Kao the Kangaroo (2000 re-release)

Seeing as I enjoyed the remake and had never heard of the original I thought I'd give it a go, but unfortunately the lack of a save file did it in for me. The controls are a bit rough and limited to keyboard only without some steam input shenanigans and that was fine, it pre-dates the X360 controller so lots of games pre-2008 are prone to that, and the control layout is about what expected from this vintage of game. The resolution was limited without hex editing or patched exes which was fine, it's an old game and it wasn't going to look any better at 1080p anyways But having a 30 level campaign and sending me back to level 1 after I lost the last life in level 5 was a bit far for me, yes other games have done it but even for the age, this was unusual. I think that last game I saw with that mechanic was 1994-ish, and either way I was intending on playing this casually, not as a "5 lives one run to rule them all" kind of game. So I'm rating based more on the new one really, but for an...

This game is more challenging than it may seem, even with the updated controls (the original release used tank controls) and I find myself relying on cheat codes to avoid being sent back to the first level, but it's still the good old Kao that I had played as a kid. The nostalgia factor is strong, so I can't tell if a new player would enjoy this 25 year old game, but I can bet that a returning player will be happy to reunite with the first iteration of our kangaroo after long years. Tip: collect all the coins in all levels to unlock a secret snowboarding level c: Also, Hard difficulty makes all bonus levels available, if you want to experience 100% of the game's content.