December 12, 2005 - When the GamingExcellence team went to X’05 in Toronto, Canada, we noticed that the game with the most playable stations (and with the most visible presence) was Kameo. This was no big surprise considering that this was one of the three Microsoft published titles at the event. Oddly enough though, Kameo was also the most deserted game at X’05. People seemed to play it for a few minutes, get frustrated and walk away to something else. And I’ll be the first to admit it; after playing Kameo (or trying to play Kameo since it was hard to tell what to do without any sound), I was glad (and thankful) that I wasn’t tasked with writing the preview on it. Things would not have been pretty. I’ll further admit that Kameo was the only game at X’05 that I disliked and that it wasn’t just a slight dislike either; I thought it was an all-new-kinda-bad.

Still, all my non-gamer friends that were picking up the Xbox 360 on launch day had already pre-reserved Kameo. Did they really know something I didn’t? Was Kameo, the diminutive little pixie, appealing enough (even over Joanna Dark) to sway grown men into paying money to play a bad game? I honestly thought I was going crazy until I realized these were the same friends who didn’t know that Project Gotham was a racing game or that Ridge Racer didn’t involved boats. I felt reassured in my gaming knowledge and in the fact that all my GamingExcellence teammates felt the same as me on this issue.

Seeing initial reviews, I was instantly skeptical of the positive ones and secretly justified by the negatives. At the same time however, I was feeling like there was something missing in my gaming life. The initial launch titles I’d picked up were all good games and they looked amazing, but none of them really screamed “next generation” to me. I was looking for new gameplay twists and ideas. My non-gamer friends played their Kameo copies and said they really liked it, but I was doubtful. Finally, with an open mind and a fresh perspective on things, I broke down and gave Kameo a second try.

If DOA4 had been released on launch day, things may have played out differently, but as it stands, Kameo is hands down, without question, my favorite of the Xbox 360 launch titles. I love this game and as harshly as I felt about it at X’05, I can honestly state that it is truly the first must-have title of this new generation of consoles. Yes, a little part of me feels ashamed but an even greater part feels so happy in finally having discovered an amazing game to play.

Many will see Kameo and associate it with Mario right away. The game does seem to appeal to a younger crowd and boasts colorful vistas and characters. Surprisingly, Kameo shares a lot more in common with the Zelda series than with the pudgy plumber. But be warned; at heart, Kameo’s story and themes are also a lot darker and its combat more violent than both Nintendo franchises. It’s disarming actually to see how mature Kameo can be at times, with its combat, dialog, story and puzzles.

Kameo, the game, tells the story of Kameo, the girl (duh!), who possess special morphing abilities, and her dysfunctional family (of Elfin Royalty no less) who have been kidnapped by Kalus (Kameo’s selfish sister) and Thorn, the King of the Trolls. While the story is mildly entertaining, it is, as always, a simple trapping to gel the gameplay together in a coherent way. In this respect, Kameo succeeds wonderfully and puts forth a story that, while not heavy in any way, still demands closure and allows for character development to take place. By the end of the first level, Kameo will have lost her morphing powers and will have set upon a quest to rescue her mother, Queen Theena, deliver her three Ancestors from Thorn’s control, regain her morphing powers (one warrior at a time) and defeat Thorn and Kalus to save the kingdom.

Kameo’s controls are elegant, functional and intuitive. The face buttons act as hotkeys for morphing into various warrior forms. While you will always have Kameo mapped out to the A button, the X, Y and B buttons can be assigned to any warrior that has been rescued. If this seems limiting, holding down any of the buttons also brings up the Warrior Wheel, which will allow you to instantly choose any of the other warriors and map that warrior out to the button held down. What this clever mapping of buttons does is allow the game’s action to be controlled through the thumbstick and trigger buttons exclusively. The right thumbstick controls the camera (and enters first person view) while the left thumbstick controls Kameo’s movements. The triggers are then used for character specific attacks. While this may seem limiting, each warrior has quite a few different attacks and situation specific abilities that make this very expansive.

The character specific attacks also introduces Kameo’s greatest strength; variety. While specific warriors can get the job done in any given level, there are always a few ways to do anything while using different warrior combinations. Yes, Pummel Weed (plant dude) may be the optimum choice in certain areas, but when you’ve unlocked all the characters and replay certain levels later on, you will realize that perhaps Chilla (bigfoot-type dude) may be better suited to getting past certain areas and will also give you higher combo multipliers. The game also pushes you to switch between warrior forms as you do certain quests. In the early part of the game, after launching yourself off a ledge with Major Ruin (rolling stone dude) you have to switch to Chilla tolatch onto an iced surface. Sadly, the only character that seems lacking in combat is Kameo herself, but this is no way makes her useless. Kameo is the fastest character in the game, able to flutter around without touching the ground and jumping onto high ledges. Her spin kick is also the most useful attack against certain enemies and will net you a nifty Matrix-like slow-mo camera move. In all, the controls are classy, the gameplay inventive and the variety a welcome change.