A large part of what made Rayman 2: The Great Escape such a memorable experience was the idea that a 3D platforming hero could do more than just hop around on platforms and off of enemies, as the game's imaginative use of unique gameplay mechanics followed suit. Eden Games' Kya: Dark Lineage borrows liberally from Ubisoft's outstanding 3D platformer game in terms of both gameplay variety and visual style. But don't mistake "derivative" for "disappointing." Kya is a top-notch production from top to bottom, and the experience of playing it is surely worth the time of any 3D action adventure fan. 
 

Kya: Dark Lineage is set in a colorful, cartoonlike fantasy world, but it's not without some dark corners. The story follows our titular female protagonist as she and her half brother get sucked into this alternate dimension through an arcane device her long-absent father had stashed away. Her half brother Frank falls into the clutches of the evil Brazul, a powerful madman who is quickly turning the friendly Nativs, a race of amiable dog-people, into Wolfen, a race of significantly less-amiable wolf-people. Kya befriends the Nativs, is told that Brazul is, in fact, her father, and then goes on a quest to free Frank and square things up with Dad. The writing in Kya is surprisingly well done and gives Kya and the primary supporting characters a little bit of personality and depth of character, which, in turn, gets you that much more invested in the action.