Kao the Kangaroo shows how no game is ever truly dead

digitaltrends.com:

Legends never die … even when those legends are obscure Polish 3D platformers.

In the 3D platformer boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, many new franchises emerged as developers looked to catch part of the hysteria started by games like Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. One such series was Kao the Kangaroo from Tate Interactive, an independent Polish game developer.

The series starred a yellow kangaroo with boxing gloves who tries to save his family from an evil hunter. Particularly popular in Poland and other parts of Europe, Kao the Kangaroo got four games but eventually faded into obscurity after the release of Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano, which was never released in the U.S.

While it’d be easy to assume that the series would stay dormant, Kao the Kangaroo is getting a second wind. On May 27, Tate Multimedia, the current iteration of the developer that originally created Kao the Kangaroo, is releasing a reboot that reimagines the 3D platformer for a new generation of consoles.

It’s an impressive feat, especially for an independent team that doesn’t have the backing of a company like Nintendo, Sony, or Activision. Digital Trends spoke to developers from Tate Multimedia to discover how this reboot came about and the trials and tribulations of having to compete with the likes of revivals like Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on an indie budget.

Throughout the 2010s, Tate Multimedia was more focused on racing games like Urban Trial Freestyle and Steel Rats rather than family-friendly platformers. Despite that, love for Kao didn’t die during that time, and the platforming mascot maintained a small but passionate fan base, with the developer saying it still got emails