Aladdin, Donkey Kong Country, Earthworm Jim, Mega Man X, The Lion King, Sonic & Knuckles, Super Mario World and many more: the 90s were particularly good for platform games, especially on Megadrive and Super NES. The source naturally dried up with the appearance of 3D, but the nostalgia remains stubborn and new heirs of this great era still emerge from time to time. Kaze and the Wild Masks is the latest, and it’s clearly not the worst.
The story of the game is presented to us through a simple, yet effective, cartoon-style intro cutscene. No dialogue is present, but this silence is not very embarrassing because the subject is quite elementary: two anthropomorphic rabbits enter a temple and discover a magical and obviously evil ring. This captures the soul of one of the two explorers, forcing the other to embark on a journey through different worlds. Well, as much to say that the scenario has absolutely no importance and that it is just used to justify (more or less) the succession of levels to go. From the first steps, the tribute to platform games of the 90s is obvious. And it does not take much longer to realize that it is also proving to be very successful. Instead of inflicting large slobbery pixels on us as a retro reference, the artistic direction has the intelligence to evoke the graphics of yesteryear while sublimating them. The secret lies in a very fine pixel art, which allows you to have it both ways. By examining the screen closely one can distinguish subtle but charming staircase effects, while the general impression remains one of great crispness. It is very well seen from the developers! We will not hesitate to also credit them with the vegetable bestiary, which transforms many fruits and vegetables into terrible enemies. On the daily menu: angry peanuts, venerable carrots, corn on the cob with sharp teeth, bouncy turnips, burning pumpkins, prickly dragon fruit, missile bananas, well-protected watermelons, and other flaming carrot-throwing tomatoes. These refreshing opponents are very well animated, just like our leporid hero. The latter is also easily handled, two buttons sufficient to control it. One is for jumping, and the other is for attacking / spinning.
LOW THE MASKS
However, do not think that the gameplay is simplistic. Not only is the difficulty quite high (we will come back to this below…) but the game constantly offers us small variations in gameplay. Depending on the level, we will therefore have to grab pots with our ears and throw them at enemies, trigger day / night switches to temporarily neutralize certain creatures, use ropes or zip lines, climb giant slingshots, etc. hang on rings, escape a tornado or the rise of an acid lake, and use platforms of all kinds (moving, spinning, crumbly, etc.). This permanent search for variety is also expressed through the possibility of putting on four different masks. These sequences are “scripted” because they are reserved at very specific times, but they allow the gameplay to be diversified even more. The eagle mask gives access to passages where you can fly and shoot bell projectiles, the shark mask naturally allows you to swim underwater and incidentally to “dasher”, while taking the appearance of a tiger grants the ability to climb walls. As for the lizard mask, it completely changes the very nature of the game, which then turns for a few moments into an autorunner. The player no longer has control over the character’s movements, and can only perform a double jump or low diagonal throw. The idea is interesting, but success works too much on “die & retry” and rote learning of the obstacles to come. Fortunately, this slightly negative point weighs little in the face of the other qualities of the adventure, which offers us a variety of scenery (snow, island, forest, lava, acid lake …) and always successful, as well as several bosses well done. Once again, the developers have managed to transcribe everything that made the charm of the platformers of yesteryear.
THE RABBIT, THE RABBIT!
Despite its cute playful air, Kaze and the Wild Masks still hides a fairly high difficulty… and not necessarily very well managed. Thus, only two difficulty modes are offered to players, the “relaxed” mode allowing them to benefit from additional hearts and control points compared to the “normal” mode. And in both cases, the recipe remains quite spicy. Frankly, the presence of one or two additional modes would not have been too much, history that everyone can navigate. Unfortunately, the developers have chosen a completely different path, which seems a bit bastard to us. After a certain number of deaths in a level, the game offers us to simply zap it and unlock the next level. A funny concept, which may encourage the less disciplined to miss several large sections of the game. Even the final boss can be dodged in this way! It is also at this moment that many players are likely to crack, because this sequence does not offer any checkpoint, even though the boss imposes eight different phases on us! It took us a total of ten hours of play (a significant part of which was lost on this damn boss) to access the end credits, which is accompanied by a small concluding cinematic scene and a screen stamped with the word “end?”. This interrogative version indicates that other surprises await the most determined players, who would like to complete all the challenges offered by the game. Indeed, it is possible to collect in each level the letters K, A, Z and E, in order to unlock artworks. You can also look for two bonus areas in each section, which offer small timed challenges. If we succeed in all the challenges of each world, an additional local level is then unlocked. Finally, the last optional challenge is to collect a hundred purple crystals in each level. It is this last point that seems to be able to unlock the real end, to which the most relentless players will be able to access the price of a few hours of additional play!
