The Kore Gang - Pixie

For the community project.

Recently finished The Kore Gang on the Wii and had a pretty good time with it.

GRAPHICS - Not terrible, but not at all on par with what the Wii can do. The visuals are closer to what you'd find on the XBOX, because this game was originally planned for that system and was shuffled around between publishers for many years. From what I've read, the game was in "development hell" for close to a decade before it finally landed on the Wii. Even so, the graphics get the job done, and while the protagonists may not look great, the enemies and environments are all heavily stylized, which helps to immerse the player in this adventure's crazy world. The art style reminds me of other strange games such as Oddworld and Skullmonkeys. There are times when the game looks worse than it actually is. For example, early in the game you reach a stage with a blue sky and clouds in the background, but it's very noticeable that you're inside a cylinder with the texture plastered over it like in an N64 game. I almost flipped out at this, but then I remembered that the story takes place underground inside a cylindrical machine, so the effect was intentional. The characters even bring it up later in the stage, but it really threw me for a loop at first glance. The one truly negative thing I can say about the graphics is that the resolution is pretty terrible, especially during the FMVs.

STORY - Since when do you need a reason to go on an adventure? From the very beginning, nothing about this story makes any sense whatsoever. Our hero, Pixie, loves climbing things, so naturally, the story opens with her scaling a skyscraper without any safety gear whatsoever (she's even wearing shorts in the snow!) On reaching the top of the building, a gust of wind sends her over the edge to be flattened like a pancake on the sidewalk below. She's saved, however, by falling straight down a manhole, because the concrete in a sewer is presumably softer than what's used on the street. Either that, or this is turning into some kind of trippy Fleischer Bros. cartoon from the '30s. Anyway, she wakes up to find herself in a laboratory where she steals a high-tech robot called the Kore suit that can enhance the pilot's natural abilities. Fortunately, that's exactly what she was supposed to do, because the owner of the suit is being held in an subterranean prison by enemies known as the Krank Brothers, who want to invade (or outvade, rather) the surface world.

GAMEPLAY - The Kore Gang is reminiscent of most other 3d platformers while maintaining its own quirks. The stages are roughly the size of Whomp's Fortress from Mario 64, and they scale vertically since the adventure takes place inside the Krank Tank, a giant drill-like machine that houses various habitats. Sometimes you only need to reach the exit of a stage, but most of the time you'll be performing the ever-popular fetch quests that this genre is known for. Being small, the stages don't take long to complete, but they can take significantly longer if you obsess over collecting all the blue Zeeks to earn concept art and character bios. As mentioned earlier, the Kore Suit enhances the pilot's natural abilities, so progress revolves around swapping between Pixie for platforming, Madboy for brawling, and their dog, Rex, for running fast and a buttload of other miscellaneous functions. Unfortunately, the level of challenge in this game is not very high. Enemies become more of a threat in later stages, but most of the time the only real danger is falling into water or down a pit. In addition, the game opts for a checkpoint system instead of traditional lives, so you're simply reset to a certain point with all your collected items (except ammo) intact.

CONTROL - If you've already played Epic Mickey, then you should feel right at home with the Kore Gang. Sadly, Mickey's crappy-ass camera is here in full force as well, causing you to miss jumps and get hit all too frequently. Everything else works as it should, and even the motion controls don't feel out of place. Pixie's pirouette technique is a different story though, as it has you hold the Wiimote vertically and whirl it around like you're mixing cake batter with a big spoon.

SOUND - In addition to the gameplay, the soundtrack really takes me back to my younger days of gaming. I find it similar to the creepier portions of games like Banjo Kazooie, but with less variety. One of the problems I have with it is that the story often divides chapters into several stages, so it's not uncommon to hear the same track for three stages in a row. Also, each track wasn't set up to loop properly, so they just fade out to hide the ending before coming back in from the beginning. It's not annoying or anything, but the game feels less professional because of it.

PRESENTATION - The one thing I have to say about presentation is that the loading screens between stages are used very creatively. Instead of a simple "now loading" screen, we're treated to an FMV of the characters making their way to the next area. Each transition corresponds to what you accomplished in the stage as well, so in many scenes you'll simply run through a tunnel in the Kore suit, but in others you'll ride flying fish, a mechanical gorilla, rockets, and even a giant balloon man.

FINAL VERDICT: You've undoubtedly played better platformers than this, but if you're just looking for a crazy adventure, then The Kore Gang is worth spending your time on.