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It has been 12 years since Namco introduced Klonoa to the world for the first time. Klonoa first appeared in the Playstation game Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. While never a major franchise, it did spawn a full sequel on the PS2, Klonoa 2: Lunata's Veil, as well some GBA spinoffs and a volleyball game that never made it to America. In 1997 the Playstation was almost two years old. 3D was still fairly new and most attempts at bringing genres from 2D to 3D were not very successful. Due to Nintendo showing Super Mario 64 off much earlier then its release many developers took what had been demonstrated and quickly attempted to mimic that game and, if possible, beat Super Mario 64 to launch. In an interesting move, Namco made a new platformer, but instead of a free roaming mario clone the game remained a sidescroller. Instead of trying to simply follow in Super Mario 64s footsteps, Klonoa used 3D for branching pathways and unique camera pans of areas in the traditional 2D style of gameplay. While the game was never a huge blockbuster, it quickly has risen to become a cult favorite. It has been some time since Klonoa 2, so Namco-Bandai has decided to revisit the original game with a full fledged remake on the Nintendo Wii.
Klonoa has always been about colorful worlds and characters, the remake is no exception. What might surprise many is the actual quality of the remakes graphics. The game instantly bursts to life with colors, effects, and plenty of smooth animation. Klonoa actually attempts to put some effort into its graphics by including bump mapping on certain textures, as well as lots of little details painted into each level. While Klonoa himself is full of lots of animation, the enemy characters also display a nice level of detail as they walk and hop, and get squished and inflated when grabbed by Klonoa. Each level also has neat touches of enemy characters interacting with the backgrounds. Such as jumping into a river and getting carried away by the current. The game is also filled with neat details such as seeing other parts of a level through waterfalls, and steam blowing out of pipes. Klonoa almost reaches Super Mario Galaxy levels of graphical polish and with its MSRP asking price, it really puts a lot of the Wii developers to shame.
Accompanying the bright and snazzy visuals is a great soundtrack. While nothing is orchestrated the compositions more then just fit the atmosphere, they make you want to listen to them outside of playing the game. The music wouldn't feel out of place in an RPG or a studio Ghibli film.
Klonoa starts out like any platformer, you move left and right and jump and attack. The game lets you play with any combination option available on the Wii. Nunchuck, NES style, Classic, or GameCube. You can also assign the buttons however you see fit. Also included is a graphical filter, similar to the one in Brawl that only works with component cables. Also new to the game is a whirlwind attack that will slow enemies on screen. It is completely optional to use and the whole game can be played without it. The basic gameplay of Klonoa involves grabbing enemies and using them to throw and break objects or to use for a double jump. Klonoa has a flutter jump similar to Yoshi is Yoshi's Island, but to double jump you need to grab an enemy. Grabbing is done simply with the attack button which sends out a wind bullet from Klonoas ring. It doesn't have to good of a range, but it doesn't impede gameplay either. Klonoa for Wii has also bumped the game from three hearts to five. While the majority of the game isn't very hard, some of the later levels could give newer players some trouble. Within each level is six villagers and a bunch of crystals. Saving the villagers requires simply finding them in bubbles and popping them with a wind bullet or thrown enemy. While not required, to get a lot of the game extras, you will have to find every villager and the majority of crystals in each level. Even still, it is not very hard to do, and can easily be completed on the first playthrough if your diligent enough. Klonoa is Namcos answer to Kirby games, and probably the closest Wii owners are going to get for a while. The story is very similar in set up to Kirby, involving saving a dream world from being taken over by nightmares. While it is not going to pose any series challenge to long time veterans of sidescrollers, Klonoa is harder then just about any Kirby game, and will require some skill to complete 100%.
To anyone who grew up from the days when sidescrollers were new, Klonoas first level will instantly make you fall in love with the game. It does everything right, right from the start, and has that sort of spark that most 2D platformers attempt but rarely achieve. The only real downside can be some of the cutscenes, They tend to drag on a bit. While they can be skipped entirely, You cant speed up the text and the game automatically closes window bubbles. The option to play the game in english or the made up phantomile language can be selected in the options menu. The game does have a sort of neat twist in the end, however some might see it as a bit unnecessary and to out of the blue. The game is also not very long with only 12 levels. Once you complete the game though, you can unlock a variety of extras, as well as collecting all the kidnapped villagers and crystals. These include alternate costumes, a movie playback viewer, character model viewer, time attack modes, a reverse mode, and a bonus level that requires serious skill to complete. Completing the bonus level unlocks a Music playback mode. Within the Reverse mode you will find portals to extra mini levels added into the Wii version. These small stages are designed for the truly dedicated gamer. While much of the game is mostly a breeze, the mini levals which grant you with a special medallion upon completing, will break your hands as well as your controller. If you have ever watched some of the super hard hacked Mario games online, then you will have an idea of what your up against. An outstanding bonus for the dedicated gamer to come back to. Klonoa certainly gives you plenty to come back for after the credits have rolled. The best part about all of this is the games asking price of $29.99. It is a fantastic deal, and despite being based on a 12 year old game, its entirely redone with some outstanding graphics, music, and tried and true gameplay. Unless you hate the genre, you would be insane to miss out on this.
