Goal
Koopaling Khaos is a 2d platformer, and like most platformers, your goal is simply to get to the end of each stage and defeat the occasional boss fight. While this game features characters from the Mario franchise, there is a much greater emphasis on combat in exchange for some relatively easier platforming. There is still plenty of jumping to be done, but the environments are primarily designed to be combat challenges rather than straight-up tests of your maneuvering ability.
Controls
Koopaling Khaos is designed for the Nintendo 3DS.
D-Pad/Circle Pad: Walk/run/interact/crouch
A/B: Jump
Y: Physical Attack
X: Magic Attack
L/R: Scroll screen left/right
Start: Pause
Select: Change touch-screen display (2-players only)
The buttons are all fully customizable, because quite honestly, that should be a standard feature for games.
HUD
On the top screen, the only thing you see is 2 meters: A green continuous health meter, and a blue segmented magic meter. The health meter, naturally, records your health! Every Koopaling has 1000 HP max. The magic meter is mainly used to perform magic attacks and is divided into 6 units, recharging a single unit every 1.5 seconds. There are no “lives” in this game, because unlike Mario, the Koopalings will just keep coming back no matter how many times they’re defeated.
The touch screen is used for more general status stuff, such as the name of the current stage, the current and best scores of the stage, and the health bar of the last enemy you’ve attacked. In 2-player mode, you can press select to have the bottom screen display the other player’s screen! This is pretty good for finding each other or showing off cool things if you’re in different rooms.
Movement
You have 2 speeds on the ground, walking and dashing. You can dash by double-tapping the direction you want to go. Jumping is what you’d expect from a 2D platformer, hold the button to jump higher. There is some variation in speed and jump height between the Koopalings, but don’t worry, there are no unbeatable situations with any Koopaling. The Koopalings all have the ability to wall jump, and rather than slide down walls they will actually stick to the spot they grab using their trusty claws.
In underwater areas, you can swim by holding the d-pad/circle pad in the direction you want to go, and press the jump button to swim faster.
Attacking
Controls for attacking are very similar to the Kirby series, but there are 2 separate buttons: Physical and Magical. You can perform various attacks by pressing the associated button in combination with directions, holding the button to “charge” an attack, during dashes and jumps, all sorts of stuff! Every Koopaling has his or her own movelist accessed through the pause menu, with their own unique commands.
As stated earlier, magical attacks typically cost 1 unit of your magic meter to perform. Since the magic meter recharges at a pretty good speed, you shouldn’t have to worry about running out unless you spam the heck out these attacks.
Defense
Besides the obvious defense of simply evading attacks (this IS a platformer after all!), there is actually a special defensive move you can perform: crouching! Yes, every Koopaling’s crouch has them retract into their shells for a defensive posture, taking minimal damage and being shoved much farther than an attack normally would. That second part is a double-edged sword, as it gives you some breathing space but also runs the risk of sending you right off the sides of platforms. As you might expect, you can’t crouch in mid-air and therefore can’t use this defensive stance, BUT if you were already in this state and sent off the side of a platform, you can remain in it if you’d like.
On that note, just like in Mario or Sonic, pressing down while on a slope or dashing will allow the Koopalings to slide while in their shells. You can slide off the edge of a platform and hold this stance while you descend, which is the closest you can get to defending in mid-air. However, be warned that normally you cannot attack while defending.
Koopaling Khaos 