#Kameo Elements Of Power

[poobletoods]

Many, many, many, many, many hours later, my capstone project is complete: a mall full of my favorite guys!

Not gonna wax too poetic about my creative process because that's what the artist statement is for, but I will say that this was the most involved, ambitious, and creatively fulfilling piece I've ever gotten to do. OCs, cartoon characters, video game protagonists, DnD player characters, we've got it all here! Each of these characters is special to me in one way or another, and I had an absolute blast cramming them all into one canvas.

Tumblr got nowhere near displaying the full image so I had to condense the hell out of it to get the whole thing on there. If you want a closeup of any character in full resolution just sent me an ask! I would love to hold my little guys up to the camera for you :)

And yeah I'm gonna tag every piece of media represented. If you're seeing this in your tag, one of your fellas is in here somewhere!

[thefoilguy]

Pummel Weed from Kameo: Elements of Power - Aluminum Foil Sculpture

[beasts-flesh]

The Mystic from Kameo Elements of Power🐍 for blayjane

[berrycontrary]

Hopped on that Steven universe meme redraw with comfort characters trend!!

ngl I just wanted an excuse to draw Pummel again it's been so long gfh

[blayjane]

ART BY: @cupiidzbow

drawn by a fellow rare lover! i just immediatly had to comm that sweet person when i saw their style ahh ❤ and i absolutely adore the outcome, BLOODY AND HER SNAKE MOMMA 😆 ❤

[pepbirb]

SNARE DOODLE BC I LOVE THEYM..... I THINK ABT KAMEO ACTIVELY

[parusaro]

all i know is that if i was getting my ass blasted in afghanistan and the united states military shipped me the platinum hits version of kameo: elements of power for the xbox 360 i'd lose my shit

[mximitator]

"Your family betrayed you, Kalus. Chose an orphan over their own blood."

[blazehedgehog]

Do you think Microsoft killed Rare or were Rare already dying?

I think after the success of Donkey Kong Country, Rare was kind of burning the candle at both ends. I once heard from somebody who sounded very close to the source that basically, the Stamper Brothers would burn through an entire game's budget, and in order to raise more money to continue development, they would sell stock in the company to Nintendo.

This continued from some time after Donkey Kong Country all the way up to the development of Star Fox Adventures, and by the time Star Fox Adventures was in development, Rare had sold 49% of the company to Nintendo.

When you own 50% of stock or more, you are put on the board of directors and get to control part of the company. Rare figured that, since Nintendo had given them the Star Fox license to work with, they were in good enough graces that maybe Nintendo would want to buy the entire company outright instead of having more stock. So they made the necessary legal arrangements for the sale of the company and... Nintendo rejected the offer.

But Rare still needed money to finish Star Fox.

And, well, they were technically already up for sale now...

Keep in mind that after Microsoft bought Rare, a lot of Rare's first games under them were stuff they were working on for Nintendo. Kameo started out on the N64, was going to appear on the Gamecube, and ended up as an Xbox 360 launch title. Both Perfect Dark Zero and Grabbed by the Ghoulies were announced for the Gamecube, as well.

I think under Microsoft they were probably treated differently, financially speaking, but that's also because they pushed their luck with Nintendo until it hit a breaking point, right? Without the long, long, long tail of polish and refinement, that's how we end up with something like Perfect Dark Zero (yes, even considering it was announced as a Gamecube game).

And that kind of "we can take our time and be perfectionists" thinking just kind of... slowly undid the company.

So to some degree... both? Microsoft probably bought Rare without giving Rare the runway to do things the way they liked doing them, but Rare was already biting off more than they could chew at every turn. They could get there in the end, but it was slow, and Microsoft probably wouldn't let them be slow.

[kameo-elementsofpower-wiki]

Welcome to the new Kameo Community Wiki! Kameo: The United Fandom is currently shifting the Kameo wiki from Fandom to it's very own page right here on tumblr!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We're gradually moving all the content (and organising it!) to make it much easier for our community to access and navigate. It will take time transferring all of the server and wiki content over but as content is added to this blog, the index tab on our page will show our progress by having clickable links on what is currently available for you all to enjoy. We will also include helpful guides for hidden items (like those tricky last pieces of Elemental Fruit you can never seem to find) and more! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you've happened to stumble upon this place, then welcome! This is an archive and guide for all the lore and information for Kameo: Elements of Power on the Xbox 360! We're a small but friendly community that works hard on fan content, memes and helping get some recognition for this underrated gem of a game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We sincerely hope you enjoy your visit, and if it suits your fancy, feel free to check out our discord server! https://discord.gg/VsN9B6W

We hope to see you there!

[michael-h-art]

Friend gave me the idea of catalouging the games I play through this year by doodling them. Thought it would be a fun incentive to clear my backlog so consider this a little thread of my backlog travels First game was Kameo Elements of Power. A rough but fun Zelda style adventure

[reallyexists]

It turns out there's a fork of the Xenia emulator that can run Kameo: Elements of Power (2005) in a playable state, so I finally played one of the big fixations-from-afar of my childhood. Initially pitched for the N64, then moved to the GameCube, and finally coming out as a launch title for the Xbox 360 after Microsoft bought Rare, it bears the scars of a troubled development. It's a game pulled in many different directions. It sucks a little bit.

Obviously the big draw of the game to me as a kid was all the different weird guys in it, and as an adult that is... still the case! Here's a tier list! Details under the cut:

1: Pummelweed. This is one of the flagship guys. A horrible little venus flytrap-themed boxer who lets out adorable grunts and giggles as they do the single punch combo that they have. I just think they're neat! Deserving of the sole S-tier placement because they have an extremely good design, a fun (evil) personality & are fun to play as, despite being kind of one-note and dropping off in usefulness a bit as the game goes on.

Bonus: Baby Pummelweed! You can get elemental warriors either through saving them from shadow trolls or getting them from family members; the ones you save start out as little baby versions called elemental sprites. Pummelweed's is definitely one of the better ones. Also comes with a sick transformation sequence where the little baby hulks out and its eyes go bloodshot as it prepares to do punching, as afflicts all those who must punch.

2: Deep Blue. Fucking excellent design. The vastly superior option between the two water-element warriors, both because Deep Blue is actually pretty fast on land (even though they're the ONLY warrior that can go underwater) and for cheesing utility. I thought Deep Blue would become completely useless after the Contractually-Obligated Water Temple in which you are forced into using them 90% of the time, but their non-damaging water jets (fired from the stumpy sucker-arms) are really useful for knocking enemies off of high ledges for the rest of the game, saving you the trouble of actually having to fight them. Knowing Rare, this is probably less of an exploit and more the expected/required strategy in some parts.

Bonus: Baby Deep Blue! Also a good one because it's just a cuter version of Regular Deep Blue. 10/10

3: Rubble. I just love Rubble's design and animations! The head bobbles atop the pile of rocks as they all roll in unison. Very unique & cute. Unfortunately loses points for falling hard out of relevancy about 1/4 through the game; a lot of low-tier guys are languishing down there because they get used for exactly one area and then forgotten about, and Rubble kind of has that problem. You just get them early enough that they still make a lasting impression.

Bonus: Baby Rubble! This one is a little bit weirder, as it becomes increasingly clear that they had exactly one rig for the elemental sprites, so all the baby versions need to conform to the same body plan. Rubble isn't that bad, looks kinda like the baby from Dinosaurs. Cute ponytail!

4: Major Ruin. Look at this fuckin' guy. Fucking A-tier guy right here. Like a little sorta elephant-armadillo thingy, Major Ruin's gimmick is rolling around in a ball and being used for a ton of physics-based puzzles and platforming. Over-reliance on physics puzzles is kind of a problem in this game, but I'm not gonna take it out on Major Ruin. Even though it's literally the only thing Major Ruin is good for. Major Ruin is a really cool name. Major Ruin.

Bonus: Baby Major Ruin! Really good, looks fucking... pissed off to be here. Me too, Major.

5: 40 Below. You might think that a buff abominable snowman rolling around on a snow trackball would be pretty awesome, and you would almost be right! For some reason 40 Below's gormless attitude failed to endear him to me. He has a gimmick where switching to him makes ice ramps appear in the snow area (approx. 3 ice ramps), but he mainly makes B tier because his spiked snowball spin move has an enormous hitbox that collides with enemy hitboxes and makes him functionally invulnerable until his energy runs out. This is how I cheesed what would otherwise have been a long and annoying final boss battle. Thanks, 40 Below!

Bonus: Baby 40 Below! Resembles any number of cute cartoon snowpersons, with the important addition of the bassist chin tuft. Keep rockin' out little man.

6: Snare. Snare is this high up because she looks like Audrey II. That's obvious. That's most of what she has going for her. BUT, I also found her gimmick of picking stuff up in her giant maw and trebuchet-tossing it out, which is used 2 times in the last 2 hours of the game, to be not-terrible. Snare is the last of the 3 elemental warriors you get for free from Kameo's rescued family members, and that sucks, why did you back-load her, she cannot take this pressure. Is it just because you didn't want to make her baby? Shameful.

7: Ash. Ash is the very first warrior you get for free from the first family member you save, and consequently I feel little emotional attachment to Ash. There's a weird gimmick where they spew fireballs that climb up walls (because they can only shoot them straight ahead). The continuous fire breath attack is pretty strong in some circumstances? I don't know, it's getting a bit thin back here. The other thing I'll say for Ash is that they look like the model that changed the least between the GameCube build and final release.

8: Thermite. Thermite is the very last elemental warrior you unlock, and the strongest in combat because their big lava urn thing shoots bombs in third-person-shooter style. The idea of an elemental warrior that's a tiny little guy with a big artillery piece is very cool, but unfortunately in execution it means you are just looking at a big urn 100% of the time and you can barely see the little guy if you try really hard to angle the camera down. The gameplay is sorta there, Thermite feels suitably powerful for the endgame, just not my favorite to play as.

Bonus: Baby Thermite! This one is pretty fucked up. Why does it have the little dingly dongle in back and also antennae? Would it really have been that fuckin' hard to make it, like... the same color? I dunno man, this one is pretty lazy. Another casualty of Too Many Guys.

9: Chilla. I'm so sorry, Chilla. I'm putting the #1 flagship weird guy next-to-last. The design is solid, Chilla gets a lot of playtime, but unfortunately Chilla just sucks. Gimmicks include climbing ice walls using an ugly set of animations (present in two locations: the ice zone and the final boss' castle, which is IN A VOLCANO), chucking ice spears (hard to aim because the camera snaps to where Chilla is facing instead of where you're looking, they don't do a lot of damage and he gets like 10 of them before he gets tired [THIS IS HIS MAIN ATTACK]), and sticking trolls to his back and then pulling them off to throw/use as a club (fucking atrocious range and damage and it takes so much effort, just use someone else jesus christ).

Chilla would have been a very cute baby but unfortunately he comes free with a purchase of $15 or more at the Water Temple, so you'll just have to imagine it.

10: Flex. I feel bad for Flex. It's an alright design, but the execution lets it down. Flex's single foot is procedurally animated and the body is subtly constrained to a fixed radius around it as it moves, but the body glides completely smoothly like it's hovering a fixed distance above the ground. It feels unnatural and looks bad. On top of this, flex's gimmick of grabbing onto distant grapple points (read: weird blue piranha plant tongues) is used in exactly one area, and Flex has little general combat utility so you're not likely to use them elsewhere. The definition of a bottom-tier weird guy. Sucks to play as, but fortunately you only have to for one part and then you can forget they exist. Oh, and there's one more contributing factor:

Malus: Baby Flex?! What the fuck, man.

In conclusion, 10 is too many weird guys. Make fewer weird guys that are better, probably. Like Scaler (2004).

Also some of these characters suck because the energy meter sucks! The foresight to integrate the character design with the combat focus by giving every character an attack that can be done without expending energy was absent from the design, among other things. If they were just allowed to be awesome and kick ass nonstop (like they're supposed to be able to do in-universe) they'd be a lot somewhat better. Not you, Flex. Sorry.

[pendragon1400]

Childhood Games

I've been feeling really nostalgic about games lately idk, what are some favorite childhood games of yours that no know seems to know.

Mine was Kameo elements of power. Followed closely by that fish game that you could play in xbox 360 arcade.

[girlundeadd]

[berrycontrary]

The older I get, the more I draw Pummel, the more feral he becomes

Just how he should be <33

[blayjane]

I HAVE TWO DEVILS AT MY SIDES, AND THEY BOTH ARE VILLAINS, REPTILES, WITH ONE EYE BEIN OFF AND MADE BY RARE

Drawing was made by the wonderful @stinkydod