It’s been awhile since I’ve played a fairly typical 3D action/platformer that felt fresh enough to really entertain me, but Legend of Kay does just that. While its presentation is geared more for a younger audience, even old pros like me can find a lot to like about the game’s Eastern flavor and streamlined gameplay.

Legend of Kay makes use of a minimalist art style that doesn’t include a lot of realistic details in its environments. This is a game clearly geared for kids, and the simplified, Saturday morning cartoon-like visuals reinforce that. The characters are bright and colorful, the environments easy to navigate, and all of the objects and enemies in it are easy to see. The style itself carries a hint of Asian flavor throughout the entire game. This Eastern theme is an interesting departure from the traditional “wild fantasy” environments most 3D platformers have.

All of the dialogue in the game is accompanied by voice-overs. This is again done in typical Saturday morning cartoon fashion with the different races having clear stereotypes. For example, cats sound more Asian, while frogs have Caribbean accents. The main character has a voice similar to that of your average American boy. This may alienate some older players who may not be able to identify with a character who sounds like their little brother. The music in the game has a very noticeable Asian theme to it, especially at the beginning. The overall effect of this heavy Asian influence is a game that feels more like a kid's Samurai game than your typical Mario or Sonic.

Legend of Kay focuses more combat than collecting an encyclopedia of objects. It features a very intuitive combo system that increases the power of your attacks as you successfully kill opponents in rapid succession. This system has allowed the designers to make some pretty interesting types of boss fights. You might be in an arena with several very well-armored and powerful foes, with some light enemies flying above your head. The idea there would be to take out the easy enemies as fast as possible to rack up a high combo score. Then, when your power is at its peak, you take out the powerful enemies in a few well-placed strokes.

One of the most refreshing things about Legend of Kay is that combat rarely feels tired and old. You won’t find yourself using just 2 attacks out of a repertoire of 20. There isn’t a huge catalog of things you can do, but the ones that are there will be used judiciously. You also have access to three different types of upgradeable weapons, a sword, claws and a hammer. The game keeps you switching between the three, so battles remain interesting for most of the game. There is also a magic attack that uses up magic power that basically equates to you blasting the heck out of anything near you. A little more diversity in the magic could have been cool, but we can‘t have everything.

Kay also features its share of platform jumping. This part is pretty standard. You’ll be double jumping across swampy pits, fast moving platforms, and trying to get across narrow catwalks with dragons shooting fire at you. The game intentionally keeps this aspect of the game light with a very lenient penalty for falling off. Instead of losing a life, you’ll just lose one bit of health.

Since the game is geared towards younger players, it’s appropriate that Legend of Kay is pretty easy. Now, easy is fine, but I was able to get through most of the game without even dying. That’s a little too easy, and some option to ramp up the difficulty would have been nice. So, we’re not talking about anything on the level of Ninja Gaiden here.

The game world itself is fairly linear, with the play experience separated into discreet stages. Each specific level is pretty open ended though, and there’s lots of exploring fun to be had. The game also offers the skeleton of a quest system, but this is primarily used to just tell you what you need to do next. The odd optional quest is rare and usually just involves finding some cat statues. While the game is pretty good as is, it could have been one of the best last generation PS2 titles if the world had been open-ended and the quest mechanic utilized more fully.

In addition to the normal hack n’slash platforming, the game also includes some racing sequences. There are several segments of the game that will have you running on the back of boars, wolves, and even a dragon. After finishing what’s necessary for the story sequence, you can go back and try to beat faster and faster times to earn more money to use at the various shops in the game to buy potions, armor, and the like. The race times can get pretty extreme, and I was never able to beat the best times.

Legend of Kay features a whole host of unlockables, including movies, pictures, and musical tracks. These unlockables are based on an aspect of gaming that has all but disappeared, the score. As you rack up a higher score, you’ll unlock more items. The catch is you’ll never be able to get a score high enough to get everything just running through the game, swords blazing. Throughout the game world, you will find colored gems. As you collect the same colored gems in a row, their value begins to multiply. These gems are the keys to racking in the best scores.

Legend of Kay may be a little sparse in some areas, but what is there is excellent. Whether you’re shopping for your little gamer's Christmas present, or are an older gamer who is in the mood for a good game to take you back to your younger years for a few hours, this title doesn’t disappoint.