How Long Does It Take To Beat Kao The Kangaroo? What Are Eternal Wells?

Kao the Kangaroo Announcement Trailer Nintendo Switch

Kao the Kangaroo (Polish: Kangurek Kao) is a series of platformer video games developed and published by Polish studio Tate Multimedia, and starring the titular character called Kao a young kangaroo native to Australia. While it was largely active in the early 2000’s before going on indefinite hiatus, the series was revived in 2020 for its 20th anniversary, and a new installment released in 2022.

How Long Does It Take To Beat Kao The Kangaroo?

With a game like Kao The Kangaroo 2022, its completion time will vary considerably depending on the player’s intent. Those looking to just progress from one end of the stage to the other will find this to be a fairly brisk playthrough. However, those who are dead set on collecting every last thing will be in for a more substantial adventure.

Kao The Kangaroo game is a punchy, quick playthrough. Every stage in the game can be cleared in around ten minutes if you know what you are doing, but will probably take the majority of individuals about twenty to thirty minutes on their first playthrough. Especially if they are exploring the stages at all. The boss battles are considerably shorter. The average individual will probably be able to complete these boss battles in about five minutes or so.

With there being three stages, a hub area, and a boss battle for each of the four areas (except for the Isle Of Eternity, which only has two stages), it is likely that most people will complete Kao The Kangaroo switch in around eight to ten hours. This estimate aligns nicely with the experience of TheGamer’s own George Foster, who completed his playthrough of Kao in around ten hours for his review of the title.

If you are looking to finish Kao The Kangaroo review having collected every single collectible, you will definitely extend your playtime considerably. At the time of writing, HowLongToBeat has a full completionist playthrough clocking in at 13 hours and 20 minutes. This seems about right, though my own 100 percent playthrough was closer to 15 hours.

Of course, these numbers are from playthroughs that took place before guides were regularly available, so they are more reflective of blind playthroughs.

The Plot of Kao The Kangaroo

The plot revolves around Kao’s attempts to find his missing father and sister and his fight against an evil Eternal Warrior and a dark spirit within his gloves. It’s a fairly generic “save the family and the world” tale you’ve seen before, and the twist villain is evident from a mile away. It’s an unnecessarily ambitious story for a franchise whose first game was about Kao rescuing his friends from an evil hunter.

Still, this plot could’ve been salvaged if it worked as a fun Saturday morning cartoon. Sadly, weak voice acting and writing mean that it doesn’t hit those highs. In particular, Kao’s voice actor unfortunately never feels like he delivers his lines quite right. as he consistently puts the emotional emphasis on the wrong words. It’s hard to connect with anything going on when the game’s protagonist is so annoying. Other characters, like Kao’s mentor Walt, also just sound stilted in their line delivery, making most of the voice performances in this game feel very amateurish.

The dialogue itself delves into cliché, and its humor boils down to meme references to the game’s determinant. An exchange where Kao’s mother references Skyrim’s “arrow to the knee” meme and Doom’s “rip and tear” mantra left me particularly baffled. Kao the Kangaroo never needed deep narrative or frequent voice acting to be great, and Tate’s attempt to bring those in hurts the quality of the experience. Thankfully, you can skip all the cutscenes, although miss out on important context for each level.

What Are Eternal Wells And How Many Are There?

Alongside each semi open-world homeworld, main levels, and boss fights, Kao The Kangaroo has bonus stages known as Eternal Wells. These optional areas are filled with additional collectables like treasure chests, gems, and coins. To complete them, you simply must run through the stage and gather all collectables, surviving the various enemies, obstacles, and traps laid out for you. Eternal Wells are short in length as you can easily complete them within a few minutes, but they serve as extra challenges within the game.

There are a total of 14 Eternal Wells in Kao The Kangaroo, all of which are accessed by following branching and secret pathways within the game’s main levels. After completing all 14, there’s one final secret level for you to try, but we won’t spoil what that is!

How To Find Collectables in Kao The Kangaroo?

In Kao the Kangaroo you have different types of collectables to find in each level, as well as in each hub world. You have the letters spelling out K-A-O, diamonds, runes, and scrolls. Some collectables are placed directly in your obvious path to the end of the level, like the runes. These rune stones are needed to unlock levels, so it’s reasonable that they’re fairly easy to find through your natural playthrough. I still missed a few, mind you, and they’re better hidden in some of the hub worlds, but not to the point that you’ll be searching for hours on end.

The K-A-O letters are a little trickier, but as there are only three of them and you should be collecting them in order, it’s easy to know if you’ve missed one. If your first collected letter in a level is A, it means you need to backtrack a little and have a look around to find K. Fairly easy stuff, then.

The diamonds are a little trickier. Each level has a handful of them and they tend to be better hidden. You’ll need to really explore the side passages and secret areas (hint: use your glove power-ups to find new areas to explore) to find them all. Something that’s a little annoying about the diamonds, however, is that if you collect, say, two or three in between checkpoints but Kao dies before you hit the next checkpoint, you’ll lose those diamonds. That means you’ll have to re-trace your paths and collect them again. This… was not so nice. And it’s the same rule in hub worlds where there are no checkpoints, so be extra careful when you’re collecting between main levels.

Kao The Kangaroo Levels

Hopalloo Island
Hopalloo Island is a beach-like tropical island home to Kangaroo Village, where Kao, his sister Kaia, and his parents Marlene and Koby live alongside Kao’s best friend Gadget the pelican, mentor Walt the Koala, and numerous other residents.

The Hungry Jungle
Before being taken over by the power of The Eternal Crystal, the Hungry Jungle was once an area where kangaroos and other animals would gather between training sessions to socialise and relax.

The Frozen Mountains
The Frozen Mountains is the location of a spa and wellness centre run by The Oldest One, a former friend of Walt’s. The centre is home to numerous goat seers and fitness gurus, all looking to provide various treatments to the animals in the world of Kao The Kangaroo.

Who is making Kao the Kangaroo?

Development. Kao the Kangaroo is developed and published by Polish studio Tate Multimedia who previously created every other title in the Kao series. The game was announced in June 2020, which marked the 20th anniversary of the series, with the first concept art and information surfacing the following September.

Is Kao the Kangaroo polish?

Kao the Kangaroo (Polish: Kangurek Kao) is a series of platformer video games developed and published by Polish studio Tate Multimedia, and starring the titular character called Kao a young kangaroo native to Australia.

What goes with kangaroo meat?

Some flavours that go particularly well with kangaroo meat are: garlic, rosemary, juniper, mountain pepper (or pepper) and fruity flavours such as – plum, red currant, quandong or orange.

How long is Kao the Kangaroo Round 2?

Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 was released to Steam on June 1, 2019, being free for users to add to their libraries for 24 hours. The game alongside the other two games in the series were added to GOG.com in February 2021.