Legend of Kay (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Ports are uncommon in this day and age, with the Wii having seen its fair share of those over the course of its life cycle so far. On the DS, however, they're not quite as common. Usually, developers decide to play to the consoles strengths and make a game specific to it or when a port does come around, then gameplay changes are made to make it work on the handheld. Not the case here as publisher JoWood have decided to bring 5 year old Playstation 2 game Legend of Kay to the DS almost exactly as it was on that console. Yet, poor application of this thought and some missing gameplay elements beg the question of why it was ported in the first place.

Gameplay

Legend of Kay sees you taking control of a wannabe cat hero called Kay as he sets about trying to reunite the four tribes of Yenching, the cats, the frogs, the hares and the pandas, and stop the invasion of the Gorilla tribe, who've teamed up with a tribe of rat alchemists. It's as fantastical a story as you could get and the game goes further by pulling in an ancient art, known simply as The Way, and how Kay must stick to these teachings if he is to stop the invading army. Much of the story is told through comic book style cutscenes which seem to drag on far longer than they need to, meaning it quickly lessens the appeal of the story. It's also the only place you'll see any form of character development but again, due to the nature of the cutscenes and a less than well executed script, the characters soon become as unnoticeable as the story.

Spread across 4 levels, with a total of 15 stages in total, Legend of Kay will task you primarily with platforming your way through the lands. This would be an acceptable form of gameplay has it not been for some significant issues which hold the game back severely, such as poor collision detection meaning you'll either slide off of many objects or simply be unable to jump to others. Each of the game's stages is an expansive area within one of the 4 main tribal areas in the game. While this may sound like a good thing, the lack of guidance along with poor level design make finding your way through certain areas bothersome, resulting in a trial and error style of gameplay until you can get to grips with the game's shortcomings and pass on through to the next stage. Your only help in plotting your path through some of the more expansive areas is an arrow which feebly points you in the direction you need to head, although at times it will point you off in the wrong direction resulting in plenty of backtracking.

With these issues, the platforming soon becomes tired and repetitive; far from the fun game many would expect. Attempts to liven the game come in the form of some stealth sections, where you'll need to sneak past guards without being seen. It's implemented in such as simplistic way that it does little to liven up the experience, more often than not resulting in more trial and error testing until you get passed all of the guards. There are no areas for hiding, as you'd expect with stealth gameplay, or even weaponry to take out patrols so you'll simply have to hug the walls or various areas and simply hope that the guards don't see you.

As mentioned, there are no weapons in the game at all. In fact, the game is set up to follow the teachings of The Way, meaning you'll only be able to jump on and defeat spiders and won't be able to fight any of the other opponents in the game, a change from the original outing. It initially feels strange and while you do get used to it somewhat, the game seems to be crying out for something to make it more enjoyable than the mess it currently is and a bit of combat would have done this. As it is though, the mixture of problematic platforming and basic stealth gameplay will drag on the further you get into the game, even more so after having to replay stages and levels multiple times just to be able to finish them, and will ultimately take you roughly 4 hours to complete but long before then, you'll wish to be playing something far more enjoyable than this.

Controls

As expected, the developers have made sure the game is controlled entirely through use of buttons rather than implementing any arbitrary touch screen controls. As such, navigating through the levels are Kay is relatively easy, with the only issues really coming about as a result of poor level design and collision detection making the platforming sections harder than they need to be for a game aimed at a younger demographic. Camera control is appalling however, and trying to get it lined up so you can see a jump can at times be extremely frustrating as you can only centre the camera based on the direct you are facing rather than having free movement of it. One further point of contention is that the touch screen is used to get through dialogue. You can't press a button to do it meaning you'll have to either take the stylus out or use your finger. It quickly becomes a hassle and makes you wonder why the bothered with it in the first place.

Graphics

The developers have created a vast world for you to explore, with each of the level's many stages being rather expansive in size. Given the size of each of the stages, the game on a fundamental level does look decent but a lack of detail and an otherwise bland colour palette makes the game feel barren and devoid of any life. Level design can also be an issue, with little in the way of discernable signposts or objects to make the repeated guidance through levels easy. This of course carries over to the collision detection of the in game objects, which hasn't been done well as you'll find yourself inexplicably sliding off of objects or completely missing jumps because of how poor the detection is.

Character models fare better, however, with Kay and the many characters he meets looking well designed and animated smoothly, although certain enemies fail to reach these heights and fall into the same traps as the environments. The frame rate does maintain a steady pace throughout most of the game, although can be seen to drop when there are too many things on screen at once or when the game tries to push too much of a level on screen at the one time. Cutscenes take the form of a comic strip but the lack of character or personality of the characters in the game makes following an already convoluted story harder to follow.

Sound

Audio follows a similar Eastern them to much of the game, providing a soft background upon which your adventures play out. Yet beyond providing some subtle ambience to the proceedings, which is ultimately limited in the first place due to the music's general quietness, the audio never really helps to move the game forward on a presentation level. You'll be forgiven for thinking at times that there isn't any music playing such is the laid back approach to what you'll hear. Sound effects follow a more simplistic route yet are apparent at a louder volume, at times to the annoyance of the person playing.

Dual screen

Beyond having to tap the touch screen to move through dialogue, the game makes no real attempt to make use of both the screens on offer. It's a simple case of put the action on the top screen and hand off the touch screen with a static and unhelpful map image.

Final comments

When a port is announced for a console, the fundamental question asked is why is it being ported and does it need to be. For Legend of Kay, these are questions the developers should have asked themselves as the transition from 5 year old Playstation 2 title to a new DS game has been incredibly rough on it. Beyond a somewhat ok presentation, the game lacks any form of thrills or imagination, feeling more dated than the original game, and will more often than not frustrate the player due to the many issues it harbours. You'll sooner, rather than later, opt to swap the cartridge for something else even if you prevail with the game due to how short it is. Adventure game lovers are best advised to look elsewhere for something far more enjoyable.

Pro: Visuals are ok, controls work well enough
Con: Lacks any form of fun, levels become a chore to navigate, camera is troublesome, collision detection is terrible
Final score: 4

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