KANO Review

Developer: GLITCHE.RS
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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Overall Rating:

I’m not sure why anyone would willingly start bouncing around on top of an active volcano, but that’s exactly what’s happening in KANO. Despite the obvious safety concerns, however, it’s actually a very entertaining (and quite good-looking) little time waster.

You control a rotatable platform made up of four differently colored zones (Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow), and all you have to do is keep the multicolored tiki-looking heads in the air for as long as possible. The rub is that with each bounce, the head’s color will change - so you then need to spin the platform with a swipe in order to line up the corresponding color.

If you fail to match colors, the platform segment will sink into the volcano. This empty spot not only acts as a hazard for any tiki heads, but also produces nasty little balls of flame that will destroy other platform sections if you don’t funnel them back into the lava. Thankfully you’ll sometimes be able to grab a floating mask that will restore one colored platform segment, though.

The free version grants you up to three lives/tries before you’ll need to wait a few hours to play again, but you do have the option to upgrade to Premium for $4.99 and get unlimited lives - in addition to some adorable little hats and a new Turbo Mode.

KANO is, quite simply, an extremely well-made game. The colors are vibrant, the style is impressive, and the sound effects have real impact. I mean actual impact. The noise you’ll hear when you manage to land a bounce dead-center quickly becomes a short-term goal for every single spin. It’s practically Pavlovian.