Kao the Kangaroo is the next game that I wanted to look at as it once again uses an animal with human qualities. I choose to look at the second game in the series instead of the first as it looked a lot better in terms of graphics and they also introduced more clothes onto the character which I think worked a lot better, as looking back at the older one something did seem to be missing. I really like the over all feel to the game and there is once again the presence of anthropomorphism as the characters have humanistic qualities. The basic story is that the wicked hunter from the first game has returned and captures Kao and his friends to take revenge. Kao manages to escape and prepares to find a way to defeat the hunter.
The basic character is Kao is quite well designed taking the idea that kangaroo's would punch each other in fights to a whole new level by introducing boxing gloves, trainers and boxing shorts. This prospect kind of works but there is something about it that seems quite strange and there doesn't appear to be that much design work behind it as it just takes a very basic concept forward instead of changing the designs up slightly. That aside it does work well for this brief as it does have talking animals that walk on two feet, even though kangaroo's do anyway, but the characters are quite basic but are well modeled. Although one thing that I do like about his design is that he has a boomerang, something that is native to Australia and something that we were thinking about giving to our own character as he too is from there. Its a nice touch that works well with the character and really does give it something unique, the only problem is he holds it on his back occasionally which doesn't actually work as there is nothing for it to hold onto.
When it comes to the environment they are very well designed and feature in a variety of different locations that expand across the world almost, ranging from volcanoes to ice caves.The environments are all very well detailed and include a lot of detail in each one that relates to the environment that Kao is travelling through. Each environment is unique and includes a lot of interesting areas to explore that can be reached through platforming and using the characters abilities to get to to higher places in the level, which are all very well set out and look really nice; working with the same consistency of models and look of the rest of the world.
The cut scenes that are featured are not particularly exciting or anything special. The cut scenes that feature are quite dull and vaguely tells a story of what is happening in the story, but it is very basic and there isn't a lot of movement or dialog. It usually features one character talking to Kao and then telling him what he is going to do before Kao moves into place ready for the beginning of the next level to start. Its not very inspiring but the cut scenes are not what I wanted to look at for this game, and I got a lot of inspiration from the character instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment