Video
About
KetnetKick is a PC game developed by Larian Studios for Ketnet. It was released on the 29th of October 2004.
The game features platforming levels and creative studios where players can create drawings, comics, music, animations and more. In 2006, a racer was added to game. KetnetKick was frequently updated to adapt to changes to the Ketnet television channel.
KetnetKick enjoyed an active online community of children who were passionate about the game. It still holds a special place in the hearts of many Belgian children who grew up in the 2000s.
It is worth noting that even though the KetnetKick was funded with the support of the Belgian tax payer, it was distributed on physical game discs for €10.
End of life
In 2008, KetnetKick received a sequel, KetnetKick 2. With the release of its sequel, development of the first game halted and KetnetKick was updated to work offline. The installer for this version was hidden in the support section on Ketnet's website, but was removed somewhere around 2012.
Download
KetnetKick startscherm may hang a bit on launch because the server it tries to connect to for updates has been taken offline.
Right click the KetnetKick application and press 'Open', lest KetnetKick will fail to run.
KetnetKick may not work on macOS Catalina or later as a result of Apple dropping 32-bit support.
Extras
Patched Startscherm for faster loading times
Upon starting KetnetKick, the game will actually hang for quite a long time because the server it tries to connect to takes a lot of time to timeout. I have patched KetnetKickstarter.exe so it timeouts instantly. Replace the original KetnetKickstarter.exe found in the KetnetKick installation directory with my patched version. Make sure to always start the game from this file. macOS builds ship with the patched startscherm automatically.
Download KetnetKickstarter.exe
Soundtrack
KetnetKick's soundtrack was written by Larian's late composer Kirill Pokrovsky. In honour of the man, I'm releasing all of his music for KIC games. The KetnetKick soundtrack features all the music from the game. Thanks to lorre851 for having made available the theme for the 2007 KetnetKick Christmas update on his website. Without him, this theme would have been long lost.
Wallpaper
On the KetnetKick website, 8 wallpapers were available. I only have one left on my hard disk in full resolution, unfortunately.
Video
About
KetnetKick 2 is the sequel to KetnetKick. It was released on the 24th of October 2008, four years after the first game.
KetnetKick 2 takes place on the Mysterious Island, an unreachable location from the first game. KetnetKick 2 reintroduced basically all the studios from KetnetKick 1. It also features many more platforming levels and even a series of topdown shooting sections. KetnetKick 2 has native widescreen support and will automatically detect modern monitors. The resolution is infinitely scalable.
KetnetKick 2 has a very different feeling to it than the first game. With the game set on a mysterious island, the aspect of a cheery kids game almost feels out of place. For more on this game's weird twist, check the info below.
It is worth noting that even though the KetnetKick was funded with the support of the Belgian tax payer, it was distributed on physical game discs for €10.
End of life
KetnetKick 2 had a relatively short life span. In November 2010, the game was updated to work offline. The offline version was installed on computers during its final update. Since the update servers have been taken offline, obtaining this version through the official updater is now impossible.
Change of directions
The following information is pure speculation. Though I am basing my theories on files found in the game, none of this has been confirmed by an actual Larian employee. I'd love for them to confirm it however. Larian, if you're reading this, please do!
As stated in the About section above, KetnetKick 2 has a strange vibe to it. The game's soundbanks, which were decrypted in January 2016, shed light on part of the mystery.
The path of power and the path of magic
Unused dialog reveals a totally different spin on KetnetKick 2. The game originally did not start on the mysterious island itself. The player would reach it by boat and could take two paths: the path of power or the path of magic. Either path would possibly have had an influence on the player's abilities in the game. The inhabitants of the mysterious island are simply called Workers in the definitive game. However, in dialogs, they refer to themselves as Ukuris. They are a species with a very long history. Their ancestors were Druids. Workers are still referred to as Ukuris in the game's internal files.
Story
An ancient legend foretold that a hero would come to save the Ukuris from disaster. This hero is the player. The Ukuris are under attack by creatures called Wraptors. Through all kinds of quests, the player would help to rebuild the island and save the Ukuris. After the Wraptors' defeat, a party would be held to celebrate this.
RPG?
Many dialogs are based around quests. Players must find an object in order to advance in the story. For example, the player is asked to rescue the pegasus Kelmis' brother Hobbis, search for elixir to heal an Ukiri's brother Vigo, repair an antenna, etc. While quests exist in the original game, they are all trivial and do not involve any story relevant to the game. The quests talked about in the dialogues have been reworked in the final game for other purposes. The starting point for this story seems to be a lemonade bar, assets of which can still be found in the game.
Kelmis
In KetnetKick 2, the player either travels on foot, or through clicking on a destination using the GUI. Originally, it was intended for the player to ride a Pegasus and fly across the islands. This is confirmed both by dialogue, artwork and fly animations for the Pegasus (who serves as an NPC in the final product). If you look at the map in the final game, the flying concept makes a lot of sense.
Personal thoughts
While an RPG driven KIC game would have certainly been cool, the concept went way too far for a kids game. Larian's plans were ambituous, but either them or the VRT must have taken them down. The original concept must have been in somewhat further developement. If it had been scrapped early on, the dialogues which have been found in the sound banks would not have yet been recorded. I applaud Larian for reworking their game to what it is now (probably in a very limited timespan). KetnetKick 2 wasn't the most fun KetnetKick, but it definitely was the most interesting.
Download
Install PhysX_7.03.21_SystemSoftware.exe from the KetnetKick 2 folder. If you have a newer version of PhysX installed, the game may fail to start.
Some assets of the game may not be original since the only version I have left is the version modded by 11-year-old me. Oopsie.
unsupported
AGEIA PhysX doesn't play nicely with WINE, resulting in poor performance on macOS.
Extras
Soundtrack
KetnetKick 2's soundtrack was also written by Larian's late composer Kirill Pokrovsky. Despite being the sequel to KetnetKick, KetnetKick 2's music is very different to the one found in the original game. The soundtrack compares to music from a Divinity game, for which master Kirill also wrote the score. The music from KetnetKick 2 directly contributes to the mysterious atmosphere around the game. I actually asked Kirill if he could find this soundtrack for me at Larian. Unfortunately, it seemed to be lost. hcs64, known for his extraordinary reverse engineering work in video game soundtracks, adapted his program ww2ogg in January 2016 to make it compatible with KetnetKick 2. After 8 years, the soundtrack could finally be listened to outside of the game!
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About
Adventure Rock is a game based on KetnetKick by Larian Studios for CBBC. It was aimed at the UK market and was available as a free download for UK residents. The game was publicly released on the 1st of March 2008 after several testing phases.
Adventure Rock features most levels and studios from KetnetKick. Levels like the Rainbow Canyon and Cave are rougly the same as in KetnetKick but have their assets changed. The hub is totally different. Another difference from KetnetKick is the companionship of a verbose Droid, Cody. Pages can be collected by playing minigames. Their purpose is still unknown.
End of life
Adventure Rock was discontinued in November 2012. Unlike KetnetKick, the game received no patch for playing offline. The installer for Adventure Rock remained online for several years. However, a vanilla game installation did not allow the game to start. At the end of December 2015, reddit user RandallMoran got the game to boot. The game was fully playable but did not load save files. At the end of June 2016, the Adventure Rock Companion application was developed by Sevenanths (owner of this very website). The application was a custom launcher for Adventure Rock which made the game fully functional again. It also added upscaling, instant logins and an FPS modifier to the game.
In August 2016, Sevenanths used the complete Superia installation provided by Eskil to backport Adventure Rock into that game, resulting in a completely, fully unlocked game without the need for custom servers.
In April 2017, Adventure Rock was made compatible with KIC Launcher. Downloads for the game now ship with KIC Launcher automatically.
Download
You can either run Adventure Rock as-is by opening Offline.exe, or you can try using KIC Launcher.exe, which adds an HD mode to the game.
When prompted to connect online, choose no.
macOS builds don't ship with KIC Launcher.
Right click the Adventure Rock application and press 'Open', lest Adventure Rock will fail to run.
When prompted to connect online, choose no.
Adventure Rock may not work on macOS Catalina or later as a result of Apple dropping 32-bit support.
Extras
Soundtrack
Adventure Rock's soundtrack was rewritten by Rob Keyloch and Mike Willox. Some tracks however, like the Snowball Fight and Minigames music, are unaltered tracks from KetnetKick by Kirill Pokrovsky, yet he remains uncredited. Adventure Rock's original tracks are mostly electronic. Music for the film and dance studio were outsourced to Audio Network and composed by a variety of composers.
Video
About
Superia is the Norwegian version of Adventure Rock for NKR Super. The game was publicly released in January 2009. Whilst Superia looks like a carbon copy of Adventure Rock, several elements are different. Players for example had to unlock parts of the world using pages.
Superia was and still is famous in Norway. NRK Super took the immersion of the game to the next level with a TV show. Events in the game were common. The game had a story revolving around a basement and an evil Krok called Krokkstein. For more information on Superia, please refer to the excellent Wikipedia article on it (Norwegian).
End of life
Superia was discontinued in November 2012. Unlike KetnetKick, the game received no patch for playing offline. There was an official statement however that Superia had been saved and that it would close down. The shutdown happened on the 15th of April 2011.
Since its shutdown, players have expressed their displeasure on all blog posts, videos, and websites NRK still hosts concerning Superia. At the end of August 2016, Eskil brought the game back to life with an offline launcher specifically for Superia. The Adventure Rock Companion application was then forked by Sevenanths to work with Superia. Superia Companion was a custom launcher for Superia which added upscaling and an FPS modifier to the game.
Later in August, by adding triggers into the game, the fully unlocked game was made available.
In April 2017, Superia was made compatible with KIC Launcher. Downloads for the game now ship with KIC Launcher automatically.
Official re-release
On the 21st of September 2016, an offline version of Superia was re-released to NRK Super's website. It includes the custom made Superia Launcher and other customisations. The semi-official offline version of Superia can be found here.
Download
You can either run Superia as-is by opening Offline.exe, or you can try using KIC Launcher.exe, which adds an HD mode to the game.
When prompted to connect online, choose no.
macOS builds don't ship with KIC Launcher.
Right click the Superia application and press 'Open', lest Superia will fail to run.
Superia may not work on macOS Catalina or later as a result of Apple dropping 32-bit support.
When prompted to connect online, choose no.
Video
About
GulliLand is the French version of Adventure Rock for Gulli, a French commercial children's channel. The game was publicly released on the 6th of March 2009. GulliLand is a localised version of Adventure Rock. Apart from branding and translation, there are no differences.
At launch, GulliLand cost €18,90. Players were free to try the game for one hour. Archived versions of the GulliLand website at later dates reveal that the game was made entirely free.
End of life
The latest archived version of the GulliLand website dates from June 2014. It seems the game was discontinued shortly after, likely due to low popularity. Existing players of the game are still able to play it if they have an account stored locally.
In April 2017, Robin Hoffman provided all the necessary files to complete the collection of KIC games. GulliLand was made compatible with KIC Launcher. Downloads for the game ship with KIC Launcher automatically.
Download
You can either run GulliLand as-is by opening Offline.exe, or you can try using KIC Launcher.exe, which adds an HD mode to the game.
When prompted to connect online, choose no.
macOS builds don't ship with KIC Launcher.
Right click the GulliLand application and press 'Open', lest GulliLand will fail to run.
GulliLand may not work on macOS Catalina or later as a result of Apple dropping 32-bit support.
When prompted to connect online, choose no.
FAQ
Why are you doing this?
Many people across the continent (and beyond) have expressed their love for KIC games. Dozens of kids from the 2000s are excited to play the games from their childhood again. Because no KIC titles are still in developement and are not available for sale (or download) anymore, I believe they should be available for everyone to play.
How do I play on macOS or Linux?
Since September 2019, I have made available macOS builds for compatible games. If you manually want to try to run them however, KetnetKick, Adventure Rock, Superia and GulliLand are said to work with Wine. If Wine reports that Windows Media Player 9 is missing, install Windows Media Player 9 in Wine to resolve the issue.