Kameo: Elements of Power

This has to be one of the most confusing games I’ve ever played, not so much for its premise as we have a fairy who can transform into other creatures to take out her enemies, but rather the control scheme as there's no button mapped to her movements as they are controlled either with the analogue stick/d pad or both the triggers on the controller. The game this reminds me of are the Harry potter games where the buttons are used to cast spells, replace that with what creature our hero transforms into and that's this game in a nutshell.

I will say this game looks infinitely better than any of the hp (harry potter for short) games, this is to be expected from a rare game as they're known for great visuals during their heyday. Because of the bizarre approach to the control scheme, the game isn't particularly complicated as its essentially a puzzle platformer where our hero Kameo has to solve these puzzles by morphing into the correct creature and using its powers. She can of course revert back to normal at any time as that's curiously one of the actions mapped to the button, the other three needing to have a creature equipped to them so that she can morph into it, again just like in hp. Also like in hp, these creatures need to be found before she can equip them to her arsenal, usually requiring her to fight a boss battle which again isn't too complicated due to the bizarre control scheme. The story isn't worth talking about as it's your typical "I need to prove myself to everyone by defeating my evil sibling" style heroes’ journey that Kameo embarks on. It was clearly made for little kids which would be fine were it not pushed as a launch title for the Xbox 360. I normally don't bring up which console a game was made for in my reviews as ultimately, I judge a game by its content rather than which system I can play it on, however I had to make an exception here as I can't imagine this game having any mileage were it not for it being a launch title for the 360 due to how specific its control layout is. I can't even imagine what it’s like emulating this game on pc which believe it or not, is a big reason why I dislike this game even if there's fundamentally nothing wrong with it as I'm of the opinion that console exclusives aren't a good thing and that this game flaunts its exclusivity like a badge of honour which just rubs me the wrong way.

Objectively speaking, this is a decent game, it may annoy the hell out of me, but that's more due to issues that don’t concern its campaign. If you're looking for a gateway to get into gaming and have an Xbox console handy, this isn't a bad place to start.

A legitimate surprise, even with a lot of design elements that make it clear this game doesn't quite achieve its potential. The monster-swapping mechanics make for some pretty good Zelda puzzles and integrate into proceedings very well, through both varied combat encounters and an upgrade system that incentivises exploration just right. The colourful aesthetic drives a journey filled with some pretty standard settings and a story that packs a high fantasy storybook narrative into a very short expansive time with one or two underlying implications that make it almost awesome. The giant battlefield segments are clearly just tech-demo fodder, but ultimately, it made for a decent extension, albeit not expansion, of the Banjo-Kazooie framework.