It’s tough to imagine what videogames would actually be like if the elements didn’t exist. True, it could be argued that the real world would be in a spot of bother if fire, water and the like simply ‘disappeared’, but for now we’ll attempt to portray the less severe consequences that such an event would have on the many virtual worlds that rely on them. Without a slippin’ slidin’ ice level, most platform titles would seem incomplete, and the extra dimension of play that the many water-themed stages out there offer, has often secured a place in our hearts. A bad place, maybe – but it’s still a place. Yeah, it's safe to say it would be a disaster for the majority of the game world and something that would not provide the variation that today’s videogame buyer constantly demands. That said, it is subject matter that’s been fairly milked now, arguably to the point where the use of these ideas promotes thoughts of lack of innovation.

With this in mind, Kameo: Elements Of Power comes complete with everything required to be the pinnacle of clichés. As the name suggests, the whole experience offered is based around elements. Every creature and landscape you come across will either be entirely constructed of grass or snow, and it is your mastery of these elements that will ultimately determine your success. If we were to say that Kameo was anything less than simple, we’d find ourselves thinking that we were devastatingly wrong.

As this title has been in development for what seems like forever, areas such as character roles and plot are probably common knowledge, but it’s best to cover the basics for those who have just joined us. To start, the little winged fairy-type that you’ve probably caught glimpses of over the last couple of years is called Kameo. Her family has been captured by her jealous sister who has sided with the Troll King, who in turn has returned to cause all manner of nasty things to happen – it’s all gone a bit wrong basically. Fortunately, acting as an aid throughout her rescue attempt, Kameo can collect and summon/turn into a host of elemental creatures, each of which is blessed with his/her/its own conveniently useful abilities. That’s about it; we told you it was simple, right?

Of course, this is an X360 launch title, so as simple as things may seem at first, it’s actually far more involved than you might think, and the fact that we’ve been throwing the word ‘simple’ around over the last few paragraphs only serves to make you realise how well Rare has done its job. For starters, the mission layout is varied and as enjoyable as you could ever wish. To gain many of your elemental abilities (which you manage to lose à la Metroid after the intro mission) you’ll have to hunt down the frankly awesome Dark Trolls that have stolen them. These black wispy creatures are scattered throughout the land and every so often you’ll be prompted to give chase and destroy one. They may not be particularly tough to beat (once you’ve sussed their weak spot that is), but actually reaching the lair of these monsters is a hell of a challenge as each is not only well hidden, but is guarded by all manner of traps and nasties. Also luring you from your immediate goal, there’s a constant war going on in the Badlands area of the map – where the elves and trolls are engaged in an ongoing battle for control – so as a further distraction from your main tasks, you’ll be summoned to head out to the battlefield and use your special abilities to turn things in favour of the elves. These extra missions serve as a welcome breath of fresh air once you’ve spent a while questing through the main temple-beating action and manage to lengthen what would otherwise be an extremely short game without letting things drag.

In other news, Kameo looks gorgeous – really. Sure, the X360 is bound to deliver visuals of a higher quality than we are perhaps used to, but the fantasy environments actually lend themselves to looking good. A squint in the direction of any of the screenshots scattered around these pages should convince you, but, to be honest, not even they do it justice. Nope, it has to be said, lakes shimmer in the sunlight in a warm, cuddly way and the underwater world is a thing of wonder, but one of the greatest visual achievements has to be the battle scenes. Whether it’s a castle being stormed or a field full of trolls being trampled beneath your hooves, they display exactly what the next generation of machines is offering – lushness. Lushness with fire… And dragons. Lots of dragons.

A huge focus of the game is on the creatures you are able to ‘become’. There are ten in total and it’s safe to say that each is better than the last – no matter what order you see them in. Although it’s easy to assume that combat with the creatures is little more than a glorified round of scissors, paper, stone or a simple Pokémon match, the fact that each is armed with multiple abilities means that there are far more options available other than just using a fire creature to take out some ice trolls. Adding to this, is the fact that by hunting down Elemental Fruit you can grant your creature new, more powerful abilities that you can use in conjunction with other creatures to cause yet more havoc. Take Deep Blue, your awesomelooking basic water type, for example. A quick upgrade and he’s able to spray oil rather than not-so-damaging-againstanything- other-than-fire-creatures water at enemies. A swift switch to Ash the dragon and you can light the flammable foe and then turn him into a walking bomb. Genius.

Unfortunately, the game isn’t without its faults. There are times when you feel that all the effort has been focused on certain areas of play, and some characters are used far more than others, making the game feel a little unbalanced. Flex, for example, the rubbery water thing that you obtain halfway through the game, is only really ever used to climb out of the hole in which you find him and 40 Below runs out of uses very quickly once you leave the snow areas.

Also, some moves and creature combos are used far too often. Once you’ve completed the game, you will have used a roll-dash-switch-climb technique so many times that you’ll have developed a fairly severe allergy. No, for all its greatness, Kameo does suffer a little from laziness at times and it shows around the middle of the game. If you were only to play the first and last levels, you’d be gasping in awe at what has been achieved, but when difficulty is enhanced just by the game throwing a bit of randomness at you – things begin to trudge a little.

For all these niggles, Kameo is Rare at its best. Not Grabbed By Ghoulies Rare, but Conker/Banjo Rare. A large, enticing environment that doesn’t at first seem restricting, but after a few hours down the road, you’re finding that you have to do things the way you’re told to do them – there is no other way. The clever thing is, for the most part, you don’t really mind. When the ride is this enjoyable, we’re more than happy to clutch on to Rare’s hand and be led along and, if you're persistent, this hand will lead you to the end credits in a respectable amount of time. However, what happens from then on is questionable. In an effort to provide lasting appeal, Rare has also included a number of extras for you to dabble with once the main story mode is over and all remaining side-missions are successfully mopped up. These take the form of generic time attacks and previous mission score-beating, but when there are new character skins, videos and a mass of concept artwork to be unlocked for a good performance as there are here, then there may just be the incentive needed for keen players to keep at it.

If you have a friend however – and most of us have at least one nowadays – then the limitations after completion won’t seem quite so severe. Kameo also features a reasonable Co-op Mode that allows you to take on already completed areas of the game as a team. There’s no competition here though, it’s all about teamwork and building up a large enough score to unlock a few more goodies. It actually works quite well to a point, admittedly, some of the enemies aren’t built with this co-op feature in mind and so their defences let them down and most are too easily felled. Still, it is a nice little extra.

Ultimately, what we have here is a fine performance from Rare. Whether it was worth the wait is debatable, but as far as launch titles go, this is certainly a gem. Therefore we advise you to give it a chance, how ever badly beaten your respect for the developer has been over recent years.

Rick Porter