One of the joys of covering new and upcoming games is finding works under the radar and discovering new experiences for my family to enjoy. When kids reach an age of self-sufficiency but not yet a brooding teenager, there’s a window of time for building connective tissue. Kukoos: Lost Pets seemed like prime opportunity to sit down with the kids and enjoy a breezy
Kukoos are a humanoid/monkey like creature somewhere slapped in the middle of evolution between the two. In their silly world, the Kukoos get set up on a mission to save their pets across a series of 3D platforming levels. The worlds are all colorful and cheerful, with irreverent humor and a whimsically silly cast of characters. The comedy is hit or miss if only because there’s the occasional lean too far into the bizarre that doesn’t have connective tissue to anything.
The levels, rather than developed worlds, feel more like a linear obstacle course, especially in the first level that seems to be a festival with a set of platforming challenges that teach the basics of movement, jumping, and climbing. On top of this foundation your Kukoos develop additional abilities (such as having a floating light that interacts with platforms). They are introduced just frequently enough to make the gameplay feel fresh.
If I were to have one critique, it’s the performance. Our review copy was for the Nintendo Switch. While the aging console has been outpaced by Sony & Microsoft’s flagship consoles, Kukoos’ visually doesn’t appear to be that intensive. When on Switch, environments were much fuzzier than on other platforms. I also encountered several fps dips that caused gameplay chugging. It still functionally is playable but the experience is a bit hamstrung by it.
Kukoos: Lost Pets is a good attempt at a classic-playing 3D platformer by an independent studio. The gameplay is structurally sound, the characters and setting are cute and silly, and additional moves and features are placed at a decent clip throughout. Just try to play it on another platform than Switch if it’s an option.
- Joel DeWitte
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