Adding unobtainable pre order skins to a game you couldn't advertise properly for years that many never heard of?

Bad idea.

A genuine hidden gem, extremely tight controls and charming designs make this a must play for any 2D platformer fans. Don't let the cutesy exterior fool you, the difficulty ramps up by world 3, without ever feeling unfair

Kaze and the Wild Masks wants to hearken back to the '90s with its very DKC inspired design. From its two-hitpoint, one checkpoint, 2D-side-scrolling design to its moveset (spinning off a ledge gives you so much coyote time just like DK's roll, and you can pick up and throw some jars just like barrels) and masks (some definitely hearken back to the rideable characters in DKC), one might be forgiven for calling this game a "clone."

Unfortunately, I can't say this game is nearly as fun as DKC.

The big problem with this game is the level design: it quickly devolves into autoscroller after autoscroller where minor mistakes routinely give you no recourse but to simply die or lose your only precious hitpoint. Whether you're chased by a tornado or zipping down a long line of ziplines or climbing up rising ooze or stuck in that godawful autorunning mask (more on that one later), rarely after the game's halfway point do any of the levels give you a chance to simply stand still. And the sections get _so_ long after island two; dying and having to do 2 or 3 whole godforsaken minutes of the same platforming over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over because you keep hitting one in a long sequence of precise buttons a couple frames too late or accidentally got slowed down by a missed jump you think you can recover but nope there's the danger ready to autokill you... it just gets tedious. The fun disappears quick and if you truly want to stick with it, eventually it all feels like a waste of time.

It becomes trial-and-error. There are some sections that genuinely require a specific set of inputs at specific times in order to get through - with literally no other way to move forward. Miss one input? You fell into a pit and have to restart the section again. This is especially the case with the autorunning mask. I genuinely don't know what they were thinking with that one; I must have died over 60 times in one of its levels just trying to figure out what it required me to do. And don't get me wrong, I do like the occasional minecart to break up the monotony. But the autoscroller gimmicks in this game are just way too excessive - and precise.

I played through to the any% ending on original difficulty (and FYI my hours are messed up because I played it on deck in offline mode for a time), and I considered doing another playthrough on easy to better flesh out my opinion - because who knows, perhaps the increased health points and checkpoints would have made the game much more tolerable. And perhaps if I do end up going through with that, I'll edit my review, but for now I really don't want to touch this game again.

Idk, if you really like trial-and-error, perhaps this is the game for you; but I really don't think it's fair to compare this game (or at least to compare it favorably) to DKC.