Jet Kave Adventure review

Jet Kave Adventure tells the story of Kave, an as-been chief banished by his own tribe. As he slumps away from his former friends, he comes across a crashed spaceship that contains a jetpack. Now with an alien threat looming around, it’s up to Kave and his newly found trusty jetpack to save the island and prove himself to his former tribe.

Jet Kave Adventure is a 2.5D platformer where players will go from point A to point B in each level by overcoming treacherous obstacles and deadly enemies. Fear not, Kave can properly defend himself. The titular hero carries around his handy club and he’ll also find a slingshot along the way.

While the game’s main focus is around platforming, the game also has a bit of diversity in terms of gameplay. Throughout various points in the game, you’ll find yourself into an auto-scroller; whether it be gliding, or shmup like scenario (minus the shooting part). You’ll need to avoid enemies and navigating through indestructible obstacles. Unfortunately, you cannot defend yourself or refill your health in those instances and dying throughout will throw you back at the start of the section.

Each level also has a plethora of checkpoints; meaning if you die, you won’t have to restart from the start of the level; you’ll never be that far off from your death. Interestingly enough, unless you’re on your last heart, falling down a bottomless pit doesn’t result in a death. You’ll simply respawn just before the hole in order to give you a second chance. Checkpoints also refill your health.

As you run around and explore every level, players will collect pistachio-like item that serve as currency. The shop is accessible in-between levels and players can buy a decent diversity of upgrades such as increased health, more fuel for your jetpack, longer reach for your club; among other perks. This will become vital as the levels progressively increase in difficulty.

You can also refill your health by picking up various pieces of food found throughout the levels. As you collect those precious items, turkey leg shaped meters fill up progressively and once filled you can use them to regain health. This can be extremely beneficial when stuck between dangerous enemies and life-threatening obstacles.

While levels appear pretty much straight forward, they do have their little hidden areas to find and explore. Thankfully, the developers made those areas pretty easy to find as a whole. Whether on the ground or walls, you’ll see destructible areas (thanks to the boost of your jetpack) where you can find additional money or collectibles.

My main gripe with the game is the control schemes. While overall it’s pretty simple and straightforward, as you’d expect from a 2D platformer, using the jetpack’s dash will require some adjusting to as it requires great timing especially in long sequences where you have to keep flying while navigating dangerous obstacles. Also moving pre-set block is odd as well as instead of just holding and pushing, you have to grab it and press the RT to move the block with the jetpack’s boost.

Jet Kave Adventure looks great. The game’s levels are well designed throughout Kave’s experience and it’s one of the best looking and most colorful indie games I’ve had the privilege of playing this year. Enemy design is a bit limited; for example, the pterodactyl enemy type is re-used a few times with different color and attack patterns. The soundtrack on the other end is a bit forgettable; at times I was getting a cheap homage to the original Lion King’s score mixed with generic hard rock tracks. It’s appropriate but easily forgettable as you make your way through the game.

If you’re a fan of platformers akin to the Donkey Kong Country trilogy or more recently Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, I highly recommend Jet Kave Adventure. It’s a fun and addictive platformer with minor nuisances such as the flat soundtrack and the non-platforming sequences sorta break the flow of the game and aren’t as enjoyable; borderline frustrating. Jet Kave Adventure is a must-play and will is currently an early favourite for my top 10 of 2021.