During PAX East, I was able to schedule an appointment at the Limited Run booth to get some hands on time with Kao the Kangaroo. Limited Run was sharing their booth at PAX East with Tate Multimedia who are the lead developers on Kao the Kangaroo. In this generation of classic games getting brought back for a new audience, Kao the Kangaroo is the next game to get the reboot treatment.
Kao the Kangaroo brings us back to the era of old school 3D platforming the likes of Super Mario and Banjo Kazooie would be proud of. From the looks of the demo version at PAX East, Banjo Kazooie would be even prouder by all the collectibles this version of Kao the Kangaroo has to offer. You will have to be on the lookout for letters that spell “KAO” in each level similar to the letters strewn about in the Donkey Kong Country series. You’ll also have to be on the lookout for different items like gems in the stage as well.
Kao wears boxing gloves and can throw punches to attack enemies. That being said, you can also find different power ups for the boxing gloves to get through stages. One time, you’ll have to find fire to burn things and another time, you’ll have to find a purple power up that allows you to throw a boomerang to hit far away switches. If that mechanic isn’t a callback to classic 3D platforming then I don’t know what is?
There was only one demo level to play at PAX East and it was a cave/volcano stage that was fun to explore. Kao has a double jump that makes getting around easier as well as being able to grab the edge of cliffs/ledges to jump up on. That being said, the camera in this build is not good. It was so bad that like in classic 3D games, the camera made precision jumps really tough to do. It was very hard to line up jumps on moving platforms since it was difficult to line up the camera over said platform.
Graphically the game looks great. It feels like were back in the 3D platforming era of gaming. It’s great to see enemies go flying when you punch them a few times and it’s even better when they have a dejected look on their face when they’re getting thrown across the screen. I love the Nintendo 64 era of games and from what I played at PAX East, Kao the Kangaroo will fit in just fine!