Is Kao the Kangaroo Underrated?
Towards the tail end of the Dreamcast’s official life-cycle, back in 2001, a little
game developed by Polish studio, X-Ray Interactive, was released for the Dreamcast and Windows.
Kao the Kangaroo stars a yellow kangaroo named Kao, and he sports a pair of boxing gloves.
You know, because Kangaroos box.
While not the most popular game available on the Dreamcast, it received moderate commercial
success and a sequel was released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Windows, and PlayStation
Portable.
And finally, a third title, Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of Volcano, was released exclusively
on Windows in Europe in 2006, never making it to North American shores.
But back to the game that started it all.
Kao the Kangaroo didn’t exactly light the world on fire upon release.
Game Informer Magazine gave the game a 5 out of 10, stating “I doubt this game will be
remembered as much of anything when you look back at the Dreamcast.”
Online website Happy Puppy was not impressed either, scoring the game a 6 out of 10, proclaiming:
“While not a total waste of time, KAO the Kangaroo certainly isn't a Dreamcast tour
de force.
Anyone that has ever played a platform game will find it inherently derivative and therefore
overwhelmingly personality deficient.”
And finally, IGN gave the game a 6.2 out of 10, with a harsher critique, “...with awkward
controls and an unfinished feel, Kao The Kangaroo tries to leap just past the standard but falls
short of making the jump to the next platform.”
So, can a game which spawned an entire trilogy really be this drab?
Well, let’s take a look.
The opening cinematic shows a somewhat derpy looking kangaroo taking a nap, but is awakened
when a butterfly lands on his nose.
When he finally catches the winged critter, he discovers he has fallen into a hunter’s
trap.
We then see the hunter has carelessly left a pair of boxing gloves in said cage.
While I somehow doubt the hunter was using a trained butterfly for bait, nor do I believe
said hunter would accidently leave boxing gloves in a cage on a hunting expedition,
the scene is short and does what it needs to do.
There is a hero, he has a mission, and we have a game.
Right away you’ll notice Kao the Kangaroo is definitely inspired by the Crash Bandicoot
series.
The action takes place from behind, down a narrow path, in a jungle setting.
It’s not the most original thing ever, but I like the Crash games, so I’ll let it slide.
Kao himself has a pair of attacks.
Obviously he can punch with those sweet gloves, but he also has a tail whip.
Additionally, he can side step left or right.
Finally, you can collect some projectile gloves, though these are few and far between and not
required at any point in the game.
Of course being a platfomer in 2001, there are items to collect.
In this case, there are coins, and collecting 100 earns you a free life.
To collect all of them in a given stage, you also need to find a hidden, or not so hidden,
warp platform which takes you to a bonus level.
Again, I can’t help but be reminded of the original Crash Bandicoot games.
After clearing the first stage you are taken to a map screen.
Here, your entire journey is laid out on a treasure map.
It’s easy to see how many stages are left, where the boss battles are, and of course,
the final level is against the evil hunter.
The next stage is a nice change of pace from the first.
Rather than a narrow path, you have to jump along small platforms floating in the sky.
This would be a good time to talk about the controls.
Kao the Kangaroo features some surprisingly tight jumping mechanics.
Momentum and mid-air control feel spot on and jumping along successive platforms is
fairly easy and painless.
Kao the Kangaroo’s third stage offers us our first taste of the many different vehicles.
In this case, we pilot a hang glider through a dark volcanic cave.
After this, we get a mild puzzle, where we have to push some levels in the order shown
on a sign post.
The level finishes off with a chase sequence, which again reminds me of a certain mascot
marsupial.
Throughout the adventure new wrinkles are added to the formula.
Here, you have to take down electric towers as you progress through the level, otherwise
they’ll shock you.
The vehicles start to pile up as well, including a snowboard, a speedboat, a spaceship, and
even an alligator.
There are even some downhill sliding sections that feel like they're ripped straight out
of Super Mario 64.
If Kao the Kangaroo does one thing well, it’s offering a ton of variety.
From dense jungles, tropical islands, ice levels, snow levels, a giant boat, an old
castle, deserts, ancient ruins, a space station, and even space itself, Kao never runs out
of new areas to hop through.
Another great thing is the difficulty curve.
While the opening stages are incredibly simple and easy, by time you get to the final leg
of your journey, the difficulty really amps up requiring more precise jumps, trickier
enemies, and more obstacles.
Moving on, the bosses too aren’t bad and relatively simple.
Basically, you have to figure out how to make the boss vulnerable, and then punch him.
Do this three times and the fight is over.
Again, these are not great by any stretch, but after experiencing a wealth of really
awful boss battles in the Dreamcast era Sonic games over the past year, it is somewhat refreshing
to just have a simple fight without any glitches.
So, after making your way through 25 different stages, and battling your way through 4 boss
fights, we finally make it to the standoff against the hunter.
Like the boss battles before it, this is surprisingly simple.
All you have to do is wait for the hunter to fire off five rounds, then punch him.
Each time you repeat this cycle, he moves towards the cage in the center of the ring.
The final blow will send him to the trap and you beat the game.
The final cut scene shows the captured kangaroos leading the hunter to a boat to row off into
the distance.
It’s not the best ending ever, but it does the job.
Queue the credits.
Before we get to the conclusion, let me first talk about the overall presentation.
As you’ve no doubt noticed, the graphics are definitely below average.
Level geometry is extremely basic, and Kao the Kangaroo is definitely not pushing a lot
of polygons on the screen.
Textures are also of the low-res variety, and tend to look a bit muddy as a result.
The entire game has a very Nintendo 64 feel to.
On the plus side, the game is colorful which I do appreciate.
Each environment features bold primary colors and they do look nice.
Kao himself is also well animated, and his walking and jumping animations look smooth
and convincing.
The punching animation is a bit more chaotic, but still not offensive.
Unfortunately, the frame rate is not good.
With graphics this basic, I feel the Dreamcast version should have no problems running at
60 frames per second.
Instead, it hovers around 30 and camera pans can look awfully choppy.
The music too is a real let down and almost every piece is very basic.
Tracks have few instruments, the compositions seem like something I would have made in Fruity
Loops back in 2000, and overall they lack any real depth.
Even worse, they fade out rather quickly, rather than infinitely loop, which is distracting
and sloppy.
These aren’t bad per say, and a few do in fact do a nice job setting the mood for the
level at hand, I just wish they were all like this.
So with all of that out of the way, we arrive where we began.
Is Kao the Kangaroo underrated?
In my opinion, no.
Kao the Kangaroo is not a bad game, and the overall sense of blandness doesn’t bother
me.
However, the game has quite a few problems.
First and foremost, the combat is not satisfying.
Kao the Kangaroo has a tail whip in addition to a punch, but they both function exactly
the same.
The hit radius is the same and neither is beneficial in any given situation.
In fact, I relied exclusively on the punch, simply because I could hold the button and
Kao will punch indefinitely.
This is sadly, a necessary feature.
The hit detection is spotty, and it’s all too easy to accidently run into an enemy when
you thought you were going to punch them.
The best strategy is to just sit there and let the enemy come to you.
There is no guarantee you won’t still take damage, but it’s a lot less aggravating.
Unfortunately, sitting there waiting for enemies to run into your death fists isn’t exactly
riveting gameplay.
I also find it odd Kao has a side-step maneuver, but this is never required at any point in
the game.
Why is it even here?
Next, while I enjoy the change of pace the vehicle levels provide, they have one hit
deaths.
Everywhere else in the game, Kao has a life bar, except these stages.
As you often have to navigate extremely tight corridors, and it can be quite easy to accidentally
nick the wall, and then have to start over from the beginning, this is a real problem.
Quite frankly, this is just a bad gameplay choice and I found these levels far more frustrating
than they needed to be.
Next, the controls are backwards on the chase sequences.
These are the only sections in the game with tank controls, where the input of the joystick
is not relative to what you are seeing on the screen.
It’s incredibly disorienting, and again, there is no excuse for such a confusing change
to the controls during these sequences.
Even worse, Kao moves quicker when you hold the jump button, which is cute, but can lead
to you jumping to your doom.
There are other confusing moments as well.
Like why do I take damage for hitting this obstacle?
This happens at no other point in the game.
Why did I waste all of my time jumping on these platforms to get led to a dead end?
How did the camera get stuck with such simple geometry?
How was I supposed to know I had to push this crate?
A later stage actually guides you into pushing a crate, but this guidance comes in a later
level.
Why does running under Zeus cause him to fall?
Why are these alligators so damn hard to land on?
It goes on and on.
But none of these problems compare to the frustration of these crates.
There are two sections in Kao the Kangaroo where you are riding a moving platform while
crates are coming at you.
You are supposed to punch the crates at the right moment to break them, but with the questionable
hit detection noted earlier, you’re more likely to get pushed to your death.
Even worse, these sections are so poorly programmed you might get pushed to your death by invisible
boxes.
Yeah, it’s pretty bad.
Now, not everything is bad.
The enemy designs are charming enough, and I like how the piranha plants act like dogs
and these sharks have swimming gear.
There are even clever moments, like this dark cave where you need to jump from platform
to platform while chasing a lightning bug who illuminates the way.
But as a whole, there just aren’t enough clever moments in Kao the Kangaroo.
The game is derivative, and after 15 years, has more or less been forgotten when looking
back at the Dreamcast.
I would love to tell you Kao the Kangaroo is a hidden gem or a game that arrived before
it’s time.
And as much as I did enjoy playing through this game again for this video, the fact is,
the game is a pretty mediocre platformer.
Kao the Kangaroo didn’t bring anything new to the table, and nearly every gimmick found
in the game had been done before it, and usually better.
If you’re looking for the definitive Kao experience, I would recommend Kao Round 2
on the Gamecube.
And if you’re looking for a unique, though flawed, platformer for the Dreamcast, then
something like Super Magnetic Neo is where you should spend your retro gaming dollars.
In closing, Kao the Kangaroo is not a bad game.
But with watered down visuals, a lackluster soundtrack, and underwhelming gameplay, it’s
tough to recommend.
What the press said about the game back in the day, is still spot on.
Underrated, this is not.