I haven’t seen many modern indie games that so directly homage Donkey Kong Country… turns out, it’s a good model!

Pixelhive is a new team, and they clearly have a lot of love for Rare’s SNES classics. Kaze, our heroine rabbit, is essentially Dixie Kong with her prehensile ears that can hover and pick up the occasional barrel- er, pot. Each level has four lettered panels to collect and two bonus rooms. Other mechanics and gimmicks called to mind memorable moments from DKC2 and 3, my favourites, so it was a nice nostalgia-fest (lots of brambles here!).

Lifting from the two best games of the 90s isn’t the only trick up Kaze’s sleeve though. It also takes a few cues from Retro Studios’ reboot DK games, like the ziplines or the swimming controls (the first boss’s patterns are also very Skowl-like). Also, it modernises some things: you can toggle a casual mode at any time to get an extra health hit and more checkpoints, which I started using at about the halfway mark. And there’s no life system, thank goodness, with 100 little gems in a level going towards a completion goal for that level, adding up to the best ending cutscene. On that note, getting panels unlocks artwork showing the game’s backstory, and bonus stages go towards unlocking an extra stage per world; oops, that one’s a DKC2 lift as well!

The main gimmick is the “wild masks”, transformations that act like DKC’s animal buddy barrels. The bird masks changes you into Squawks, complete with a projectile attack. The lizard turns the game into a minecart-style autoscroller. The shark has improved swimming ability (Kaze alone can only manage a shallow dive) patterned after DKCTF/Rayman Origins as I mentioned earlier. And the tiger has wall cling and air dash abilities… oh, I guess they got some Mega Man X in here as well.

So it’s a 2D platformer that looks lovely, plays smoothly, and takes inspiration from masterclass sidescrollers that I love. I’m finding it hard to be objective here, but who cares! Kaze is a damn fine game. Patterning your game after Rare’s DKC titles is an excellent choice, and Dixie especially has great abilities that deserved further exploration, even if the momentum works a little differently here. Plus, the enemies are all monstrous vegetables which is a really fun, charming theme.