At a glance...

Previewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players	Release Date	Screenshots
Matt Bailey	Xbox	JoWood Productions	In-House	1	15th April 2005	Here

Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 preview

First and foremost, Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 is aimed at children. What does this mean? Cheap tie-in? Overly simplistic gameplay? In the case of Kao 2, this isn't true. From what I've played so far on the Xbox, the game is certainly avoiding going down the route of Butt Ugly Martians: Zoom or Doom.

Interestingly, the original game was a Dreamcast release, and is actually making its first appearance on the current consoles in this new edition. The name game sees Kao travelling through such places as the 'Beaver Forest', 'Thunder Mountain', 'Ocean Lands' and 'Treasure Island'. However, as you might expect, there are lots of hurdles preventing you from reaching your ultimate goal. This is where the game's melee combat moves come in handy. As a kickboxing kangaroo (as I'm sure all kangaroo are), Kao is able to do quite a bit of damage to his opponents through various moves (including 7 new ones) pulled off through various button combinations. And, of course, no Australian hero would be complete without his trusty boomerang, which provides just as useful for solving various platform-related puzzles as it does for attacking enemies from a distance.

So you don't get board on foot, plenty of vehicle-based action (now almost compulsary for a platformer) are included. This includes snowboarding, flying, riding a mine cart and a high speed boat pursuit.

Graphically, as you might expect for the age group, the game is bright and colourful and immediately provides appeal to its audience. It might not be significantly detailed or a ground breaking engine, but the smoothness of edges is usually something only teenage and adult gamers are concerned with.

Another plus appears to be the pick-up-and-play controls, that worked well on the Xbox controller. How well this applies to the PlayStation 2 you'll soon find out in the upcoming allaboutgames.co.uk review of this new console release.

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