Kameo: Elements of Power

Kameo was the only games title my children agreed had to be purchased; so with Christmas out of the way I used some left over cash to cheer up my teenage daughter, my nephew and neighbouring kids.

Inserted into the 360 I noticed that the start up video sequences juddered slightly as if stalling. I later discovered (thanks to another site) that you need to go into Dashboard and change the video output setting from Pal-50 to Pal-60, which immediately solved this problem. This seems to only affect, Kameo so I suspect it's a software issue and not the 360.

You play the part of Kameo, heir to the Queen's thrown. Immediately it becomes apparent that her path to the throne isn't going to be a smooth one if the local nasties have anything to do with it, however she has a number of alter egos to assist along the quest.

Now, as far as I can make out Kameo appears to have accidentally unleashed some unspeakable evil and brought to life hordes of trolls, dragons and all sorts of filthy nastiness. The most nasty of Troll warriors wants to steal the 'Element of Power', which allows Kameo to change into the selection of warriors and become head honcho and King.

It's all a tad confusing to someone who's last experience of Trolls, Orcs and Elves was two decades ago whilst reading Lord of the Rings, but if you're like my kids and the storyline is the least important aspect of the game, then jump straight in at the deep end and just hammer on!

Like the Tomb Raider series, the first few minutes of the game are cleverly constructed training sessions, with a voice over detailing precisely what your character(s) are capable of. Unlike Tomb Raider, it is not in a controlled, safe and separated environment. Here, you are literally fighting to survive at the same time as learning the basic skills required to continue. Certainly it separated the younger children from the older ones.

You begin the quest as the character 'Chilla', who's a hulking blue and white, snow covered, ice speared monster. He has a fantastic trick of picking up Trolls and literally bashing them together, or even more brutal, throwing them onto his spine covered back. Once stuck there the Trolls are literally pinned on ice spikes, which is a tad brutal, and perhaps one reason why the 12+ certificate was given to this title.

There are areas of blood and gore, lots of violent bashing, smashing and skull splitting, so if you feel that your children are to be spared this kind of thing then this title is not for you (be warned).

Having been brought up playing video games of a similar nature since the age of 12, and as yet never felt the urge to pick up a gun, disembowel anyone or even break the law, I can say hand-on-heart that I personally don't feel that on screen shenanigans of this nature translate to similar behaviour in real life.

My opinion and probably controversial, yet I think children are able to suspend belief much more easily than us adults give them credit for. This aside, you have to judge this games title for yourselves!

Each obstacle in Kameo's path has to be dealt with by each one of her alter egos. The skill is in quickly selecting which of your inner 'Elemental' warriors should be used. Each warrior morphs amazingly around her, so that you can still see Kameo buried inside the warrior, which sounds gory, but is in fact done brilliantly.

The enemies range from hulking Trolls, flapping dragons, fire throwing imps, deadly creatures (which splatter green slime onto your screen when you explode them with a satisfying pop), obstacles, traps, falling masonry and all sorts! The humor is dark but rather pleasing.

For instance, in the initial sequence a large red dragon comes flapping into view with 3 trolls astride it. The trolls, unable to control their inner anger are actually fighting on the back of this beast, so it decides to eat one of them! Not everyone's cup of tea, but the children hooted with laughter, and it was all very cinematic.

Little touches like this makes a game much more interesting and convey a total belief in the developers love for their art.

Unlike some other graphical adventures, Kameo never breaks stride for boring, long winded video sequences or cut shots. Whenever a new level or section is completed then you do have a video to add sparkle and detail, but they are nicely done, don't ramble on and enhance the game rather than create long gaps. You can always just skip past them with the click of a button.

For anyone familiar with 'Herdy Gerdy' (one of the Sony PS2's most enduring and cherished children games); Kameo is along similar lines, but much darker.

As with most of these games, I can't get anywhere near it as it's constantly being played by my children, which in itself is probably the biggest indication of how good a game this is.

What I have seen of it, I loved. It's kept the kids quiet for weeks now >>> bonus!