Klonoa proves he's still got it, but not without some frustrations.
Now bear in mind the only other Klonoa game I played of course was the recent Wiimake of Door to Phantomile so there's the fact that there's much story of the games in between these two that I have missed out on as well as gameplay aspects of those games I have yet to experience, so bear with me here. I'm going by what the booklet told me storywise.
Following the events of Empire of Dreams (GBA), Klonoa recieves a magical ticket, that falls from the sky inviting him to participate in tournment with other heroes from his world. No sooner does he read this ticket than he is magically teleported to a massive arena where heroes from all over his world are gathering. Soon, he sees two familiar faces. Lolo and Popka who had also been invited to participate as well as another friend of Klonoa's, Chipple, a boxing kangaroo. Klonoa also comes face to face with Gantz, who I assume is supposed to be Klonoa's answer to Shadow the Hedgehog. He's a bounty hunter who carries a ridiculousy huge gun (makes me wonder if he's compensating for something ) who's basically convinced he's going to kick everyone's ass. The master of ceremonies, Garlon informs everyone that a wonderous prize awaits the winner of the tournament and you can probably already see the double-cross plot twist coming a mile away. The writing is definitely not as strong with this title but it has it's moments. One I recall came in an announcment that one character who was a vampire had to drop out because he was anemic. You gotta love a game that gives you an anemic vampire joke.
One thing that amazes me about Klonoa is that he has one of the most minimal movesets since Pac-Man. Of all the platforming stars, Banjo, Jak and Rachet rely on arsenals of moves and weapons, Mario's had dozes of wacky items and powerups, and Sonic in recent years has been overshadowed by annoying friends and tedious gimmicks, but Klonoa's basic moveset remains in tact with no major additions. He still shoots wind bullets, catches baddies and tosses them around and yet from this you get some brilliant level design. The only actual item Klonoa gains himself is a sort of diving suit he wears for the water levels.
As opposed to Klonoa for the Wii, this time around instead of just traveling from point A to point B, the levels are set up differently this time around. There are three star keys in each level. These open the door at the end, reach the door without the keys and it won't open and you'll have to backtrack. Thus there's a lot more puzzle solving this time around. A few new items had been added to the stage to help Klonoa as well. There are large flower pots, that when you throw in an enemy, it grows into a vine with the enemy at the top to help reach higher ground. There are switches to make water rise and fall because, like Sonic, Klonoa can't swim. There are enemies that can absorb two or three other enemies which causes them to change color and you have to match said color to a barrier in order to move on so this leads to some perplexing and sometimes frustrating puzzles
There's five worlds, with nine levels in each though you only have to complete seven to move on. Two stages in each level, change the pace. Once involves Klonoa riding a wave board across the water while dodging obstacles and jumping, however the attempts at doing a 3D level design like this on the GBA doesn't work out so well and it's hard to gauge the draw distance at times. The other stage is like the other levels but it scrolls so it's much more linear though I found both of these stages a bit annoying at times. Of course it's easy to just breeze through the game and just beat it, but the extra challenge comes from trying to collect all 30 dream stones as well as all the sun stones to unlock extra goodies as well as this game scores you on levels (similar to 3D Sonic game scoring) so there's the urge to go back and improve your score.
The last stage of each level involves a boss fight but it's set up weird. You don't just fight the boss rather, you're in a forced race with another contender in the Dream Champ Tournament but you can't see them. There's a meter at the top that shows your progress vs. their's and you can occasionall throw a foe into a cannon which will slow your opponent down but all the time this is going on, you're also fighting a boss character and trying to reach the end. It's a bit hectic at times.
Graphically, this game looks good for a GBA game, but nothing spectacular. There's a nice variety of level design and colorful environments as well as nicely done tunes, however none of the music is very memorable and due to the GBA's level of sound quality, Klonoa sounds like he's saying "achoo" instead of "wahoo."
But this game has some flaws that I can't overlook. First of all, the controls aren't as good as they were in the Wiimake. Hit detection is off in places and all too often I'd hit a button to latch onto something and totally miss despite being close enough to it and this is a problem in a game where pinpoint timing in grabbing and shooting is critical. (And I don't think it would compromise the gameplay if Klonoa could grab ledges.) And the water riding stages are a pain if you're trying to collect all the gems because you're constantly missing gems or hitting objects due to the poor draw distance. Also, while the more puzzle based gameplay is a good direction, some get horribly frutrating towards the end and Nagapoko, the little yellow hint guy isn't overly helpful when you're stuck. I'm currently stuck on level 5-5. And then you have the water level where you're wearing the diving suit so you have all those issues plus, the really slow, Matrix-like movement associated with water levels. Why do game companies keep making us do water levels. We hate them.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a good game and worth playing, but it's not without its flaws. It's still worth playing, if like me, you feel in love with Klonoa recently and want to experience all he has too offer, just don't be surprised when there's time you want to pick up Nagapoko and fling him out the window for not offering you any worthwile advice.