The story of the game is presented to us through a simple but effective cartoon-like introductory cinematic. No dialogue is present, but this silence is not very embarrassing because the subject turns out to be quite elementary: two anthropomorphic rabbits enter a temple and discover a magic and obviously evil ring. This one captures the soul of one of the two explorers, which forces the other to begin a journey through different worlds. Well, as much to say that the scenario has absolutely no importance and that it just serves to justify (more or less) the succession of levels to go. From the first steps, the homage to the platform games of the 90s seems obvious. And it hardly takes longer to realize that it also turns out to be very successful. Instead of inflicting big, runny pixels on us as a retro reference, the art direction has the smarts to evoke the graphics of yesteryear while sublimating them. The secret lies in very fine pixel art, which allows you to play on both counts. By scrutinizing the screen carefully, one can distinguish subtle but charming staircase effects, while the general impression remains that of great sharpness. This is very well seen by the developers! We will not hesitate to also credit them with the vegetable bestiary, which transforms many fruits and vegetables into terrible enemies. On the menu of the day: angry peanuts, venerable carrots, sharp-toothed corn cobs, bouncing turnips, pumpkins on fire, thorny dragon fruits, missile bananas, well-protected watermelons, and other fiery carrot-throwing tomatoes. These refreshing adversaries are very well animated, just like our leporid hero. The latter is also easily handled, two buttons sufficient to control it. One is for jumping, and the other for attacking/twirling.
DOWN THE MASKS
Do not believe that the gameplay is simplistic. Not only is the difficulty quite high (we will come back to this below…) but the game constantly offers us small gameplay variations. Depending on the levels, we will therefore have to catch pots with our ears and swing them at enemies, trigger day/night switches to temporarily neutralize certain creatures, use ropes or zip lines, climb into giant slingshots, hang from rings, escape a tornado or rising acid lake, and use platforms of all kinds (moving, spinning, crumbly, etc.). This constant search for variety is also expressed through the possibility of donning four different masks. These sequences are "scripted" because they are reserved for very specific moments, but they make it possible to diversify the gameplay even more. The eagle mask gives access to passages where you can fly and shoot bell projectiles, the shark mask naturally allows you to swim underwater and incidentally to "dash", while taking the appearance of a tiger grants the ability to climb walls. As for the lizard mask, it completely changes the very nature of the game, which then turns into an autorunner for a few moments. The player no longer has control of the character's movements, and can only perform a double jump or a low diagonal thrust. The idea is interesting, but success relies too much on "die & retry" and learning by heart the obstacles to come. This slightly negative point fortunately weighs little against the other qualities of the adventure, which offers us varied settings (snow, island, forest, lava, acid lake ...) and always successful, as well as several well-made bosses. Once again, the developers have managed to transcribe everything that made the charm of the platformers of yesteryear.
THE RABBIT, THE RABBIT!
Beneath its cute game air, Kaze and the Wild Masks still hides a fairly high difficulty… and not necessarily very well managed. Thus, players are only offered two difficulty modes, the "relaxed" mode allowing them to benefit from additional hearts and checkpoints compared to the "normal" mode. And in both cases, the recipe remains quite spicy. Frankly, the presence of one or two additional modes would not have been too much, so that everyone could find their way around. Alas, the developers have chosen a completely different path, which seems a bit bastard to us. After a certain number of deaths in a level, the game offers us to skip it and unlock the next level. A funny concept, which may encourage the less disciplined to miss out on several major sections of the game. Even the final boss can be dodged! It is also at this moment that many players risk cracking, because this sequence does not offer any checkpoints, even though the boss imposes eight different phases on us! It took us a total of ten hours of play (a significant part of which was lost on this damned boss) to access the end credits, which is accompanied by a small closing cinematic scene and a screen stamped with the word "end?". This interrogative version indicates that other surprises await the most relentless players, who would like to complete all the challenges offered by the game. Indeed, it is possible to collect the letters K, A, Z and E in each level, in order to unlock artwork. You can also go in search of two bonus areas in each section, which offer small timed challenges. If you succeed in all the challenges of each world, an additional local level is unlocked. Finally, the last optional challenge is to collect one hundred purple crystals in each level. It is this last point that seems to be able to unlock the real ending, to which the most relentless players will therefore be able to access the price of a few additional hours of play!
