Kameo -- A Horse of a Different Color.

Defining Kameo: Elements of Power isn't very easy. I mean it's clearly in the action genre. But defining it further is where it starts to get tough. Kameo is really a mixture of a little of this and that from a bunch of different genres. You get some action and some adventure, but the game isn't really either of them as a whole. You can't really call it a platformer with Kameo herself the only character having jump and her not using it for anything but to jump up small ledges. There aren't any tricky jumps in that way. You can't call it an adventure with all of the beat 'em up combat. You can't call it a beat 'em up with all the adventure elements in place. In the game you play as Kameo. She has the ability to morph into different elemental warriors. Ten of them in fact.  These warriors grant her new and different powers. She has to use these powers to save the day. You control Kameo with the left analog stick. The right stick controls the camera. The left and right triggers are for actions of your elemental warriors. The A button is for context sensitive actions, confirming menu selections, and morphing back into Kameo from her elemental warrior form. The B, X, and Y buttons are for selecting which warrior to morph into. You can assign a warrior to one of those buttons. Holding down one of the buttons with the left analog stick centered will bring up the elemental wheel.  You just move the left analog stick to the character portrait and release to assign it. It's a quick and easy and most importantly effective system. Rare is famous for great gameplay and storytelling, as well as graphics, sound, and their own humor. They're also a little known for going overboard on item collection. In Donkey Kong 64 for example they put hundreds of colored bananas in each level for the player to collect for each character. They've toned that down considerably for Kameo. You still have a little collection aspect going on though. You can collect hidden runes, elixir of life, elemental fruit, and crystal eyes. Runes act as money and can be collected from enemies or hidden throughout the various areas in things you can smash such as vases and chests and chairs. There are twelve of the elixir of life in the game. The elixir of life will extend your lifebar. There are one-hundred elemental fruit to be acquired. Elemental fruit are used to power up your elemental warriors. There are four crystal eyes. They're trinkets you can equip. You can only equip one at a time and each one has a trade off sort of thing going on. For example if you equip one that ups your life replenishment, it will in turn slow your spirit replenishment. Or if you equip one that raises your defense, it will also lower your attack. The elemental warriors themselves all have various uses. They're used in combat and puzzle solving. If for example Kameo morphs into Pummel Weed, a plant thing with a penchant for boxing, she'll have moves and attacks only that character can perform. The left trigger will be one move, the right trigger will be another move, and left & right trigger together will be a third move. All of the elemental warriors get three base moves.  Some of them get many more. All of the basic moves can be upgraded in the menu with the elemental fruit. Learning a new move can cost anywhere from one to three fruit each. For example, if you press left trigger + right trigger Pummel Weed will go down into the ground and only his spinning flower top will be visible above ground. He can move around and with the push of a button leap out of the ground with a vicious uppercut attack.  But if you upgrade the move set for Pummel Weed, you can add thorns to him so that when he's spinning around underground in that form, the top acts as a buzz saw essentially. Powering him up further adds a tornado effect. That underground move serves as more than just an attack though. In the adventure or action puzzle elements of the game, that moves allows Kameo to get by certain obstacles. For example, if you come across a gate blocking your path, but you notice a space between it and the ground, chances are good you'll be able to go under it using that Pummel Weed move.  If we do the math, and there are three moves for ten elemental warriors then that means we're working with thirty potential means to fight enemies or solve a puzzle. The scope of the game keeps it closer to the level of Castlevania's adventure levels compared with say the excesses of the genre found in Metroid Prime 2. The controls for the game are tight and responsive. The camera behaves itself for the most part. It will throw a little tantrum every once in a while.  It's the traditional 3D camera. Maybe this is the generation they'll actually perfect it. Eh, who am I kidding?