Legend of Kay was one of those games I had seen a lot when I was younger, it was a game that was always somewhere. I used to go to Gamestation a lot and loved the 2 for 40/30/20/15 deals they would have on the games, mostly because a lot of their games were pure shovelware.
This was a game I remember seeing slowly slide down from the 2 for £40 section to the 2 for £15 section and I never really thought to give it ago because of its rather childish looking front cover, which is ironic because I loved Crash and Spyro back then. So, this is actually the first time I have ever played this game, and in all honesty, the game is frustrating, just like old games used to be, when I look back at them.
This game heavily draws on a persons nostalgia of the early aughts game design which was mostly 3D action/platformer games. Games that seem to have simple mechanics, ended up being frustrating for me as a young lad, like making a mistake and having to start right and beginning of a level, or not timing the double jump correctly, and having the same bloody outcome, I think I busted my controller so many times, that my parents spent more money on buying new controllers, that actual games.
Though that isn’t to say the game doesn’t control well, as it does do a good job, there are some issues that I thought could have been thought out better by the developers las an example, when you hold your weapon down and stun all enemies around you, but by doing this, for some reason you are unable to attach them, which makes no sense. If I was able to, which for some reason I was unable to execute, the combat would flow much better. Looking back at the games from that era, mechanics were not exactly top notch and combat never really flowed, like they do nowadays, and if they did decide to re-work them, would they ultimately work for this game, who knows.
As you know, Side Quests and Main quests are easily distinguished in modern games and it is something I am used to now, this game tripped me up a few times as the distinction between a story mission and just your average side mission is not that clear, you would have thought they would have made changes to this release.
Thanks to this, I spent a little too long wandering around looking for a mission, trying to complete missions or find something to unlock so I can progress further, but without knowing it, I had suddenly completed a story mission, what I had done to achieve this I have no idea. Maybe its nice not having to worry about what is or isn’t a story mission and just progressing along at your own speed, not having to worry, but it might trip up those who expect newer mechanics.
Graphically not much has been done to the game apart from the resolution being upgraded from 480p to 720p, it is not a massive improvement, but it is certainly better than what it was. It is odd, the game is already out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One with the same visual fidelity, so when I got this on the Nintendo Switch, I should not have expected much more, since the other systems are more powerful.
The game still looks OK for its age, but you can see straight away, that the game shows its age, with outdated animations and textures that were used years ago. The cutscenes are very nicely done in a comic book format, but, when jumping back to the game, everything just feels out of place, though this is more of a critique of the original game, not the remaster. The game is passable, but I do I feel a lot more could have been done to really improve on the games visuals, animations and much more.
Overall this is 100% a game that should be played by those who are nostalgic for this series. It is not a bad series, and younger gamers will definitely get a massive kick out of it. But, for those of us, who remember the days of old, may have our teething problems to get over, and move past the flaws that we saw in these types of games now.
It is not a bad game, but it is an old game, with old mechanics and they don’t really match up to today’s standards in my opinion. Though as I have said before, those who are getting this game for the nostalgia will not care as much about these problems and younger gamers still don’t really know any better and won’t’ really care. The game is an OK remaster, but not a great remaster, and for me, it was fun to play a game I passed over so many times years ago.
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