Back in the SNES era, one may remember a title Interplay and Visual Concepts developed that bears the word “Clay” in it. Probably to most, the first game that will pop in your head is the memorable Clayfighter fighting game. But there is another lesser known “Clay” gem they both produced in the same year called Claymates, a colorful platformer that hid under the shadows throughout the console’s life.

Claymates is about a boy named Clayton who one day is in a laboratory with his father, who has created a serum that can transform clay into animals. Apparently witch doctors fiend for this stuff because one magically appears out of nowhere and demands that Clayton’s father hand over the serum. He denies him and the witch doctor then strikes Clayton with lightning, transforming him into a blue ball of clay, then proceeds to steal the serum and Clayton’s father away in a flash. Clayton vows to rescue his father and the serum, even if he is just a ball of clay.

The gameplay is as simple as a platformer gets, with a small twist. You control Clayton as a blue ball of clay with the ability to punch and jump. Throughout each stage you can transform Clayton from his simple blue ball form into different animals by collecting smaller, different colored balls. These are usually placed at specific spots where that animal is needed to progress further. There are four animals you can turn in to: a mouse, a cat, a gopher and a bird. Each have their own attacks and abilities, some of which will be required to progress further in the stage. Collecting another colored ball of the same animal will gain you an extra hit. If an enemy hits you, you go right back to your plain blue ball form. Enemies usually are pretty straight forward and simple, with each one usually taking one to three hits to defeat, and they vary depending on the theme of the stage.

As noted on the front cover of the box art, Claymates features “Blaze-processing” which allows you to run at blindingly fast speed when controlling the rat. This was specifically featured, as at the time there were a small handful of games on the SNES that allowed you to move quickly, much like Sonic does on the Genesis. In some cases, this can be useful for speeding through the game. But what I found to be more enjoyable is finding all the secrets and collectibles by exploring each area of the stage

The game does stray away from the usual platformer in terms of progressing between stages. After each level, you are sent to the world map and given several robots who only walk forward until they hit a wall or obstacle, then change direction at a right angle and continue walking. You have to manipulate them to help open the way to the next stage, whether it be cutting down a tree or moving a boulder.

Claymates is somewhat of a short game. There are five worlds, with roughly three to five stages in each. Throughout the game, Clayton travels across Japan, Asia and even Outer friggen’ Space. At the end of each world, like any respectful platformer, there is a boss to defeat. There are no save points or passwords, so players looking to beat the game can look forward to about a one to three hour play session.

There’s nothing too impressive with the generic soundtrack and the bland graphics, so gameplay is about the only strong point in the game. The further you progress, the more repetitive and predictable the puzzles become. Around World 4, you will have seen everything Claymates has to offer. The usual concept would be that the more content, the better the experience. Not so for Claymates. Little is just enough.

There are not too many games in the SNES lifetime that have witch doctors transforming the protagonist into a blue ball of Play-Doh, but Claymates finds a way to mold the usual platforming experience with different animal characters and abilities that are used to keep it from being a bland adventure. It may be short and the story is nonexistent, but if you go into it expecting a fun playable game to keep you occupied for an hour or two, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Tags: Claymates, Friday Old Games, Interplay, Nintendo, platformer, SNES, SNES 20th Anniversary, Visual Concepts

This entry was posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.