I was very excited when I've first learned about Kaze. When I watched PixelHive's first trailer, I just really digged the colors and aesthetics. The pixel animation is excellent. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to purchase it on release.
The story begins with Kaze and her friend Hogo finding a temple, and inside this temple is a mysterious ring that Kaze attempts toI was very excited when I've first learned about Kaze. When I watched PixelHive's first trailer, I just really digged the colors and aesthetics. The pixel animation is excellent. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to purchase it on release.
The story begins with Kaze and her friend Hogo finding a temple, and inside this temple is a mysterious ring that Kaze attempts to touch. But then she gets blasted with an energy that leaves her incapacitated for a few seconds. Meanwhile Hogo's souls get captured and trapped inside the cursed ring. We then see the mysterious energy leaving, only to realize that it was a sorceress that plans to curse the entire Crystal Islands. It's now up to Kaze and her trapped friend to save the islands from the sorceress.
The game is a 2D platformer with some core mechanics. You can jump, glide, attack and ground pound. You progress by completing one level after another. Every island has their own boss at the end and you unlock the next island after defeating them.
By playing the game, you'll notice that it is trying to be a spiritual successor of Donkey Kong Country. Kaze controls almost the same as Dixie Kong in DKC 2 & 3. If you're familiar with her, then you won't have any trouble at getting used to this game's control.
These types of platformers requires precision in jumping and landing at the right spot. I just want to mention that I've completed the game on Stadia and I haven't noticed any latency and the game played perfectly well on the platform. It made my experience very enjoyable.
Level crafting on 2D platformers is not an easy task. You have to make sure that the level's pacing is satisfying and fun. You also have to make sure that there's enough variety to keep the player going throughout the game. Most of Kaze's playthrough achieve that. But I've noticed in the last island that there's a few questionable spots where I feel like it could've been done a little better. It's hard to explain, but there's just certain places where the flow just didn't feel right.
The enemies are well executed, but I wish that they had better visual and variety. They're all just vegetables. Like carrots, corns, eggplants. It just doesn't feel "cool", you know? I'm not sure where they were going with the vegetable enemies. Since this is not a educational game, and I feel like it's not made for younger kids.
In some of the levels, you'll be able to wear a mask with different powers: The bird can fly and shoot projectiles, the shark can swim and attack under water. The dragon (or lizard?) needs you to move constantly, but you can double jump. And the tiger, which let you you climb walls and dash. I really like these masks since it breaks the regular gameplay into something different.
When you start the game you have the option to put the difficulty to casual or original mode. In casual mode, you'll have a lot more checkpoints and hearts in all levels. I recommend casual mode if you're not too familiar with 2D platformers. Kaze is actually pretty hard, but I like that because it gives enough of a challenge to returning Donkey Kong Country veterans like myself.
There is no life or 1-up system. When you die, you just restart back from either the beginning of the level or at a checkpoint. This means that you can try the level as many time as you want. I feel like this bring a modern taste to the game because in reality, there's really no point at having a life system.
All Bosses at the end of each island are very fun. It's not really a "how do I defeat this boss". But more of a
"I have to make it through these difficult platforming sequences to defeat it." They are very hard, but also very satisfying when you finally defeat them. Kudos to the team for the final boss. They really nailed it and was just an epic end boss
On top of that, the game has a bunch of replayability. Every level has 3 types of Crystal that you can obtain: You can get the gold crystal by collecting the letters K-A-Z and E in the level. The green crystal by finding and completing 2 mini challenge. And the purple crystal by collecting at least 100 mini crystals. And You get a badge if you finish the level while taking no damage. These extra crystals allows you to unlock special levels and a secret ending.
You can also earn a bronze, silver or gold medal by trying the level in time trial mode. What's nice about this is that there's a global leaderboard that shows the fastest time completed on a certain level. So if you're up for the challenge, you can compete with other real players for the fastest time.
The music is alright. You know, I don't want to sound picky, but it's hard to compare with David Wise's masterpiece in the Donkey Kong Country series. But I do like the title theme of Kaze. And the music has enough to differenciate from other platformers. It does it's job at matching the ambiance of the levels, but thats about it for me.… Expand
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