Look at the box! (Mobygames link) How could anyone not want to play that!
Are we going to get horrific rendered pirates to match?
The survival of the cats depends on the quick wits of their calm and collected leader, the legendary Captain Nathaniel J. Claw.
Hey! That's not what he looked like on the box!
Claw is a difficult cat to please at the best of times. Take a look at what expression they picked for the rerelease box. Meanwhile, over in Poland, he becomes a happy ginger fellow. Figure that out! (external links)
Monolith really had some guts making Claw.
It's our first game, guys... what'll we have?
We'll have 3D rendered pirate ships...
We'll just hire one of those animation companies. They're cheap, right?
This reminds me of one time I stayed at a friends house as a kid, and we ended up staying up all night watching foreign kids' cartoons on their fancy satellite TV. Recreate the experience for yourself (YouTube link)!
Tomorrow, he will be executed for crimes against the King.
Come to think of it, can't all cartoon cats do that?
All he needs to do now is to get the door open and then he'll administer the beating of a lifetime to every dog unlucky enough to cross his path.
Talk about value for money! It's a cartoon and a game!
I think that dog's on to me. Time to spring into action!
"Weakling!"
Claw himself controls really well. He does exactly what you tell him to and there's no inertia. It's absolutely nothing like the Zorro game I played last year. I can smack enemies with the sword, but I don't think I can block.
There's loads of layers of parallax scrolling going on here. Those pillars, for example:
Are those two blue spikes in front of Claw the decorative piece of pillar, or a pair of blue shoes getting ready to kick Claw in the face?
It'd be nice if the camera showed just a little more of what was in front of me.
These guys hang around next to cannons and blast me in the chest before I know what's happening.
Claw's got a cool voice. He's not once said "yarr" which, together with the fact HE'S A CAT KICKING SOMEONE'S FACE IN, makes him the coolest pirate I've ever seen.
The skull was actually treasure that I missed. Whoops.
Is all this treasure left out in the open to act as a form of torture for the greedy imprisoned pirates?
Where the heck am I going anyway? This level seems to go on forever in all directions.
Maybe it is a bit like Zorro after all. Good job there's checkpoints everywhere.
Rightwaaaaard!
Tar pits, on the other hand... Instant death. You're lucky if you see Claw disappear into the ground he moves so fast.
At least I've found a fire sword! Blam blam!
Are they safe spikes down there? I have no idea! This could lead anywhere!
I've got four different melee moves and they're chosen randomly. You've got to be almost touching the enemies for any of them to connect, which sucks because the enemies give you contact damage. At least, I think they do. The health gauge is so far away and so difficult to read that I can't keep track of it.
He doesn't look very comfortable in that uniform; he's breathing really heavily. He could just be SEETHING WITH RAGE though.
Enough with the screens full of emptiness leading to instant death!
Claw can cast magic? No bloody wonder he didn't think the dogs would be able to hold him!
It's limited uses and instantly kills anything in front of me, just like the pistol. Which reminds me.
I thought the controls would change to a slower one-on-one duel system like Prince of Persia, but I'm still using the wacky platformer controls and hammering the melee button like crazy. I can only use my sword in this duel, my pistol's useless against him.
LeRauxe's a spry one. Every time I get anywhere near, he leaps over my head and stabs me in the back. I somehow get him trapped up against the wall and stab him repeatedly. It's cheating, but I'm a pirate so it's okay.
He's taking a LOT of hits. I'm up to twenty... thirty... forty... This is ridiculous.
Huh, I want to want to like this game, but I don't. I'd watch the hell out of a Claw cartoon, but I'm in no rush to play this game any further. There's something wrong about Claw and I can't work out what it is.
Maybe it's the MIDI music? It's great music and full of detail but it's forced through a lousy set of samples. The voices, sound effects and ambient sounds are all present and correct. Claw himself isn't annoying in the least.
Maybe it's the blind drops and spiked pits? I seemed to spend a lot of time climbing directly upwards into hazards, and having to jump down vast distances without any time to react. The camera sticks Claw in the dead centre of the screen which tests the players reflexes a bit too much.
Maybe it's the graphical style? Every piece of terrain within a level looks the same. It was easy to see what I was doing on the first level because the background was dark, but I could barely see Claw on the second.
Is it possible that the game is too detailed? I couldn't say 'garish', because Knuckles Chaotix is garish. Chaotix is dangerous to look at, Claw is just difficult.
The game seems to be made well enough. It's got reconfigurable controls and decent joystick support. It's even got save games, level select and an animated cutscene viewer.
I'm frustrated that I can't work out what's missing. It could be something as simple as 'there's no jump sound effect'. Whatever it is, the game just doesn't work without it.
Sorry, Claw.
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