Playing Kameo: Elements of Power is a bit like dating a beautiful semi-bimbo. She is easy on the eyes and is definitely fun on the first few dates, but then you find yourself wanting to discuss the war in Iraq with someone and it turns out that she might be able to locate Iraq in the right hemisphere, but can’t really conduct an intelligent discussion of the issues related to our occupation of the country. Kameo is also outwardly beautiful and somewhat entertaining. But ultimately it does not have the depth to sustain the experience and you’ll find yourself wanting a little bit better-rounded game.

Kameo joins developer Rare’s solid lineage of action/adventure games like Conker, Banjo Kazooie and even their Donkey Kong Country titles that go all the way back to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In this game Kameo the elf is on a quest to rescue her family and restore peace to the world. All the trouble is being created by Thorn, king of the trolls, and Kalus, sister of Kameo. Kalus has long resented Kameo’s popularity with the people and it was she who released Thorn from the exile he had been banished to by their father. Kameo has inherited the Elements of Power, the ability to morph into the forms of various elemental warriors, sprites that live in the world of the elves. The story starts with an ill-fated attempt by Kameo to rescue her captured family. Unfortunately Thorn and Kalus are too strong for the limited assortment of elemental warriors Kameo initially has at her call. She is nearly killed in the encounter and is brought back to the elfin village a little humbled. Now she must meticulously prepare for another confrontation by collecting and learning to use a full slate of elemental warriors.

Kameo’s most important tool in her quest is the Wotnot Book. In the Wotnot Kameo will collect the elemental warriors and track their development. Also in the book is the spirit of the wizard Ortho. He is your general hint source for when you need a little help during the game. The Wotnot may be consulted at any time by just pressing the "Start" button. It does not matter if you are in combat or not, everything stops and you can thumb through the book for info on warriors or advice from Ortho.

As the 10 elemental warriors are captured, each is entered into the Wotnot. In her quest Kameo will gather elemental fruit that she can use to upgrade the abilities of the elemental warriors by going to the Wotnot, identifying skills to add, and feeding the fruit to the warrior. Each new ability requires the player to learn a new attack pattern, such as holding the left stick in a direction and then hitting a trigger combination.

At any one time the player can have up to three elemental warriors mapped to the "B", "X" and "Y" buttons. The "A" button is always reserved for Kameo herself. Since most battles devolve into the need to quickly use certain combination of warriors to overcome the enemy defenses and bring them down, these quick-reach buttons mapped to warriors with set powers become essential. (It kind of reminded me of how the various player-chosen mental powers were mapped to buttons in Psychonauts.) Environmental obstacles and puzzles also require a certain set of warriors to overcome. Of course it generally takes at least one disastrous encounter with a new situation or a hint from Ortho to give the player enough info to decide which of his elemental warriors to have at the ready to accomplish the mission.

The gameplay system is okay, but it can be a bit frustrating at times and gets a little repetitive. The logic of a situation sometimes only becomes logical after Ortho all but gives you the answer. And you don’t absolutely have to upgrade your warriors and learn their new attacks. The same basic skills will get you through the game. The only real incentive for upgrading warriors and learning their advanced attacks is so you won’t get bored with using the basic attacks. Not a really great motivator in my opinion.

There is a two-player co-op mode, but it feels very tacked on and does not bear serious consideration. If the single-player campaign does not sound like something you’ll enjoy, don’t even think about buying this game based on the fact that it supports co-op play.

Where Kameo really shines is in its presentation. If Microsoft wanted a game to show off the graphic and audio abilities of the Xbox 360, Kameo is it. The world is bright and so colorful it almost assaults the senses. The eccentric cast of characters is extremely well detailed and animated. The sound is an aural treat. Without a doubt Microsoft is honoring its promise to make owning the high-end audio and video equipment worth the investment when playing their games.

In the Xbox 360 launch lineup, Kameo: Elements of Power stands somewhat alone as the first real action/adventure game for the system. While it may have enough flaws to deny it best game status in the genre, or even really an innovative game that takes full advantage of a new piece of hardware, it does reach a pinnacle in presentation with a very pleasing visual style and an audio component that shines like a new penny in 5.1 Dolby. If you are a new Xbox 360 owner who is a fan of the action/adventure genre and can settle for a pretty but shallow gaming experience, Kameo: Elements of Power should be given a hard look.

Questions? Comments? Contact the author at willhill2600@charter.net .