Kao The Kangaroo - Playthrough Part 4 (Ending)

Had to replay a big portion of what the last level because the game doesn't feature in-level checkpoints when you quit. Eventually you meet Kao's sister Kaia, who has been hiding in the Eternal World. She's an obnoxious girl-boss character and completely inconsequential to the story. After collecting some runes to unlock the final boss it turns out that Minkey was the Eternal Warrior who created this corrupting energy. Who knew that the big-nosed merchant will turn out to be the villain? That accidental baseness aside you have to face Kao's father - Koby, who is corrupted by the crystals. The first stage of the fight you must break the crystals off his body by throwing rocks at them while having fights in the mean time and then Minkey's sentient hat jumps on top of Koby and grows him to an enormous size. Here you have to utilise all the elemental powers to destroy the crystals powering the hat and then attack it when you have the chance. It's not too challenging, but it was an interesting fight. You then get a generic happy ending about Kao reuniting with his whole family and that's about it.

Kao The Kangaroo tries to pay homage to 3D platformers like Crash Bandicoot, but its design holds it back. The combat is simple and repetitive, the platforming isn't anything special and it feels floaty at times and the story tries to be deep and insightful, but it comes off as random and nonsensical. The humour they tried to inject rarely lands. All the collectables in the levels don't have much meaning aside from unlocking stuff in the gallery. I guess things like gems and the KAO letters are there for completionists, but in my view if they don't have a function, they shouldn't be in the game. I noticed several bugs here and there, but nothing too horrible. The best thing about this title are the environmental puzzles with the elemental powers of the gloves, but even those feel underdeveloped. This whole game feels unfinished and unpolished with some grand ambitions, which were not realised. Overall this is a painfully mediocre experience and if you are looking for a good 3D platformer there are much better options out there.