You're never too old to enjoy a good platforming game. Mario, Jak and Ratchet are just three of my favourite platforming characters. What makes a platforming game so appealing is the satisfaction of completing level after level, collecting things, solving little puzzles and just venting your gaming stress with some simplistic platforming fun. Or at least that's how it used to be; nowadays platform games are more advanced, offering the player more freedom than ever before.

Enter Legend of Kay, the latest and greatest platforming adventure to embrace the PS2. Legend of Kay offers all of the above, platforming fun, collecting things and solving puzzles, but throws in its own two cents to boot, delivering some of the finest platforming crème de la crème I have experienced in a long time.

The story of Legend of Kay starts off in Kay's home town, where Apes have pretty much taken over the Island of Yenching. Think Planet of the Apes, but substitute the humans for cats and you've pretty much got the concept. Not only that, but the Rats are working closely with the Apes and are higher up than the Cats, which just isn't right, according to the food chain. While most of the cat-villagers are prepared to hand over their weapons and bow down to the supreme race, Kay the clever cat is not.

To make matters worse, the mayor of Yenching has now sided with the Apes, so it's not looking good for our feline natives. Kay wants to do something about it! He wants to rise up and be counted. He turns to the master cat in the village, who teaches him plenty of moves and powers to be going on with and just when Kay and the master are getting along nicely, in come the Apes and take over the fighting school, leaving the master out of a job. Kay will stand for this no longer!

I would tell you more but I'm not the type for spoiling a great storyline and Legend of Kay's is a very good one for a platforming game - it's certainly up there with the good ones. It's not too daft but it's not too serious either, the balance is perfect and actually keeps you coming back until you complete it. The story is told perfectly with fantastic voice acting and in a comic book FMV fashion. While I have complained about comic-book story telling in the past, Legend of Kay pulls it off because of the artistically drawn characters and the powerful voice acting to compliment it. The comic book doesn't come in very often and doesn't break up the gameplay too much - you'll only see a comic book animation when you're hearing an important part of the story and for that, it works a treat. More on the voice acting later!

To start off with, the game holds your hand for a while, to make sure you can handle the heat that's to come. The game provides you with useful bits of information about items and other bits and pieces, which is very handy for the first level or so, when you are just getting into the swing of things. You'll probably feel a little overprotected to start off with though, because people who have played platforming games before will be at ease with Kay and will know how to double jump! However, after wading through the linear tutorials, you're faced with a clear run to really lash out.

The first main forest is huge and you are faced with quite a bit of decision on where to go and what to do. Although all roads lead to the next level and there's no wrong place to go, the decision is there and you don't feel claustrophobic with the gameplay. Like all good platforming games, Legend of Kay has you running about finding things and solving quests. What I like about Kay is the quest system and how easy it is to obtain new quests. You might talk to a villager, or enter somewhere secret and your quest journal automatically records a quest for you to complete. Most of the quests can be completed on the side without distracting you from the main goal and most of them reward you with some special item, or money to buy things from the shop - so they are worth doing, especially if you like to 100% complete your games!

The game engine is advanced and bang up to date with all the latest titles. You can perform high jumps, double jumps, forward rolls, spin around, jump from wall to wall, climb and swim in a cat like way - the list goes on! Being a cat has its advantages in this platform game, which is apparent right from the start. First of all, Kay is very agile and his agility allows him to pull off incredible combos. When you hit an enemy with that mighty sword, from time to time you'll see a combo racking up in the corner. You have to pull off certain moves to rack combos up, but as soon as you get your first combo point, fighting becomes a lot more fun. Pressing triangle allows you to focus your chi and zoom to the nearest enemy, or the enemy in the direction you are pushing your thumb towards. Arrows appear on the screen to show you the positions of the enemies, so you can fly across the screen at light speed and hit them quickly - it feels really great and if you do it right, you cannot be touched!

The fighting side of things in this game is superb. There are so many things you can do and as a result the fighting rarely feels repetitive. There are all sorts of combos from rolling and jabbing, nipping behind and throwing the enemy, spinning around with your weapon, pulling off crazy air stunts and simply slicing and dicing the guts out of your opponent. Because there's a combo system the fighting is more fun, encouraging you to experiment and rack up combo points so you can charge around at light-speed. There are three weapons in this game and while that might not sound like much, each can be upgraded twice, so in effect there are nine. The three base weapons are the classic sword, the fierce claw and the almighty hammer, all of which have their advantages, so using the right weapon in the right situation pays off well.

In addition to using weapons there are a whole host of weapons you can buy and find. How about the flash-bang bomb? Lay this baby down and watch your enemies become disorientated and confused for a short while. Then take the bottle of hornets - smash this on the floor and watch hornets fly around attacking your foes! Another favourite is the normal bomb, which not only blows your foes to pieces but also sets your weapon alight if you get close enough. There are more too, all to be used in or out of battle - just select your item from the quick inventory and use it - simple but very effective. There are a few potions that aid you too, a berserk potion makes you as strong as an ox, while the health and mana potions top you up just when you need them. You can cast magical spells with the help of mana, so potions can sometimes be vital for filling up the mana meter. Hold down the attack button and unleash a powerful thunder attack that fries your enemies! Always a crowd pleaser!

Puzzles can be a gamer's worst nightmare, or a gamer's delight. Some people love a hint of enigma in their games but others cannot stand thinking. Legend of Kay sports a nice balance of puzzles that tie in well with the quests mentioned earlier. Some puzzles see you finding things and then using the object somewhere in the environment, activating different switches to advance you further or opening hidden places that may not be compulsory but reward you for your trouble. Most rewards offer money, a currency that's accepted at all major stores! These stores are dotted all around the place and you can buy lots of useable items, health and mana slots, which come in handy for carrying more energy when you need it most.

When walking is getting you down and you see a wild boar up ahead, what do you do? Well if you're Kay, you can go up to the boar, slap its ass and ride it! The boar is a great feature in this game, because it allows you to race and go places fast. When you're on the boar you only have a small time limit and if that runs out, so does your boar's steam. Collecting acorns fills the metre back up again, so if you're racing it's advisable to collect as many acorns as you can, as often as you can! If the boar picks up a chilly pepper then he runs faster for five seconds or so, acting as a nice speed boost! Controlling the boar with a chilli in his mouth can be difficult though, so watch out; taking corners can be hard when you're going fast too, so that's when you need to use the good old power slide to take those tight bends! The boar races really do break up the gameplay and adds more variety to an already great game! You can even keep coming back to beat your previous time on the boar races!

All the characters are brimming with attitude and style, especially the main character - Kay. The voice acting for Kay is done brilliantly, because of the level of emotion in his voice; he talks with genuine feeling. If I've ever seen a character that suits a voice so much, it has to be Kay - he has one of those voices that a lad has just before his voice breaks, squeaky but nearly there. It has to be heard to believed but the fantastic acting in this game makes the dialogue all the more interesting, so you'll want to hear the story. Kay's sarcasm is also worth listening for - he reminds me of Jack O'Neil from Stargate SG-1! All the characters get my thumbs up, including the apes and the rats, plus the little bunny rabbits. Kay even occasionally comes out with the odd curse word too, giving the game that slightly older feeling. It's great, it really is.

All the audio is great for that matter, with different music for different areas, such as towns and the various areas for platforming, which provide plenty of variety for the ears. My only quibble is that if you're stuck somewhere and you can't advance for some reason, you end up hearing the same track for a long while, which just might send you insane. Other than that, there are plenty of good sound effects waiting to be listened to, such as the loud sword strikes, Kay's noises for getting hurt and so forth, with lots of plentiful platforming sounds that fit the colourful universe perfectly.

The graphics are very good, although there are a few problems to overcome first. The camera can sometimes be a little problematic, especially when you need to turn it around to see where to jump next, but most of the time it's fine. The other thing that sometimes gets in the way is the odd patch of slowdown here and there but this is only on rare occasions, so it won't distract too much from the gameplay. Other than these niggles, it's all good. Take the juicy environments for example; colourful, vast and very pleasing - everything is heavily polished, including the characters.Every character looks as good as they sound and while some of the lip sync isn't there, this really doesn't matter. The FMV's I mentioned earlier in the comic book style are all drawn well and look lovely. To round off the graphics, there are some luscious effects complimenting the fighting system, as colours fly from your sword, your weapon catches fire and you use your thunder spell and watch the enemies fry in front of your very eyes!

Legend of Kay is a superb platforming game; polished, full of attitude and with a cracking main character to boot. That's not to mention the engaging storyline that runs throughout and the fantastic fighting engine that makes every battle a joyous experience. Legend of Kay has what it takes to become a successful series and at the reduced rate of £29.99 I hope that gamers flock out in droves to pick it up and help it fulfil its potential, because this is a great game for a great price. There may not be much to pull you back a second or third time, but it's great fun while it lasts! The shop is that way…

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).