Now I probably know what you are thinking. With a box art like that just what kind of a game am I talking about? Well believe it or not you are looking at the box of a game that I consider to be a forgotten gem. I diamond in the rough as it were. This game, while looking like a simple kiddie game on the outside is quite a different story once you begin playing. So let's take a closer look at Claymates.
Claymates was released in 1993, shortly after the release of another claymation game by Interplay known as Clay Fighter. Unlike Clay Fighter, Claymates is a charming platformer that really stunned me after recently playing through it. Anyway... The main character of the game is a boy named Clayton (Clay... You see where this is going). Clayton's father managed to discover a formula to manipulate clay into animals! As fate would have it, a witch doctor demanded that Clayton's father hand over the formula. When his father refused, he was kidnapped by the doctor and Clayton was turned into a ball of clay. So Clayton sets off on a world tour that includes Japan, Africa, and eventually space to find his father and get retribution on the crazy witch doctor who turned him into clay.
The gameplay is pretty simple. In the overworld you go around as a ball of clay solving puzzles to reach the next level. The overworld itself isn't really much to behold. Honestly when I recently played the game again I remembered the overworld being much, well better looking... So from there you enter a level and the game really begins and gets very, very fun.
At the start of a level you will be playing as the ball of clay that is Clayton. Clayton can jump and punch as a ball of clay, but not much else. As a ball, if Clayton is hit, he dies.
The witch doctor though must have been spilling some of that formula as he fled from Clayton because as you progress through the levels you will come across different blobs of clay. These blobs of clay will give you life and transform you into an animal! For example, running into a grey ball of clay will turn you into this little guy.
Each animal (cat, rat, fish, bird, gopher) all have their own individual abilities to handle different situations. For example, the rat can run at incredible speeds and jump for long distances while the cat can climb trees that the rat cant. Otherwise the gameplay is pretty straight forward. It's a platformer so be prepared to do a lot of jumping and running. Also, be prepared for boss battles against stuff like this...
Graphically, I'll say, this game is flawless. That takes a lot coming from someone who really could care less what a game looks like. Also. Notice the game is in..... 3-D. Not a big deal now by any means, but for the SNES and Interplay, it was a pretty big deal. I was and still am incredibly impressed by the graphics that this game has to offer. The sound effects are all spot on as to where they need to be. The soundtrack is full of bouncy songs that go right along with the colorful nature of the game. The controls are simple, very effective, and really outside of losing control of a high speed rat, very smooth. So where is the downside to this game you ask.
Well here it is. Claymates is a pretty long game that has no save feature at all. No password system, no game files, nothing. Every time you play it you will be starting from the beginning. If you decide to embark on the mission to save Clayton's father you better have some free time (unless you emulate and save state of course). The difficulty of the game is kind of all over the place. Some of the puzzles are maddening, others are a cake walk. The levels themselves aren't too difficult, but as you may expect, the difficulty increases as the game goes on. When you finish the game, you, much like I, will probably be wanting more. After beating the game there is nothing. No hidden goodies, no secret levels or story lines. Nothing. Just back to the title screen to go through the game again. There isn't even an enhanced difficulty mode. There is nothing. So even though we win we lose in expecting more.
In closing... Claymates is a very, very good game that I would rate as a solid 9 out of 10. The only real drawback I could find in this game is the no save feature, which is somewhat fixed if an emulator is used. I was hoping for more afterwords, but not finding anything certainly didn't hamper my enjoyment of the game. The incredible colors, sounds, and gameplay that makes up Claymates certainly outweighed the lack of a save feature. If you have never tried this game I strongly recommend picking it up or at the very least emulate it (if you own the cartridge of course...........). You may find yourself just as surprised as I was when I popped this game into my SNES for the first time.
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