N64: Clay Fighter 63 1/3 Review

[retro junkie]

This review is taken from a series of reviews I did a couple of years ago concerning the fighters available for the N64.

The novelty of the humor wears thin very quickly for me. I do get it, the joke, but it is just that, it's over after the first play through for some reason. Maybe it is only me. Now the only question is, is there really a fighting game underneath the surface?

The graphics are goofy, cartoony, and have the look of claymation. The animation matches that idea with a lack of smoothness reflecting a choppiness. Which is what you get with a clay animated cartoon, etc. The fighters do look good and the backgrounds are very detailed, well designed, and creates the proper mood. What you have is a 2D fighting game in a pseudo 3D environment. Some of the illusion of 3D is that you end up fighting behind an object in some of the environments. In some stages you also crash through doors and walls ending up in another room or place. Similar to a Final Fight or Streets of Rage game.



I recommend running through the characters and find one that you can get into and enjoy playing. I found a good fighter that appealed to me, Earthworm Jim. It is always good to find a character that you can become one with in order to get the most out of any fighter. You start with 9 fighters to choose from with 3 unlockables. There are three punch buttons and three kick. That is weak, medium, and hard for both. From that, with the help of the direction button, you piece together combos. You won't use any of the other buttons except for codes.



There are five fighting game modes, cookie, normal, whoa, dude, and psycho. What bugs me about this game is that in cookie and normal modes there seems to be no challenge. I went through both modes without losing a fight. Then when entering whoa the difficulty level is turned up at a surprising notch. And I am not sure if it might not be the opponent which is making it hard. I easily pounded the clown in dude mode, but the bunny hit me like a freight train. A combo of 487 hits?! Come on! Then I just change to a different fighter (Earthworm Jim at this point) and learn a few of his combos and I blow through dude mode like it was nothing. But if your opponent gets the upper hand because you forget your combos, your toast. Once you have this knowledge of the game, it causes me to say that this game becomes too easy in the single player mode. At first, you will spend a lot of time in the normal mode, mainly learning to put together your combos. If you don't, you will not get anywhere beyond the normal game mode. That makes the emphasis of this game totally on combos in single player. And there are throws and even claytalities to learn. The game really has more of a balance to it in two player gameplay.



There are some frustrations I find with this game. I do not like the hopping that I find myself doing, just to get near my opponent. You both end up in a chase across the whole stage. With some of the combo hits you find yourself knocked across the area only with the need to hop back across. In the fighting you sometimes end up behind an object in which you cannot see either fighter. When you beat the game you are only treated to rolling credits. No points awarded, no name save, no nothing other than game over. Well, you are not totally empty handed. It does give you a code to use on the gamepad. I find the highlight of this game is Earthworm Jim as a controllable fighter. That alone makes the game for me. But when it comes to re-playability, once you open up the three fighters and get all the codes, there is no motivation for me, other than using my fighter. If it had the points for rating my fighting, that could have made the game a little deeper. Not sure if this game is for everyone though. And I am referring to the overall package. There is some fun here, but some gamers might not take it seriously as a fighter. What I am saying is that the game itself has a limited appeal. It is an easy pick up and play with no difficulty in learning combos and moves. But two player is where this game has its moments. Consider the single player mode as practice. With all its flaws, I am going to rate this game as, "good game."

[BLUEVOODU]

Great Review - @retro junkie

Clay Fighter was such an odd game.  I remember then playing Clay Fighter 63 1/3 on the Nintendo 64.  At the time, it was noted as one of the "must have" titles.  It by far wasn't my favorite fighter... at the time, I Was still into Samurai Shodown.  I was into Samurai Shodown hard   

We had a lot of fun with the title... but in the end, I was ok not buying it.   It is surprising the game has not been revisited in all these years.   However, Company's aren't trying new formulas as much anymore.   

I completely lost track of this game... thank you for bringing it back Retro... good topic.