Impressions: Klonoa (Wii)
I admit I did not play the original on the Playstation (though I have seen it being played). My cousin said I missed out. Good thing it came to my Wii.
Published by Namco Bandai, Klonoa is the Wii remake of the 1997 platformer Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.
I’ve played the first two levels plus the first boss battle and I should say I’m impressed. The world is more vibrant and colorful compared to what I remember seeing from the original Playstation version. This is no mere port, min
d you, but rather a complete makeover. The levels and gameplay, though it stays true to it’s 2-D platforming roots, twists and turns in 3-D space and makes the simple gameplay look more cinematic.
You control Klonoa. A cat-bunny hybrid creature who looks like Tails from Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series. You move with the D-pad, jump with one button and capture enemies (more and this later) with the other button. Pretty simple. It’s really pick up and play.
Capturing enemies lets you carry them and use them in a variety of ways. You can press the same button to throw the enemy (pressing up or down on the D-pad while doing this will throw the enemy to the background or foreground of the level) or you can jump while carrying the enemy then press the jump button again for a double jump. These moves are the foundation of Klonoa’s platforming puzzles. There’s a “whirlwind” button on the control config but currently it does nothing when I press it so I guess I’m not that far into the game to actually use it. :(
Speaking of controls, Klonoa thankfully supports most of the Wii’s controllers. You can opt to use the mote-chuck combo, the classic controller, gamecube controller, or even the wiimote by itself horizontally. All of them works I’m sure. But as lazy as I am to scrounge up my controllers, I just used the horizontal wiimote.
The music is a bit bland. Standard whimsical video game mascot music. But again, I’m not that far in the game to actually hear the whole pallette so I’m reserving judgement on this for now. I don’t remember if the original Playstation game had voice acting, but this one has and it sounds great if not decent.
16:9 aspect ratio is supported which is a big deal to me and for that I am thankful. Runs in 480p which makes the visuals more crisp than the original, and it even has a graphic filter (like that from Smash Bros. Brawl) that you can choose to turn on or off depending on your taste. Basically you should turn it OFF if you play on an HDTV (makes it more sharper) and ON on a standard TV (smoothens out the edges to counter the interlacing effect).
I’ve read that Klonoa clocks in at seven hours minus completing it on “mirror mode” which is I guess is playing the game in reverse or whatever. Seven hours is not too much relatively, but based from what I am experiencing so far on this game it means seven hours of quality platforming for me.
AFK/BRB playing Klonoa.
