A Rare Kameo Keeps the Flame Alight

By William Barker

The visuals in Kameo are often mind-numbingly good

You can see Princess Kameo inside the Yeti creature, and whenever she punches, he punches - it's a neat feature

On the left we have an evil troll with his wolverine claw, and on the right we have Princess Kameo's plant creature, ready to unleash some killer combo punches

In this Xbox 360 adventure game, Kameo, you play a pixie who can transform into a trio of different creatures. There's a fur-covered yeti (as opposed to a shaven yak), an armour-plated badger and a fist-fighting dandelion. Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but that last one - the green plant with a potent left hook - is a little bit unrealistic, don't you think?

Yetis - fair enough, I've seen 'em at the zoo. Armour-plated guinea pigs - why not, they get around in South America. But plants that punch? The idea sounds like it was concocted during a drunken karaoke session after the game's director decided that the slightly funky chicken he'd eaten the night before had to be purged via song.

Yet, as crazy as it sounds, this game works. There's some good concepts here, and they've been fairly well executed. But let's go back to the beginning so that I can explain...

A long time ago before the universe existed, in a place called HJ-Tuumpar, a non-physical but incredibly potent intelligence pondered it's own existence, unaware of any others in it's realm. But, as chance would have it... *This excerpt has been erased the NASA deputy director R. Bartley*.

So, once all the cosmic dust had settled after this fortunate yet cataclysmic meeting between positives and negatives, planets and stars began to coalesce, and to cut a long story relatively short; humans evolved, developed their society to unsustainable proportions and then Microsoft ordered the once-unflappable (but increasingly mediocre) developer, simply called Rare, to make Kameo, an intriguing action adventure game in the vein of Super Mario Sonic Raider Diablo Kart Gradius Part II.

You take control of Princess Kameo, who begins the game assaulting a gothic castle of foreboding proportions, but why is she doing this? Simple - she's pissed with her sister. 

Her sibling, Kalus (who must have inherited the evil gene), has joined forces with the troll king Thorn, who have kidnapped Kameo's family and hatched a plan to conquer the entire Enchanted Kingdom. But Kameo's one of these passive-aggressive types, with a strange kinship to revenge, and she ain't gonna sit still while her sister sucks the life out of her family and the place she calls home.

Once you've booted up the game and pushed a few buttons to begin your quest for eternal enlightenment, it becomes obvious that this game is aimed at a younger demographic than the one I fit into. I'm 25, scorpio, tremendously ugly and slightly/completely paranoid, where this game appears to be targetted at a slightly younger bracket with it's cutesy fairy-tale book inspired menus and cartoon-ish visuals. It all looks great, don't get me wrong, but get a clue Rare -- the biggest market in videogames is my demographic, and we want hardcore violence and nudity, so make it happen.

Anyway, though the game may be a little flowery around the edges, delve beyond the first few levels and you will discover - as did I - that this is indeed a very playable and, at times, challenging game. It's an adventure game that begins with you in Yeti form first, climbing a tower as massive dragons circle overhead, on your way into the aforesaid gothic castle. And boy-oh-boy does it look good! The eye candy in this game is supreme, with so much going on at once and with no slowdown.

The level design is quite expansive, and hugely creative at times, combining indoor and outdoor levels in equal measure, all of which look stunning, and everything moves really smoothly suggesting a high frame rate. There's really slick particle effects to make smoke and explosions look smart, there's plenty of shiny transparencies and texture maps plus all the best eye candy you can imagine. And again, it just goes to show that the Xbox 360 is no hunk of junk, though the PS3 will certainly provide it with a migraine of sorts.

So, back on this first level you are thrust into -- and you're in Yeti form, as he can climb vertical inclines without too much trouble. The thing with Kameo is that she possesses awesome powers so that, at will, she can change from her normal winged pixie self into a number of battle-hardened berserkers who don't mind getting their hands dirty.

Once you've reached the top of said tower, there are small scrolls littered around the place that provide hints and tips on how to progress, and it's a nice and gentle way to ease players into the world of Kameo. There is no intro or tutorial as such, but playing through the game one realises that even the best rendered CGI is becoming less of a match for the straight-up polygon crunching power of next generation consoles. And particularly in high definition 1080i mode. Very tasty.

Of the first three creatures you can transform into - the Yeti, the Plant and the armour-plated Gerbil - each has a unique skill set that must be used to progress, and there are other forms that you can take in your travels that inject plenty of variety. There are ramps on one level that cannot be surmounted. Until, that is, you transform in to the armour-plated gerbil and charge up his spinning/rolling attack. Sure, it's a complete ripoff from Sonic, but the ramps and tunnel sections work well, and I like to think of it as an homage to Sega, rather than a callous clone.

While the armour-plated gerbil creature can roll around like Sonic, the Yeti can climb walls, is an excellent fighter, can throw ice-javelins at any time and even has a massive ice-storm spell of sorts that reigns crystalline fury from above. It's very cool. Finally, the boxing plant is a good melee fighter and can squeeze through tiny gaps by burrowing underground and perform a striking uppercut move. 

With these three freaks of nature at your beck and call, it makes playing through the game quite enjoyable, as you try and figure out which form is best suited to completing the environmental puzzles.

Often the most annoying thing about these 3D adventure romps is the control scheme - but not here. The controls are well thought out. Actually, scrap that, they're simple is what they are. The top three buttons (X, Y, B) are your transform buttons. You can transform into one of the three beings by hitting these buttons, while the two triggers perform your main functions, such as melee combat, spinning in a ball and so on. And that's pretty much it, making it the kind of pick-up-and-play title that should appeal to gamers of all ages. 

Holding down both trigger buttons together activates a more powerful third skill, but many of these skills require mana, which refills gradually over time (and is joined by a health bar, for those who were wondering). If you're flippant with your mana usage, you'll run out regularly and probably get called names by your petulant cousin who, for some ludicrous reason, has to spend the weekend with you because your grotesquely obese aunty is going in for liposuction. Get a treadmill you lazy heifer.

Once you've passed the first gothic castle introduction level, it's time to start exploring and the Enchanted Kingdom is a sight for sore eyes. I would use the word 'splendiferous' to describe this kingdom, but I don't know what it means, so I'll just say that it's really cool.

There's also a very enjoyable co-operative mode, where you can play through the game in a split-screen mode, which works surprisingly well and isn't riddled with slowdown, unlike some games that tend to judder and show lethargy when the screen is split and geometrical complexity is doubled. There's also something eminently enjoyable about taking on a bunch of stylised trolls. Sure, the controls scheme is simple, but it's a tightly coded game and things like collision detection and input response are tremendous. It even has an RPG feel to it at times, as every time you smash a baddy on the head or in the family jewels or even in the neck, as a small number appears above their heads to inform you how damage you've just doled out. I like that, as you can tell whether you're being efficient with your combative moves.

As you work your way through the game it becomes apparent that there's quite a lot of exploration involved, and the simple act to wandering around the Enchanted Kingdom is quite rewarding as it looks so incredibly vibrant. According to the official brochure, Kameo blends "the heady thrills of exploration and puzzle-solving with the adrenaline rush of real-time 3D battles," and though I'm loathe to agree with The Man, he's hit the nail on the head.

If you need to please someone - yourself or even your obese aunty's annoying son - and it has to be family friendly, with no ultra violence and anything too antisocial, this game will fit the bill. But better than that, it's not just a child-minder, but a remarkably playable game, and though a little short, it presents to players some of the most wondrous visuals ever seen in a console game and though I blagged Rare early in this review, this game shows that there's still some petrol left in it's tank.

Game: Kameo: Elements of Power
System: Xbox360
Players: 1-2
Online: Yes
Developer: Rare
Distributor: Microsoft

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)