Legend of Kay Anniversary (Wii U Review) | PlayerEssence
The most important thing to preface this entire review with is the fact that this is a Playstation 2 game that’s been remastered. It comes from an older time. So, does Nordic Games’ remaster come as a pleasant surprise or is it really still just an old, aged game with a shinier coat of paint on it?
Gameplay
Legend of Kay is a platformer adventure game set in 3D, and it is heavily, and I mean HEAVILY influenced by none other than The Legend of Zelda. Trust me, if you’ve played Zelda games, you’re going to know where this game gets most of its ideas from. However, as a bit of a spin on it, there is a decent amount of platforming. And while the platforming CAN provide a decent challenge and amuse you, it can also provide some frustration. It’s hard to describe it other than “behind the times”. It’s functional, it works, and at times it’s fun, but it doesn’t stand up too well when it attempts more complex situations, particularly when the camera begins to work against you. Yes, the camera sometimes hinders you, and it does it so sporadically it’s hard to pinpoint when it’s going to misbehave. Moving into combat, things follow the same standards: functional, and at times fun, but not always up to par. Much like the platforming, there is a decent depth to the combat, and it CAN provide a decent challenge as well, amusing you when it works. Usually when it doesn’t is because of, yup, you guessed it: the camera. Finally, looking over gameplay in its entirety, there is some decent variety in your adventure, namely the addition of riding animals and solving puzzles that are mostly easy, but still provide a good change of pace.
Content
Watching the credits roll just 12 and a half hours later strikes a bit of a mediocre tune as well. We’re looking at a more pricey budget title at a meager $25 on the Wii U, but also looking at an adventure with a length that falls drastically short of the game it so heavily draws upon. If you wanted a lengthy, epic adventure, it’s not here. At the same time, it’s extras are numerous: if you really want to go back through and collect everything, it definitely could take awhile. So in some ways, it’s lower price is met with a smaller adventure, but without much replay value, it’s also a bit expensive as a budget title single playthrough. Only completionists can really get their money’s worth in full.
Presentation
It still remains important to note that this is an HD port of a Playstation 2 game. It’s also important to remind you of the price tag I just mentioned. With expectations set realistically, this is actually not a bad attempt. It even runs at a nice 60 frames per second most of the time. “Most of the time” you ask? Yes, most of the time: when the framerate does take a dive, the older coding design of the game also results in slowdown of the action as well. Keep this in mind, as there’s lots of endgame combat, and sometimes it gets really messy. In terms of audio, the music is actually rather pleasant, and I was surprised at how catchy and well-adjusted some tunes were for their respective environments: something that aged very well. But then, my enjoyment of the music is ruined… by bad voice acting. It’s not just that the voice acting is often pretty bad, but that some of the accents are just shockingly out of place. It comes across as comical at times, but most of the time, there’s such a stereotypical approach to the accents that it’s just jarring. Don’t blame yourself if you find it hard to appreciate the game’s humor, either: it’s barely better than the voice acting. I mean, if you thought MY humor was bad… Oh wait, there IS something I forgot to mention: boobs. Yup, there’s a panda with boobs. Yup, there’s a cat with boobs.
Conclusion
The biggest issue with reviewing older games in the modern era is that there’s a sense of what is possible. As we all know, some games age well while others do not. While this game has seen a facial Botox injection, its core has not aged that well. It’s functional as mentioned many times: it works when it works, but it isn’t without a strong sense of mediocrity in virtually every aspect. Can you derive some fun from this game? Sure, but don’t expect a lot. I can only recommend this game if you have nothing else to play, and have a need to scratch your itch for a furry with boo-err I mean for a platformer adventure game.
I give Legend of Kay Anniversary… a 7/10.
This review was written by Jason Chuang - ZyroXZ2
