Kao the Kangaroo

This game captures the charm of the original games, especially the second one. It brings back so many great memories, and I’m really enjoying it!

I want to say right away that I'm definitely not a target audience here. I decided to give 'Kao the Kangaroo' 2022 a shot because I played the previous games from the series when I was a kid (and I loved them, especially the first one) so I was really curious to finally see how this modern version looks like. And I have some mixed feelings – it’s not a bad game by any means, but in the same time it lacks something that would make it fully worth time and money. Story, as expected in this kind of game and considering who is the target audience here, is rather simple: Kao’s father disappears and same thing happens to Kaya, Kao’s sister, who decided to look for him. Therefore our protagonist starts his own journey to find his family and it’s 3-4 hours long adventure throughout variety of different places. Plot’s fine: since it’s a game for kids it emphasizes caring about other people and warns that looking for shortcuts in life can have unexpected consequences, so there’s a nice moral to it. There are also of course some jokes here and there and they are bit cringeworthy if you ask me (I really didn’t need to know about the existence of KaoTube and KaoTok for example ;) ), but like I mentioned I’m not a target audience here so I guess I shouldn’t complain. There’s one other thing about Kao being the protagonist that I want to mention: this game could have been titled ‘Willy the Wolf’, ‘Paul the Penguin’ or, I don’t know, ‘Drew the Dog’ and if you put any of those characters I just made up at Kao’s place it wouldn’t change absolutely anything in the story or the gameplay. The plot has nothing to do with previous games and it feels like Kao was used as main character only because he’d attract the audience that played the first games, so devs and marketing team didn’t have to start the advertising from the scratch with totally new game and new main character on a very competitive market. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly understandable move, but I just wish there was more references or easter eggs for the older fans. I mean long neck is still a thing and there are few ‘wink-wink’ moments here and there but that’s pretty much it. ‘Kao 2022’ is a 3D platformer so when it comes to the gameplay it obviously means two things: exploration with a lot of jumping around and a ton of fighting. Kao’s journey starts in his village that serves as a hub. There are four places like this (as there are four different worlds) and they allow us to spend the ducats we collected to buy extra lives and skins, but they also lead to new locations. In order to unlock the paths Kao needs to find the runes, which basically means that we need to finish level one in order to unlock level two etc. There are also other collectibles like diamonds or scrolls with new entries in ‘Kaopedia’, special part of a menu where we can find more info about certain characters or enemies. We’ll also find Eternal Wells, portals to secret worlds scattered along the levels that offer trials like fighting waves of enemies or platforming challenges. It’s also worth mentioning that our kangaroo can charge his boxing gloves with power of fire, ice and wind. Each element has its own purpose – for example fire can be used for melting some of things standing in our way, ice can freeze the water which let us safely pass the river and wind can destroy the platform that enemy is standing on etc. Overall exploration is well done: Kao’s journey is smooth and fast paced as both navigating and jumping around are easy and level design is really solid. Combat is also fine – it’s very basic, but it just works. Kao can use few different types of attack (there’s also powerful special hit) and he can roll around to avoid the enemies. Each punch we throw targets the closest enemy, so we always know who are we going to hit which is nice when we are facing the larger group of enemies. I also have to admit that designs of ‘bad guys’ are really funny and since it’s a game for kids combat is very cartoonish and over the top. And that’s pretty much it. So far it may sound like everything’s nice and you can wonder what I meant at the beginning of this review when I said I have mixed feelings about this game. Well, despite being solid gameplay-wise ‘Kao 2022’ feels just… I’m not sure how to put it. Basic? Plain? Safe? Generic? 'Soulless' seems too harsh, but I really excepted something more. It’s not a bad game – like I said level design is fine, platforming is fine, combat is fine. Basically everything is fine, but in the same it feels like it’s just the bare minimum and it’s yet another platformer that people wouldn’t bother to check if it wasn’t new ‘Kao the Kangaroo’ game. It may be bit unfair to the devs but that’s just how it feels. ‘Kao 2022’ just lacks this hard to describe factor that separates good games from those that are alright and you can play and even have some fun with them, but there are better alternatives available so why bother in the first place. And don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect anything revolutionary to the genre, but throughout the entire playthrough I couldn’t help but feel like this game is just missing something. And I thought that maybe it’s just me – like I mentioned million times already I'm not a target audience, but I read other reviews and lot of people seem to think the same way. When it comes to graphics it resemble 'Fortnite' and I’m not really a fan of this style but, again, this is a game made for kids so I won’t complain. Overall ‘Kao the Kangaroo’ looks nice, its world is very colorful, cute, funny and ‘alive’, so I’m pretty sure kids would really like this as this visual style is aimed for them, not me. When it comes to music I guess it’s all right – nothing memorable, but also nothing particularly bad. It suits the gameplay most of the time, some of the tracks are kind of nice, but there also some that sound incredibly generic. Basically entire soundtrack is just something in the background. And it’s worth mentioning that ‘Kao 2022’ is perfectly playable on keyboard and mouse. I was bit worried when the first thing I saw in the game was the ‘Controller recommended’ pop-up since often it basically means ‘Our game is totally unplayable on K + M so if you’re using those: screw you’ but that’s not a case here. There are no issues whatsoever with jumping, fighting or moving the camera as everything is really smooth and same thing can be said about the actual camera work – in a lot of cases it tends to be your biggest enemy in this kind of games but not here. There was just literally one sequence when it could have work a bit better, but it’s wasn’t anything game-breaking so overall this part of a game is well done. Kudos to devs, as it’s not that obvious when it comes to 3D platformers. To sum this all up – I wish Steam offered the neutral option when you’re writing a review, because I’m not 100% convinced about recommending this game to anybody, but at the same time I’m 100% sure that ‘thumbs down’ vote would be just unfair (and that's the only reason why I clicked on 'thumbs up'). The thing is, if you’re looking for a game for your kid ‘Kao 2022' is not a bad choice but in the same time there are better options. And if you just want to check out what’s the result of this Kao’s journey into modern gaming because you were fan of previous games when you were a kid you'll have some fun for few hours, but in the same time there are better ways to spend those few hours. So is there a point in getting it? Not really to be honest. I just can’t either recommended or not recommended it for all the reasons described above but there’s one thing that I can say for certain: wait for a sale if you decide to get it after all. The full price (with all due respect to the devs and all the work they put into this game) is just insane and ‘Kao 2022’ is definitely not worth it. --- EDIT (May 27th 2026): Fixed some typos I didn't notice when I posted this review.

A short cute collectathon platformer. But don't write it off because of that, what's there is well-made and incredibly fun. The only real problems are that some of the collectable aren't tracked in the menu (Heart Pieces, Treasure Chests, and Eternal Wells), forcing you to look up a guide and put together a list of your own.

I grew up playin the first three games and loved every minute of them, but this new one was a massive letdown. The levels are pretty easy, and so are all the boss fights. The puzzles are overly simplistic. The devs put very little effort into polishing the game. It's packed with bugs and oversights, such as the 30k golden skin still being impossible to unlock after the latest update. This game is definitely not worth its price.

pas ouf , mauvais

Es un juego de plataformas facilón pero colorido y entretenido. Si el Klonoa y el Crash Bandicoot tuvieran un hijo y se cayera de la cuna dándose un coscorrón en la cabeza, ese sería Kao The Kangaroo. Si lo pilláis barato no está mal. Pepinillos dixit. No toméis drogas.