Klonoa (Wii) Review

The game stars a floppy eared cat-like creature named Klonoa, and his companion Kewpoe, a Ring Spirit that grants the hero his power. Ghadius, an entity of malicious intent, has broken free of a seal to turn the peaceful world of Pantomime into a dominion of nightmares, and it is up to you to stop him. Through exploring the stages within the five main kingdoms of the world, and beating the bosses contained in each, you will find out Ghadius' goals, and the true origins of your heroes. What may sound like standard story fare does turn into something substantially more, and thanks to the well-depicted cutscenes, and the emotion and development present in the characters, the plot and gameplay go hand in hand throughout.

Klonoa takes place on a 2D plane, with primary movement from left to right. The excellent 3D visuals mesh with this manner of play to create the effect referred to as 2.5D, which the game takes full advantage of throughout. Klonoa is controlled in almost any way you choose, with full button configuration available in the options menu, for any pad you desire - Classic Controller and GameCube pad included. The only actions you will definitely need to map are moving, jumping, and shooting. Moving and jumping - a temporary hover by holding down the button in the air - are self-explanatory, but shooting is where the real differentiating factor of Klonoa lies.

Many enemies litter the levels, and by hitting the shoot button you can fire out a wind bullet to stun or allow you to grab these enemies. From here, you can either throw them in one of four directions (background and foreground included), run around with them to use as a barrier for above hazards, or do a double jump to use them for extra height. This mechanic provides the catalyst for a large quantity of Klonoa's level structures, as large enemies block your progress, that ledge is just too high, or there is a switch out of reach in the background. General control is never a hindrance, and although some health hits and deaths feel cheap, the generous helping of checkpoint clocks and extra lives keep frustration away, if making things a bit too easy in general.

Considering its status as a world of fantastical dreams, you would expect Phantomile to contain a wide array of unexpected and varying locale types to play through, and on this Namco have you covered. Together with the cheery happy home town of Breezegale, you will have a decaying forest to restore back to beauty, the vibrant Moon Kingdom to explore, and a watery land of waterfalls and fountains to liberate. Each area is split into levels, or 'visions' as they are called here, and each vision setup provides a visual spectacle you won’t expect to see from a regular Wii game, much less a remake of a PSone title.

Sound is another area where Klonoa will not disappoint either, with backing tracks blending in for wherever you may be, from chirpy upbeat tunes whizzing around your eardrums when looking around Breezegale, or the hollow melodramatic track for exploring in the Moon Kingdom.

Voice work is a thing of love or hate in this game; the gibberish/Japanese utterings of the Phantomile option adds undeniable charm to an already stellar game, yet the English option takes the Sonic the Hedgehog approach. Make of that what you will. Door to Phantomile on PlayStation was a single player game, and this remake is no different. Around a dozen or so levels stand between you and the final boss, and when excusing some of those cheaper 'enemy-out-of-nowhere' and 'not-quite-there-ledge' moments, Klonoa is a relatively easy game, so it will most likely average out at half a dozen hours of playtime. At first anyway, because each level has six captives for you to find and save. These open up bonuses for repeat play at the end, such as reversed levels and new costumes. What you put into Klonoa is what you will get out; feverish play may yield a game not offering much above a WiiWare game's length, but none-the-less it is one heck of a game.