Nintendo Okie

Guest Review by Brandon McCulley

Over the past five years, the Nintendo DS has been known to have some great platformers like New Super Mario Bros, N+, and Super Mario 64 DS. Legend of Kay is a 3-D platformer developed by JoWooD Entertainment and published by Dreamcatcher Games. Unfortunately, this game fails miserably for being a port of a five year old PS2 game with an annoying camera and bland landscapes.

You play as Kay, who studies martial arts. This game takes place on the mythical island of Yenching. For generations, Yenching was a peaceful island inhabited by cats, frogs, hares, and pandas. They all followed an ancient tradition know as “The Way” which taught all the different animals to live peacefully in their villages and towns. The evil gorillas and rats are now planning to take over Yeching.

Full 3-D world to play in

The Legend of Kay is a fully-fledged 3-D platformer which pushes the DS quite a bit. Yenching is a vast huge world with which to explore. The 3-D models of the characters look nice, but the enemies should have been treated with more polish. In some cutscenes, you will watch a comic book style narrative explaining what is currently happening. It looks nice, but you cannot really sense the emotions in the characters.

Bland Landscapes

Even though The Legend of Kay is very big, it is lacking in a lot of detail. The landscapes are very bland. You might see some enemies or gorilla soldiers that will try to capture you but most of the time you will running through barren wastelands that have little to no detail at all. The level design can also be very bland and hard to understand what exactly you are trying reach.

Controls work well

The controls work well to an extent. You use the D-pad to control Kay while using the “B” button to jump. The “Y” button can also be used to run to reach your next destination. If you are having a bad camera angle you can press either of the shoulder buttons to re-center the camera. The touch screen is not used much aside from conversations. In order to proceed with a conversation you need to touch the screen, why you cannot use the “A” button to proceed with conversations.

Bad Camera

This seems to be a common problem with 3-D plat formers. The camera will sometimes go crazy and you will unable to see your next destination. Even trying to re-center the camera will sometimes to be very frustrating.

No Real Combat System

Since Kay supposedly knows martial arts, some would think that you will be using a sword or different moves to take down your foes. This is not the case however. Unlike the PS2 game, Kay never uses violence at all. The ancient teachings of “The Way” do not allow Kay to attack another sentient being: it’s ok to crush spiders by jumping on them, but not a soldier who can think and has feelings… even if he has long black hair and was forced to fight in the gorilla army. Instead, you must use stealth to get past gorilla soldiers. The problem here is that most gorilla soldiers can easily be avoided by not walking in front of them. Kay can just walk right past them with ease without getting hurt.

Conclusion

Overall, The Legend of Kay is a bad 3-D platformer with a number of problems that stop you from enjoying the game. Any fans of the original Legend of Kay for PS2 should stick with that version and stay away from The Legend of Kay for the DS. With bland landscapes, no real combact system, and a frustrating camera, The Legend of Kay is not worth $20.The Legend of Kay is a horrible DS platformer and any fan of the genre should stay away from.

Rating: 1/5 out of 5 Stars
Review copy provided by DreamCatcher Games
Played for 5 hours