Bells Review : Klonoa

[Bells]

Klonoa and Huepow arrive at the Wii!

I want to get this out at first. Klonoa is a rather short game. You can easily beat it in a weekend by playing very casually. However, it's a very fun, well crafted (albeit aged), cute looking (and sounding) game. And you can get it on Amazon right now for $27. And on that price, this game is a complete bargain.

[First Impression]

A simple screen greats you with no Opening, just a couple seconds of music and the it goes silent. In there, a "new game" a "continue" and a "Options". Usually, that would be my first red flag... i kinda like intro, and it's kinda reassuring when you're greeted to a game with a certain level of polish.

But don't get fooled by the lackluster entrance. The content is in there.

Going to Options you can select the language which the character talk in the game. Either English or Gibberish ( Dubbed "Phantomille" which is cute sounding actually). Pick Auto Save, Graphic Filter (on or off) and button setting.

You can't map the controls the way you want. But you can play with this the Wiimote, The Wiimote and nunchuk or the Classic Controler. For me, i felt that the Wiimote alone gave the best feel.

And then, it's on to the game! A Basic Fantasy Platformer with a great audio presentation, some mild graphic quality and a fun design.

GAMEPLAY

Klonoa is a basic Platformer with Puzzle elements. You have your companion Huepow and the magic ring that can capture enemies (and that's the only way to beat them. You can touch them in anyway).

The controls work pretty well. Although i did felt the lack of rumble feedback on this one. Playing with the wiimote on Horizontal, it was like this:

D pad - Move
1 - Shoot wind buttle (capture enemies, press again to toss them)
2 - Jump

Simple as that.

The whole deal here is how you manage to work with the elements around you. Klonoa can aim and shoot to the foreground and the background of the screen, while he will always walk in the "Middle" (in a 2.5d perspective). So, sometimes you'll have to toss an enemy that way to disable a trap, advance on the map or get items.

The same way is to reach high spot, as Klonoa can latch on enemies that fly to gain some air. Or Double jump if he is carrying an enemy.

As you progress, you can get crystals that, like "coins", give you a score and a life when you collect a certain number. You'll also find Clocks that are checkpoints (and there are a few per stage) and also Friends trapped, which you must locate and free as a sidequest to the game (all stages have 6 of those prisioners). You can also find hearts, which are you HP in this game. But you'll start with plenty and there are always some to get in each stage. Meaning that you're only going to die if you're careless.

There are also boss battles. THese are big, colorfull enemies with patterns that you must understand to defeat. Pretty standard fair, but don't think you can shoot blindly.

Graphics

WII SCREEN


KLONOA 2 (PS2)


KLONOA (PSX)


Klonoa is a remake of the PSX title, not the PS2 title. So that has to be taken to mind. However, you can see that the improvement over the PS2 version is visible, but not something astonishing. All character animate very well, and everything and rounded and nice looking.

AUDIO

On Audio, Klonoa shines. The music is peppy and fun, it really brings you into the realm of the game. And it's quite enjoyable. The voices here are fantastic. I was trully surprised.

Aside from the Opening (where Klonoa narrates his dream, and sounds like a REALLY bored 4 year old) all the voices are done with superb level of quality on the delivery of the scenes. Which is really great and make these much more enjoyable. Also, for the few times where Klonoa actually talks... he reminds me of Sonic. Which makes me wish Sonic games were this good...

Sounds effects are plenty, but they are well spaced out, so you can enjoy the aural sense of the game without getting an overload (as some parts of the game can make the screen get pretty busy).

Bottom Line

Klonoa is a fun game. For it's price tag, it's worth every penny. If you like games like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and any sort of GOOD simple platform games, this one is for you.