Saturday, 03 May 2008

• Meltdown for Bad Mr. Frosty or Hasta La Vista, Bunny?

  Growing up I've always been somewhat of a sucker for claymation. That old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special was just the first in a long line of personal fascinations of mine, ranging from Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas when I was very young to Eddie Murphy's The PJs a number of years later. It comes as no surprise, then, that a game packed with animated clay characters and a variety of zany locales would appeal to my six-year-old mind like no other form of interactive entertainment before it.

  

  Released at a time when 2D fighting games had just hit the stratosphere popularity-wise, ClayFighter was a neat little SNES game that dealt in style rather than substance, but nevertheless managed to break the mould in a genre comprised of poor Street Fighter II clones and little else. It never sought to win any awards in terms of gameplay, but it did do a bang-up job parodying the very genre it was designed to be a part of and managed to create a relatively enjoyable play experience to boot.

  I say relatively enjoyable because, let's face it, perfect it was not. Its silly circus theme probably didn't win it any fans over the age of twelve, its fighting engine was horribly underpowered, and its paltry character roster couldn't help but seem a bit underwhelming compared to the growing casts of its fighting game rivals. But the original ClayFighter was never about in-depth gameplay or long lasting replayability. It was a novelty, a product of the times, an injection of well-merited satire in a genre virtually devoid of humour.

  

  Its sequel, happily enough, continues that tradition while making a few key changes to the formula. Gone are the cutesy carnival images and boopy tunes that were abundant in the first installment; cool graphical elements and funky, head-bopping beats have taken their place. In-game graphics have also been given a noticeable upgrade, with more than double the clay animations of the first game and markedly faster gameplay.

  More importantly, ClayFighter 2: Judgment Clay's character roster has been revamped and revitalized, with a couple of old favourites and several new faces making the cut this time around. Tiny, Bad Mr. Frosty and Blob return, along with a horde of new combatants including Nana, Goo Goo, Octo, Kangoo and, of course, Hoppy, whose title screen stint as Arnold Schwarzenegger ranks right up there with the most memorable video game openings of all time.

  

  Gameplay is pretty much self-explanatory. Pop in the cartridge, select a character, and duke it out with fellow clay creations in a variety of arenas, ranging from a claymation boxing venue to Santa's hilltop workshop, with names like "Mount Mushmore," "Mudville Gardens," and "Camp Catastrophe." Controls are simple, with each fighter having Light, Medium and Fierce punches and kicks and a few special attacks (à la Street Fighter II). For example, Blob can turn into a buzzsaw to cut down his opponents, while Nana can whip banana slices across the screen.

  Still, given the intriguing look of the game, the moves list does seem a little...Thin. There are no over-the-top "Claytalities" like in ClayFighter 63 1/3, no screen-filling combo finishes, no balls-to-the-wall super moves. In other words, for a game whose main selling point is its wacky visuals, there's relatively little eye candy to be had.

  

  Still, we're talking about a SNES game here, and the fact that these characters look even remotely like clay should be applauded. Clearly, no other Super Nintendo game out there looks quite like this. Yes, some cartridges have bigger and more detailed sprites and, yes, others can boast superior framerates, but there's simply something magical about the ClayFighter series in general, about using age-old techniques to create new interactive experiences. That the game has the balls to rip on Terminator 2 is icing on the cake.

  So, from a technical standpoint, there's no question: there are bigger and better games out there. A lot of them. But in terms of pure charm, you'd be hard pressed to find a better example from the period. The sands of time invariably take their toll and game franchises come and go, but few of them weather the storm of creation with wit and charm, and even fewer remain enjoyable a decade or so after their inception. ClayFighter 2 and its brethren fit that description.

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