Kao the Kangaroo demo leaps into Steam Next Fest
The demo's available on Steam through Feb. 28. We gave it a spin and detailed our toughts.
It’s an exciting time for fans of Kao the Kangaroo with a brand new game on the horizon. The boxing marsupial, a Polish video game icon, hasn’t had a new game since 2006. But Tate Interactive, Kao’s original developers, are coming back with a brand new adventure. And good news: if you’re itching to give the new Kao the Kangaroo a go, there’s a new demo on Steam available for this week only.
The demo is available now on Steam. It’s only available to play from now through Feb. 28, so fans will need to hop on this opportunity.
The Kao the Kangaroo demo is a part of Steam Next Fest, a week-long event featuring demos from a slew of upcoming indie titles. You can play through a single level in full (barring a few areas locked off for now). We dove into the demo and shared our thoughts below.
Stepping into the Kao the Kangaroo demo
Anyway familiar with the basic Kao the Kangaroo gameplay should feel right at home here. The demo sees Kao traversing through the Dark Forest, an early level in the final game. It features a mix of platforming sections and combat-heavy arenas, balancing between the two quite nicely.
Kao’s movement feels pretty decent; the controls aren’t super tight, but Kao feels heavy enough to handle these platforming sections. However, this demo might not be the best place to judge how the platforming feels overall. Since this is an early level in the story, the platforming challenges are unsurprisingly lighter; whether or not Kao will handle more difficult levels remains to be seen.
One of the critical aspects of a Kao the Kangaroo game is the combat, and while this demo proves the combat works, it isn’t incredibly engaging. Kao has a standard three-hit combo alongside a finishing move that kills its target and stuns enemies in the vicinity. You can also unleash a mid-air spin attack and ground pound for extra damaging opportunities. All of these moves function well enough, but it doesn’t take long for the combat to become repetitive.
The demo takes about 25-30 minutes if you want to collect everything. Just going through the level without exploring will take you about half of that time. I grew up with the collectathons of the late 90s and 2000s, and even this brief demo scratched that itch quite well.
Story, graphics, and much-needed polish
Through this demo, we get our first glimpse of the game’s story. In this game, Kao is strapped with the Eternal Gloves, a corrupted and (as we learn) sentient artifact that allows him to view the Eternal World. This reveals otherwise-hidden platforms, and also allows him to grab and throw a boomerang to hit distant targets.
Overall, I was satisfied with the Kao the Kangaroo demo for its platforming and item collection. But if there’s one area where the game needs improvement before release, it’s the presentation. The animations and sounds definitely need some polish. There were many instances, both in cutscenes and gameplay, where it seems like sound effects were missing — giving these moments a significantly reduced impact. Physics on breakable objects, especially, never looks quite right with pieces flying around without proper weight to them. And it’s incredibly distracting seeing these broken objects pop out of the world rather than fade out.
I’m raising these complaints not to demean the game, but to point out areas where Tate Interactive could improve from now until release. What I’ve played so far of Kao the Kangaroo is enjoyable, make no mistake. Given enough time in the oven, this could turn out to be a great revival of a forgotten franchise; it’s just a matter of ironing out the kinks.
You’re played the demo; when’s Kao the Kangaroo launching?
If you miss your chance to check the Kao the Kangaroo demo out, fret not; the game is due for a full release this summer. In the meantime, you can check out the reveal trailer for the game here.
Kao the Kangaroo is developed and published by Tate Interactive. It will be available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam in summer 2022.
Are you playing the Kao the Kangaroo demo this week? Will you be picking up the game when it launches this summer? Let us know!
