Kukoos: Lost Pets Review

Have you ever wanted to play as a character that looks like the guys from Fall Guys? In a game where you jump around a wacky and fun-filled environment with all sorts of weird and unique characters surrounding you and have a great gameplay mechanic at your disposal? No? Well, too bad because you do exactly that in Kukoos: Lost Pets. There are some minor technical mishaps and stuff that will be fixed in a day-one patch, which is pretty common these days. So am I Kukoo for this game? Or is it just a big pile of nothing? Let’s find out!

Kukoos: Lost Pets is a 3D platformer made by the Brazilian developer PetitFabrik, and with it being only their second title, I was more than impressed by how well they did in their first Steam game. The controls are nice and snappy, primarily because of a cool ability earned right from the start. See, the game starts in the middle of a festival for which we don’t get any context. It all goes haywire because of malfunctioning pet collars, which end up causing pets to go crazy and start trashing the celebration leading to a fun little chase scene before the game officially begins.

So that’s the backstory. Let’s talk about the gameplay. It’s really fun; one of the abilities that come from the pets is throwing a platform into the air and bouncing and swinging off of it. There is just something so fun about making a makeshift platform anywhere you want and using it to get to high places. What’s even better is how Kukoos: Lost Pets builds off of that mechanic repeatedly. Sometimes there will be moving logs you have to jump across or a collapsing building you’ll have to speed through. It’s all so fluid and a blast to use.

However, what isn’t a blast is the story. I’ve been on the record saying stories in games often don’t work well with their respective titles and usually detract from the overall experience. Still, the way Kukoos: Lost Pets does its story is a bit disappointing. It starts in the middle of a festival and asks the player to go on an adventure without prior knowledge of what happened other than a brief cutscene. There are barely any plot points in any of the levels either. I was already enjoying the gameplay, so it didn’t matter too much, but I at least wanted something to remember from the plot. None of this detracted from my overall experience, so it wasn’t a big deal, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a little more.

Another thing that bothered me was the performance. The game can be pretty choppy on the TV and looks pretty bad when playing in portable mode on the Nintendo Switch. I use a Sony Bravia 4K TV meaning the problem could’ve been the refresh rate, but there are definitely still some performance issues with this game. I get that it’s a smaller team making this title that probably didn’t have much experience with the platform, but if it already looks great on PC, why is it having problems with the Switch? If you’re going to do something, then do it right, and I hope this doesn’t mean that all other platforms will have this issue. Thankfully, the visuals make up for most of it, though.

I love the graphics and lighting in Kukoos: Lost Pets; it all pops and adds to the gameplay because you never know what you’ll find next. I love the boss designs, especially the giant squid. It’s menacing and gross-looking but still cartoonish enough to be charming. That’s something running through a lot of this game, and it dares to be different and embraces its uniqueness.

So remember the day-one patch I mentioned at the start of this review? Various sound effect fixes and minor improvements will be implemented and needed because the music playing in the background is hard to hear. It’s disappointing to say that because if I could listen to the soundtrack, I would have more to say about it, but there isn’t anything to say.

Kukoos: Lost Pets has a four-player co-op option and multiple playable characters. That’s great to see, as many will want to complete the game entirely, so having the incentive to do it numerous times is always a bonus. Most players will stick to a favourite, and the Kukoos don’t start with anything special, but having something to work towards is still a lot of fun. However, the various pets make up for the missing Kukoo abilities, and they’re all unique, with levels that use a specific ability and others that don’t. Players are also rated at the end of each stage based on how many collectables they’ve found, and I can see this being a big deal for many people. Plus, with the dash and jump being usable at all times, there is a significant amount of platforming and experimentation.

In terms of difficulty, the game doesn’t have the option to select a preferred setting at the start, so the challenge ramps up as players progress, which I prefer. I would rather have an experience similar to other players than one tailored to my experience, especially in a platformer. The developers made some smart decisions with the hint system, too. When you’re playing, a prompt will show up at the bottom of the screen telling you to use an ability or to provide a helpful hint about a boss. Sometimes there will even be arrows and signs built into the environment to help players get through a level, this is something that games like Spyro and God of War don’t do, so I’d like more developers to take this approach! It tells you what you need to know without stopping you. It’s great.

So, yeah, I really enjoyed Kukoos: Lost Pets. Its story could use some work, and it’s lacking a certain amount of polish found in other 3D platformers, but its controls, wackiness, and use of hints that don’t get in the way, along with its overall level design, more than make up for it.