It's been a long time coming but it sure is stunning
Anyway in Kameo you play as a young lady called....Kameo, gifted with the power to transform into elemental warriors...however Kameo's sister insane with jealousy decided to awaken the evil troll king thorn who was previously defeated and turned to stone...as if that wasnt bad enough she then teams up with the massive brute ad imprisons the rest of Kameo's family...the opening gambit of the game sees you defeated and suffering the obligatory loss of all your fanastic powers..thus all seems hopeless so as a last hope to save the day you must travel the world regaining your morphing abilities, saving your family and protecting the realm thus giving you the strength to defeat big bad thorn once and for all and restore peace to the land.
What you'll find here is a platform adventure title with lots of polish and high definition style you'll also find some high production values most likely testament to the games long development time.
The presentation you'll find here is pretty superb the grapics are sharp...the textures splendid...effects like lighting and water well implimented and the bright bold pallette used really gives this title a vibrant lively feel.
There are also several moments where ther will be literally hundreds of nasty trolls on screen at once hight impressive as you ride through great crowds of them on a horse watching them scatter.
Gameplay wise it's as you'd expect from other similar games...a little combat...some platforming and a few wel placed puzzles here and there much like in other top adventures such as legend of zelda titles there is your main quest in hand...but also many optional side quests on hand to earn you bonus items and power ups, one monor improvement i felt could have been implimented here would have been some sort of record or to do list of these side quests as you meet the people in need...as you often do not have the means to help the unfortunate NPC's until you return later in the game with new powers...but this is just a minor issue.
The creatures you gain the ability to morph to do not only grant you combat prowess but also serve as living keys as such when you aquire a new creature you can use it's skills to reach previously unnaccessable areas of the game and thus progress with the story...these characters you gain are all nicely designed and balanced with varying abilities asd thus are useful in differing situations, of course innevitably you'll develop favourites and some will be used most than others.
After the initial adventure is complete theres even more to be done...as the game features a co-op mode a score attcak (which by the way i feel A rank must be impossible to attain) and another elusive xbox live achievement for getting all the games hidden collectables and upgrades...thus giving the game further lifespan which is good since the adventure can be over fairly swiftly if you set your mind to it.
However I am informed that additional content is being play tested in the new year with a view to revitalising the title with additional levels etc when the party's over...so keep your eyes on live and hopefully we'll see more adventure from Kameo soon.
All in all an enjoyable adventure for gamers of any age well made and a nice change from the more serious nature of most of the 360's launch titles
obviously as the first of its genre on the console it sets the standard for those that follow it...lets keep the standards high guys.