The evil Krank Brothers are invading the Earth from the inside out! Deep inside their massive Krank Tank drilling machine, the sinister siblings have kidnapped the professor who invented the Kore Suit, an ability enhancing robotic mech. Now it’s up to two kids and a dog to don the Kore Suit and infiltrate the Krank Tank, rescue the professor, and save the world!

The Kore Gang is a typical 3-D platformer, although you don’t see too many of those around anymore like you used to. You control the Kore Suit, and depending on which kid is piloting it, the suit can do different things. When extreme sports freak and rock climber Pixie is driving, the Kore Suit can grapple certain objects and double jump. When enemies need a thrashing, let Madboy in the front seat so the robot can punch enemies and throw objects at distant targets. Later on in the game, you’ll acquire a third member of the team: Rex the super smart Chihuahua. When he pilots the Kore Suit, it goes down on all fours, allowing them to run fast, howl at enemies, hear and sniff out clues, and even pick locks!

You’ll explore the massive Krank Tank and defeat enemies, solve puzzles, and do countless mundane fetch quests. The visuals have a Tim Burton-esque look to them, so fans of Nightmare Before Christmas or games like Psychonauts may appreciate that. Collect glowing Zeeks in every level to unlock goodies. Aside from the unoriginal gameplay tasks, the only other problem with The Kore Gang is the bad camera angles and unclear goals and objectives (a map would’ve been most useful here). But other than that, this 3-D platformer does have a smidgen of personality (characters even burst into song), and you can’t beat the low price of this new Wii title.

Kid Factor:

The Kore Gang is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief, Mild Language, and Tobacco Reference. When you punch and shoot enemies, they just fall down and disappear when defeated. Reading skill is helpful for some of the instructions, and younger players may get frustrated at the difficulty and somewhat unclear goals. But if you’re OK with your kids watching Nickelodeon cartoons, they’ll be OK with this game, too.

Tags: Game Reviews