Legend of Kay

The entire game is bathed in ancient Chinese mystique, from its look to its captivating neo-Asian soundtrack - onf of the best for a platformer I've come across. [Sept 2005, p.]

One of the top sleeper hits of the entire year. This game is so finely constructed, minus the lackluster story, voice acting and frame rates quirks, that it really shouldn’t even be a sleeper.

Legend of Kay is likely to get lost in the shuffle leading up to this year's holiday season, but it's one of the better action games to hit the shelves this year. The designers were smart not to go crazy with new concepts.

The epitome of that "game you love to hate", you’ll swear at the TV and throw the controller but you won’t stop until its completed. It’s punishingly hard in places but that only makes the final victory even sweeter.

Overall Legend of Kay is a decent quality platforming title that successfully combines several entertaining ideas. It is let down a little by poor voice acting and slightly linear RPG elements, but at least benefits from a mid-range price-tag.

Shows very little in the way of innovation, but the limited scope of the game allows it to shine all the more, delivering to its player a refreshing slice of good, clean fun.

One of the game’s shining lights is the camera system that enables you to focus on the action all of the time – you won’t be blindsided in this game by enemies creeping up on you, and coupled with the intuitive control system you’ll find that navigating Kay through the levels is fairly straightforward.

And while it may have a couple of technical issues and lacks the scope and detail of a Zelda game, Kay's heart is in the right place, and it pulls off a great action adventure game for people of all ages.

The action is fast, fun, and occasionally almost intense, but not graphic.

The fighting mechanics for this game are not the best I have played but they get the job done.

A well-executed and polished game marred by the fact it is so, so generic and (with the exception of the game save feature) everything is lifted from somewhere else. It’s also tough.

A well-rounded title with smooth combat and challenging platforming, Legend of Kay is a good game hurt by hideous voice work, semi-functional technology and a sometimes problematic camera.

A decent platformer, sure, but don't expect anything new or original here. It's a nice diversion and something good for kids, but adults will probably want to stick to the bigger budget titles.

By forgetting some of the market expectations and putting a bit of themselves into their work, the game's creators (some of them at least) have made confident and convincing strides towards evolving the genre, and struck a balance between Eastern and Western gaming tastes that only Nintendo is normally capable of nailing so well. [Andrew "Fletch" Fletcher]

The only things dragging down Legend of Kay are the terrible slowdown and a very youthful image.

A solid game set in a beautifully created world brimming with life and atmosphere. Starting off pretty easy to break you in gently the game soon starts to challenge even the most experienced players and the varied quests and side min-games are enough to keep you interested until the very end.

A solid game set in a beautifully-created world brimming with life and atmosphere. While it begins unassumingly, the game soon finds its 'furry' feet.

The camera becomes a problematic issue, the voice work is about as desirable as using a cheese grater to get rid of itchy skin, and there's not much to delve back into once it's beaten.

Capcom's free-flowing Zelda-esque adventure title is a surprisingly decent blend of action, platforming and puzzle-solving.

Hey, it's not the cat's pajamas, but some people prefer to sleep in He-Man briefs.

More than any of the technical faults, though, is the problem that Kay is just plain dullsville. [Oct 2005, p.134]

Its foremost pleasures are the evenly paced exploration, the pleasant graphical style and the unexpectedly humorous characters... While far from essential, this is a much more enjoyable adventure than, on paper, it has any right to be. [March 2005, p.92]

Feels like an uninspiring pick and mix of the decent bits from all the platform games you’ve seen since "Mario 64."

Ideal for younger gamers.

The combat is the title’s biggest blessing and curse. On the one hand we have a multi-faceted scheme that relies on a veritable orgy of button bashes in order to unleash the nest moves. But it’s entirely counterattacked by dodgy enemies who rarely change beyond what race they are.

Ultimately feels like an action-platformer for masochistic, smart-aleck kids. [Oct 2005, p.102]

It doesn’t stand out. There’s nothing here to get excited about, as the gameplay is standard fare, and like many Capcom games, your ears are gonna bleed when you hear the voice acting.

What it lacks is craft. Kay feels like the thesis project of a recent game school graduate, with haphazard, connect-the-dots levels filled with an endless parade of breakable pots. [Oct 2005, p.90]