Kameo Elements of Power – The lowdown411

The first thing you will notice about Kameo: Elements of Power is how incredibly detailed and colorful this game is. It really is stunningly beautiful in parts and a decent showcase of what the 360 is capable of – at minimum gives us a glimpse of great things to come. From lush greenery to cracked lava rocks to incredible looking water this game is very easy on the eyes. But what about the game play?

The advertisements may have led you to believe that this was a cutesy platformer, but really it is more of a beat ‘em up type game. You play as Kameo – a girl whose jealous sister caused a bunch of trouble for you and blah, blah, blah… do you really care about the story? Go listen to the Kameo Podcast if you really want to know more. Basically you are able to morph into different creatures with different abilities – some more useful than others. As you progress you collect these creature abilities, or elementals as they are called.

There are ten elementals to collect in all, but the ones you will end up using most are: Major Damage – an armadillo/elephant thing that rolls into a ball and allows you to get to places otherwise unreachable. Chilla – a furry Ice Gorilla thingy that can climb mountains and throw frozen ice spikes. Pummel Weed – a boxing weed with the ability to dig underneath enemies and knock them with a nice uppercut. The others can be interesting and entertaining but you won’t use them nearly as much.

The game is moderately easy with a few spikes of difficult tasks thrown in here and there. It would be much harder if there weren’t a talking book giving you the solution to each puzzle (what creature to use to progress further) you encounter.

The game interface is pretty good, but not super “Next Generation” in comparison to other Xbox 360 titles we’ve seen. There was an available “Winter Warrior Pack” download in Xbox Live Marketplace that allows you to change the characters costumes to a Christmas theme. I however could never get it to work – maybe I’m just lame. It cost me 150 points and I’m still bitter about it. I tried downloading it to both the Hard Drive as well as a memory card with no luck. I tried it with new and existing game but no go. There are a number of sites that explain how to change the outfits but none of the processes explained worked for me. I was able to acquire alternate skins within the game and apply them though. I’m sure some 5 year old will show me how this works one day but I’m all out of patience for now.

The two player co-op that gets unlocked during the campaign is surprisingly weak which is a bummer since in theory it sounds very cool. There simply is not enough room in the world of Kameo for two morphing players. Sucks the fun right out.

All in all Kameo is a great experience and I was sad to see it finally end. I would have liked to see the other creatures used more and the game last a bit longer. I guess that is what sequels are for. The game can be completed in about 15 or so hours but offers some replay value if you want to “tie up loose ends”. I was pleasantly surprised by this game and recommend it to anyone looking for something a little more accessible on the Xbox 360.

I give it 150 lost Live Marketplace Points out of 187.5