Avalible on PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube
Ah yes, we're finally covering something by High-Voltage Software! A company most recently known for their work on the Mortal Kombat and Saints Row series, tracing back through their catalog reveals that they have some...questionable titles under their belt, such as the fairly poor quality Harvey Birdman game, and Magma Cum Laude. But I think their most famous title is probably Family Guy: The Video Game. Yeah, they made that one AFTER this one.
Oh boy.
"What exactly, is Codename: Kids Next Door?" I hear you ask. What, were you living under a rock in the early 2000s? Kids Next Door was one of Cartoon Network's most popular shows, about a universe where children are crafty, brilliant engineers and adults are comic book style villains with supernatural powers, which they use to make the kids suffer by making them do chores and the like. The children form a resistance organization known as The K.N.D. to pool their resources and build contraptions to fight back against the adults and their tyrannical...responsibility.
You can actually watch the whole thing unedited on YouTube. Here's a random episode I found.
As a kid myself, I never really got into the show. Honestly I think I was embarrassed to admit I liked it for fear of being made fun of, (Which is extra silly, considering how popular the show turned out to be.) so I never really watched it a lot. That being the case, I wasn't even aware that there was a video game spin off, which is what we're covering today.
Here's the story: agent numbers 1 though 5 of the KND are minding their own business at their tree-house headquarters. The group's leader, Nigel, is trying out a new combat simulation in their VR goggles, when the tree-house is attacked by the kid's most recognizable enemy...The Toiletnator!
"Oooh, the hit FX on my mustard shots look really nice, #2! Are those polygons, or particles?"
Naturally, Nigel beats his ass singlehandedly and ties him down, but he reveals that he's not the only villain coming for them, as there's been a massive breakout at a KND prison. reluctantly, the 5 agents of Sector V lock and load, heading out to round up 7 of the KND's most infamous villains and transporting them to a more secure prison on the moon.
Yes, the children have a prison on the moon.
Right, that's the plot synopses outa the way, let's talk about the gameplay! KND:OV is a 3rd person shooter with level based gameplay and a light focus on platforming. The gunplay is solid, with a snappy, responsive lock on system and light autoaim when you're not targeting. Enemies are ruthless, and will charge you with powerful melee attacks while receiving covering fire from strategically positioned ranged support, but go down in a quick volley of 3 to 4 shots at most.
That's not to say this game is all about running though, blindly mashing the fire button. In each level you play as a different member of Sector V, and they each have their own gameplay differences. #1 (Nigel) is your basic gunman, he shoots, he jumps, he shoots. You'll be doing a LOT of shooting and switch puzzles with him. #2 (Hogan) is in charge of flying the ship, the "Cool Bus", and his levels play like classic SHMUPs, they're pretty fun.
Look at this fresh hell. Cuphead eat your heart out.
Then there's #3, (Kuki) who usually has slower paced, collectathon levels, and doesn't obtain firearms until the second half of her levels. #4 (Wallabee) and #5 (Abby) both play similarly, optiong to punch and kick their enemies instead of use firearms; although #5's levels tend to involve more puzzles, VS #4's linear arena beat-down style levels. In total there are 15 levels, and 3 missions per character.
I really like the level design here, everything is gigantic. I'm talking fucking huge, like, 9 foot ceilings and 12 foot fences, the levels are gigantic compared to the player model, but all that space is almost always well utilized; packed full of props and high detail textures to give the illusion that these are real places, if cartoonishly big places.
Reminds me of home.
Another thing that surprised me was the dedication to the source material. No expense was spared bringing the KND to like on home consoles; with high resolution, high detail face sprites, deceptively simple models, and unique voice acting by the actual actors from the show, the cutscenes you get between levels are astoundingly high quality, and the writing isn't half bad either. While there were a few jokes that fell really, really flat with me, there were also one or two that actually made me laugh out loud.
There's gotta be a good 2 and half hours of new voice acting made for this game. In particular, I enjoy the 2 or 3 battle cries each character has when you use their power attack, those were very fun. I also appreciate that there are NO substitutions, these are all the voice actors from the show. Cree Summer included.
Sorry, whenever I hear Cree Summer's voice this song starts playing in my head. This show haunts me.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game, to my great surprise. While the combat was very simple, the game has a great sense of progression as you move through the levels, getting stronger and stronger guns and facing off against increasingly dangerous enemies though more complex levels, without ever making it unclear what you're supposed to be doing or where you're supposed to go. The game even has good replay value in the form of awesome unlockables like additional costumes, cheats, and "Possession mode", a setting that lets you take over and play as EVERY enemy in the game, each with their own unique moveset.
Surprisingly awesome game, I'm totally coming back to this at some point. Makes me wonder why the Family Guy game, with the same sort of multi-character, multi-genre gameplay was so awful.