When was the last time $5 got you something worthwhile that you felt was worth the price of entry? It certainly wasn’t that cheeseburger you had earlier or that super mocha frappuccino latte...thing. For $5 there was a game recently released on the Nintendo Switch called Kamiko. To be honest it’ll probably take me more time to write this review then it did to complete one of the four stages the games presents to you. Although short, I haven’t felt better about dropping a few bucks on something that gives me a short burst of fun and a surprisingly good time.
Kamiko is an action RPG with simple gameplay and a puzzle to solve here and there. You choose from one of three characters, more on those later, and go through four stages unlocking gates that have been sealed by demons. There isn’t an extremely deep plot with twists and turns but that’s to be expected in a game that took me 53 minutes and 9 seconds to complete with some minor head scratching on which way I needed to go next. You kill hordes of enemies to build up a combo meter and fill a gauge that allows you to unlock doors, open chests, and use special moves. Once you’ve broken the seals on the four gates throughout each level you’re then taken to the stage boss which usually goes as any video game boss usually does. Find the pattern of attacks then strike when your moment arrives, repeat three times, badaboom onto the next stage. After you’re done the campaign with one character you have two more characters to choose from, both with varying attack styles of the one you just played. The campaign is the same but it’s the different play styles that is supposed to bring you back for another play through.
One of the things I look for most in a game is style. Pixel art is among my favorites and Kamiko delivers on that. Along with a sweet soundtrack, that the developer has noted interest in releasing, it was a joy to play with a smooth framerate and having the music blast through my speakers both on the tv and in handheld mode. Enemy types are few and far between but with them being killed in less then a second with one or two attack swipes they’ll probably be the thing you pay the least attention to. Each of the four stages has a different environment and I was excited at the end of each to see what the next would look like.
For such a cheap entry price I feel Kamiko is absolutely worth what it asks of the player for the amount of fun you’ll have. The game with undoubtedly be played by speedrunners as the game times you on each stage and overall but is perfect for pick up and play especially if you have 10 or 15 minutes before your bus arrives. The game is perfect on the Switch and I look forward to what the studio does in the future.
