Legend of Kay: Anniversary

I have this game on the Switch and the controls are okay here, BUT: This could have been a nice little gem, but the design decisions made were horrible. The worst thing about it is: The first time playing, you have NO idea when a chapter ends. I went into a door or a cave and it said "Next Chapter" without the option to go back and finish all the side quests. The next issue is saving. You save at specific lanterns as you get near them, but they're spreaded in a cruel way. I just played 1 hour for nothing, did a lot of busy work just to die at a bunch of rats and now I have to do it ALL over again. There was NO lantern anywhere! It's very sad because I really like the graphics, art style and platforming.

It's a sweet game with an interesting and somewhat unusual setting, cats and martial arts are cool. Why is this game so mid-range all around? If you like any third person Jump&Run with cutesy mascot characters like Spyro and Ratchet & Clank, give it a try. There is certainly a lot to enjoy here, but everything is just a little worse than it could have been. Weirdly enough, this doesn't stop at the graphics. I like fancy graphics just like everyone else, but enjoy retro and stylised graphics as well. Especially those PS2-era games look beautiful and age very well, because the visuals are more style and less bling. What drives me nuts here though is that the PS2 original looked way prettier than the Anniversary Edition, because they overdid the bloom, plastic textures and blank stares. This would not be too bad if there was a switch to get the original back. The PS2-version is superior in all but resolution, if you already own it and really want to play it on PC, this is better than nothing, but worse than emulation. For everyone else, it is still worth a try, it's okay, it's not bad, it's alright and all the other meh phrases. But remembering these meh games brings some valuable perspective to all those 8/10 "worst game ever" reviews. Don't scoff at meh games, they are by definition not bad at all.

This may seem like an underrated gem, in the first hour of gameplay, but unfortunately, that feeling of "This is charming and different" doesn't last very long. A way into the game and you find yourself doing the same things over and over again and just becomes a slog. I'm not talking about hack and slash combat, I'm talking finding statues in what roughly equates to the same areas over and over again. It definitely feels like a game of which the developers made it up as they went along and ran out of ideas near the end. That's not to say it's all bad, the first hour is enjoyable and the music is beautiful, but everything else is sub-par. The dialogue is poorly written and uninteresting, as well as boringly delivered by the voice actors. The polished textures are an eyesore, it feels like they've just painted Kay with gloss paint and nothing more. No actual HD textures. This game can keep a young person entertained, but not for entire gamespan and definitely isn't worth playing if you are older than 12, as the cracks are way too big to ignore. Plus, just to top it all off, framerate issues.

It's cute, it's fun. So far I like everything about it EXCEPT the main chracter. It could be his voice and cheesy lines; no joke every other voice actor and actress sound great and you can tell they know what they're doing but Kay's voice is so cringe. Anyways the controls take a second to get used to, the themes are a bit cliche but besides that it's a lot of fun.