think this game proves anything
is that it it really doesn't matter who
you are like as long as you get a team
of passionate people behind you that are
willing to pitch in a little bit of love
i think anybody can make a solid
comeback
hi welcome to the end slate uh i hope
you enjoyed watching this video it's
been really cool returning to uh chaos
of kangaroo i uh played a lot of get
shut shut up down no thank you if you
like to support the show i've got a one
dollar podcast over on my patreon you
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but what i do know is mario