For me, Kernel panics are still the same:
gibberish over the monitor. As soon as I installed 10.2, I tried Alice, as this game gives me at one point a Kernel panic that is repeatable, and I wanted to see if 10.2 fixes this.
If the sytem has the time to waste for graphical nonsense, it is no Kernel panic:
Kernel panic is something that is so severe that it is just too late to get the error nicely in Aqua, and I wouldn't want it any other way.