While not everything gamers have been waiting all this time for, Kameo is a fun game that should appeal to most anyone.
With that out of the way, Kameo: Elements of Power comes across as the ultimate of clichéd platform gaming. As the subtitle so subtly refers to, the game’s main theme is set around the elements of water, fire, earth and air, with Kameo’s power of each ultimately telling a story that is as well-worn as the gameplay.
As Kameo has been in development for longer than Microsoft has been involved in console gaming, the plot and characters should be second nature to anyone who has a passing interest in games by now, but just in case you’ve just joined us, there is very little to cover - so I’ll try to be brief. That elfin fairy princess is Kameo, the main character that you play as throughout the game’s short but fun experience. Those creatures you can change to at will with a button press are the Elements, elemental creatures that you need to hunt down and capture so you can morph into them and continue your quest. That jealous looking she-devil is your sister, and she has sided with various nasties including that big bloke, the Troll King to wreak havoc on her former Kingdom. She’s even kidnapped your family! So, as Kameo, you need to set out and capture those long lost Elements and eliminate final evil before the Enchanted Kingdom is felled. Told you I would keep it short, it‘s really all there is to it.
Being an Xbox 360 launch title, all the usual bells and whistles about next generation visuals are in there, and in full force. Kameo has the honor of being the very first game for the Xbox 360, and by default, the very first next generation game. So naturally, it’s a stunner. But that doesn’t even go into it’s art direction. It’s a fairytale twist on Playstation 1 platformer Medievil and has the ethereal beauty of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. The lush vistas and panoramic views of enormous battle scenes are truly epic, this is something that truly could not have been achieved previously and bodes well for the next generation of gaming. The absolutely marvellous use of lighting, especially in the Throne Room, have to be seen to be believed. Screenshots do this game no justice. Xbox 360 launch be damned - this is going to be one of the better looking games throughout the lifetime of the console.
To regain your lost elemental powers, a more involved gameplay experience is set up. Although it’s initially simple, Kameo will travel all across the Enchanted Kingdom seeking trap doors to the Shadow Realm, where she will battle the wispy stalk of a Element in order to gain it’s strength. Although these battles end up roughly the same throughout the course of your adventure, developer Rare have packed in the enemies to stop you at all costs before you reach these skirmishes. Using the learned Elements to mop up enemies is a sound strategy, as Kameo, while not bad to look at, isn’t a very powerful character on her own. Combinations of the Elements and using, for instance, Fire against Ice Creatures will work like any player could expect, but the creature design also influences their behaviour, and they each have a specific way in which to break down their defences before being taken down permanently.
The main temple action where you are shuttled from area to area to defeat the various nasties before continuing can grate, and some Elementals that prove more useful than others can make the game feel unbalanced. Although the general action is enjoyable, there is a feeling of repetitive levels, where a constant stream of enemies must be eliminated before moving on. The last level is especially true to this, as it contains rooms that look identical on more than one occasion. Than there is the more than occasional rolling up ramps to jump onto walls to climb action. The lack of variety from beginning to end can really get tiresome.
The games primary focus is on the creatures that Kameo can become once they are unlocked. Overall, there are ten creatures to find, and each has a specific use and upgradeable power. While combat is fairly easy and linear, enemies have specific weaknesses against some powers than others, though the power designs are a treat too. For instance, upgrading Deep Blue’s water spitting power will turn it into a oil spitting power, which can slick the ground as well as do direct damage. However, switching over to your fire breathing dragon Ashe will quickly light up entire areas and anything within them - pure genius. Many of the Elementals have powers that compliment one another, and boss battles often have numerous defences that can only be beaten with specific Elementals. Finding out these weaknesses is one of the joys of Kameo, and lifts the fairly lukewarm combat into something far more enjoyable.
However, as enjoyable as the gameplay mostly is, Kameo doesn’t ship without its faults. Specifically, some Elementals are under utilised and feel like last minute additions. For instance, 40 Below has little use outside of the Snow Village, and Flex suffers from this same fate. Their powers are fun, but sticking with just a few of the Elementals will be enough to get you through the game. You only use some Elementals a few times, usually just after you get them, as if the levels were designed to have the characters used once and then forgotten.
This is not to go on about how some combinations are over used, such as the aforementioned run-spin-climb technique that you need both Rubble and Chilla for, whom you have from the very beginning. For all the greatness of how the game looks and feels, level design is samey and the experience really begins to grate after opening the umpteenth room you need to clear. When the difficulty of the title has been achieved by throwing more random enemies at you rather than by having the player explore and learn new paths, things just begin to trudge.
Some extras have been thrown in to help negate the fact that this is a rather short game, with the standard beating your previous score and co-op play available. Quite unusually, the game is available for Live Co-op play, but in our experience, hardly anyone thought this feature was something worth playing. The few we did try it with gave us a smooth online experience, but this is ultimately the same game. Beating different sections unlocks a wad of bonus extras, such as concept art and new skins for your Elementals, but it’s not something that is going to keep you coming back.
However, for all these little niggles, Kameo is still an excellent game. It’s easily the best game Rare has crafted since their acquisition by Microsoft, and while it’s not up there with Banjo Kazooie as a memorable platformer, it’s a decent effort from a developer that many had since written off.