Back-log: Kameo Elements of Power

First an introduction to the section. Back-log is just a fancy way of saying: old games that I feel like reviewing just to fill the time between big releases. Due to no games that i am really interested in coming out till mid to late August I thought I would review a few old titles that I am either playing through again or for the first time. This time it will be Kameo.

Kameo Elements of Power was an Xbox 360 launch title developed by Rare and was the first game I bought, separate from the Xbox 360 bundle that we got at launch. It is a slow paced action game with an emphasis on being fun instead of challenging. You play as Kameo who can take on the form of 10 elemental warriors who range from an ice gorilla to a dragon and are the core feature of the game. Kameo herself is a bit annoying and you never particularly like her or understand why she feels it appropriate to adventure in a mini-skirt (not that I would complain if I was adventuring with a woman in a mini-skirt).

The story is not one to be remembered or to be cared about during the game. The basis of the story is that Kameo was given the elemental warriors but her sister feels that she deserved them, so she decides to free the troll king and torture her family. How that makes sense I may never know, or care. The story is not important in Kameo Elements of Power, it is just there to move you from place to place and pit you against some fun bosses. Also there are a number of side quests within each zone and some hidden arenas that will give you rewards if you choose to complete them.

However you do not start out with access to all of the elemental warriors, in fact after the first level you will lose access to any of them and will have to reclaim them as you go through the story. This I felt adds to the game, in that you do not have all of your abilities available to you from the start and will have a slow and steady trickle of new talents to play with as you progress. And the good thing is that all of the warriors play very uniquely. However you will find yourself sticking to one or two of the warriors the majority of the time just because for most enemies there isn't a need to use any of them in particular.

The game's control scheme is quite unique and one that is very effective for the gameplay style. To change form you use the A, B, X and Y buttons depending on what warriors you have assigned to which buttons (A is always Kameo's normal form). And to attack you use the two triggers. The left and right will do two individual moves, while pressing them together will do another move or they can put you in a different mode/stance to access other moves. This allows you to access attacks quickly and use a lot of variety when using a particular warrior, but also switch between your assigned warriors quickly.

Another aspect of the elemental warriors is that you do not have access to all of their abilities or the full strength of their abilities when you get them. Throughout the game you collect 'elemental fruit' which is basically a currency to buy new abilities and upgrade existing ones. There are 100 elemental fruit in total, some you get through buying them from shops with the gold you collect while others you get by completing side quests or just finding them. Only a true completionist (with likely access to Gamefaqs) will go looking for all of them and get them all. There are also a number of other secret items spread throughout the game that are more difficult to find.

The graphics and appearance of Kameo is still one that is very nice but it doesn't contest with other more high end Xbox 360 titles such as Call of Duty 4. Still the game won't be ruined by shoddy visuals even when bought today.

However Kameo does not have a very long game life. In total the story may take you 5-6 hours and there is about 2-3 hours of side quests. There is also a score attack mode where you play through a level and attempt to get as high a score as possible. There is also co-op but it isn't anything amazing. So if you spend some time looking for some of the more hidden parts of Kameo Elements of Power you may get a total of 10-12 hours of gameplay out of this game.

So Kameo Elements of Power is a good game, just not an amazing one. It is enjoyable and you can probably find it for a much lower price then your average retail game, and you may need it to get you through the summer. The achievements for this game are also quite good, you can get around 600 points by just playing through the game which is quite nice if you are looking for some quick gamerscore. But if you are looking for a good and more recent Rare game you may be better off waiting for Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts which is to be released in November 2008.

Score

6/10