Completely overlooked by most on the PS2, Legend of Kay Anniversary is definitely one of the better action platformers to release over the last few years, with fast paced combat that delivers hours of fun for those that missed out on this cult classic.
Legend of Kay Anniversary is an old games in every aspects but it’s still an interesting games for someone who is looking for an old school action-platform. The good quality of the combat-system and the platforming obviate the problem of the camera and the banality of the plot.
Legend of Kay Anniversary
bringing back the good and unfortunately the bad.
Legend of Kay Anniversary is an HD remake of a PS2 game from 2005 and unfortunately this remake feels like nothing but a fresh coat of paint was added.
Legend of Kay is a 3D platformer and pretty fun 3D platformer, there is so much to love about this game, its colorful, the characters have charm and levels are highly varied to prevent repetitiveness.
You start the game out in a catvilliage to learn about these evil gorillas and rats trying to take over the land, so you train with your drunken sensei and you set out into the world to take these gorillas down.
along your journey you’ll find crystals that boost your score to unlock collectibles such as concept art and weapon skins at the end of every level, you’ll find health upgrades, magic upgrades, and new armor and weapons.
I really loved picking this world apart for its secrets and platforming my way through.
You never know what the end of one level will take you or even where the middle of the level will take you, you could end up in a classic epic boss battle, riding a wild boar, in a swamp, a city, a cliff side,
progression is so refreshingly unpredictable
What isn’t refreshing though is the combat
The combat is very button mashy, not too many moves you can do, and enemies really take forever to kill,
not only do they seem to be damage sponges, but they spam the block button like your little sister that doesn’t know how to play fighting games.
This usually isn’t a problem if the battles are small, but most of the time you’ll be lucky to face less than 4 enemies at a time and while you’re trying to break their defense you’ll be getting cheap shotted from behind.
I didn’t have too much trouble until about halfway through the game though
the difficulty spike was intense and hopping right in at nightmare difficulty from the start didn’t help either.
There are some lifesaving pickups such as bombs and hornet nests you can find randomly or buy at a shop to bring into battle with you, and there are save shrines that revive your health and tons of extra lives around, but the health revival doesn’t even completely replenish your health and neither do the extra lives making them essentially useless.
I’m not sure what the developers were thinking with the extra life system
I know you couldn’t defeat the spam blocking crocodiles with armor and full health, so were going to let you try again but this time starting with 25% of what you had to begin with.
You’re better off backing out into the main menu and reloading your last save point rather than use an extra life.
Speaking of head scratchers, this is 2015 and the game has camera controls from 2002
they’re sticky and really give you no freedom, this can be insanely frustrating when you’re trying to slice through enemies or platform with the already stiff feeling controls that have plagued 3d platformers outside of Mario since forever.
I felt like I died more times thanks to the camera than my own human error.
It felt lazy to me that the developers wouldn’t go into the actual game and make it better, bring it up to today’s standards.
I can’t imagine the team running around and saying wow, these camera angles are perfect, let’s not do anything to them, because honestly, they’re crap and out of all things, ruin this games overall experience the most.
Despite the stiff controls, damage sponge enemies and crappy camera, I still loved my time with Legend of Kay Anniversary and I believe you will too,
I really wish the development team put more love into though
This game really had potential to reach the mid 8s to lower 9s
For What it is
3D Platformer: 8/10
Overall:
7.5/10
Legend of Kay Anniversary is a worthy nod to a 2005 game. Despite its flaws, such as the irritating camera movement, it contains some fun moments, improved graphics and a few other little things to remind you how good it was back in the day.
The polished graphics, open world levels, serviceable combat, and fairly compelling dungeons are up to scratch, but the title's niggling gameplay flaws, terrible writing, generic visuals, and bland plot and characters don't exactly make it the cat's meow either.
I honestly feel that this game could’ve been actually re-made, brought into modern times, and been successful. As it is, though, it’s just further fodder for the anti-remake resistance.
The game has a nice flow to it, and it has a simple game mechanics, but there are some things that caanot be overlooked. First the camera is horrible really bad, and the jumping mechanic is also wacky, and the voice acting is just horrendous. Better to play without sound. If you can overlook those things.. you will enjoy it
This one hasn't aged well. An interesting choice for an HD remake. Creaking under clunky animation is a bland, uninspiring reminder of how far along games have come.
As far as 3D platformers go, you can do alot better than this.
SummaryExperience the unique blend of Martial Arts-combat, action adventure, Jump 'n' Run and puzzle solving.
10 years after its initial release, Legend of Kay Anniversary is a thoroughly remastered version of the original game with high resolution textures, new & more detailed character models, modern rendering techniques and crystal-cl...