Kid Klown in Crazy Chase was released in the height of the whole ‘mascots with attitude’ phase that plagued the industry, but it’s one of the rare platformers that doesn’t adhere to it. Instead of going with an animal with sunglasses thrown on it you instead play as a clown. I’m not talking about a super cool clown either; it’s a clumsy pie in the face kind of painted face goon. This release has by and large been completely forgotten about as it was overshadowed by the more popular (and honestly, better) side scrollers of it’s day, but for some reason I was a bit intrigued and wanted to track down a copy. The game is as goofy as it sounds for better or worse, but it’s just not that fun to play. It’s pretty clear why Kid Klown never became a household name.
Strap yourself in because you’re in for one weird ride. This game takes place in a kingdom in outerspace wherein a clown king rules benevolantly. An evil joker one day kidnaps the princess and offers to return her only if the throne is surrendered. This is where Kid Klown comes in. He’s not the bravest, smartest or strongest in the kingdom, but his clumsiness is seen as an asset and so he’s chosen as one to save the royal family. This is all told through an introduction sequence complete with still drawings and text. It’s actually really well done to be honest; much more than I would have expected for a platforming game centered around a clown.
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| This perfectly sets the tone for the game. |
Kid Klown is anything but traditional. It attempted to buck the trends of platforming games from this time period by doing a few major things differently. First of all, Kid Klown is viewed from an isometric perspective instead of a side view. This means that platforming is actually a lot harder because it’s tough to judge distances, but thankfully that’s not an emphasis in this title so you won’t really need to worry too much about that. Secondly, the scrolling is forced meaning your character moves automatically in the stage while you guide him to avoid obstacles. You can make Kid run faster, and you’ll often need to, because there’s a time limit. Rather than a simple countdown you must instead beat a burning fuse to a bomb located at the very end of each stage. You have to give the unorthodox conventions due credit, but to be honest traditional efforts just work better.
So what does Kid Klown do exactly? Clown stuff, that’s what. He can run and jump, but that’s pretty much it. You have a bar indicating your hit points at the top of the screen, and this depletes as you take damage. This is where the whole ‘clown’ angle comes in to play. Kid Klown is never in any real danger and instead loses hit points when he slips on banana peels, gets snapped by his pants which get stuck on foliage, steps on spikes coming out of the ground, etc. Some of these antics managed to get a smile out of me, and the animations for these sequences are full of character and charm. When you lose all your hit points you lose a life and must continue. When these run out it’s game over. Completing a stage isn’t as straightforward as getting to the end however.
You see, your goal in each level is to not only get to the end of each stage but also to find the four card symbols hidden within. These are stored in balloons that you must jump to grab the string of at which point you’re awarded its contents. Within these you will also find coins and traps so it’s not as straightforward as opening all four because there are far more than that. Unfortunately the game doesn’t really indicate this to you, and it took me a few times of replaying the first stage to figure it out. This is an annoying pre-requisite, and it only serves to make Kid Klown even more mundane than it already was. It’s clear to see why the developers added in this annoying objective; the game is only five levels long. Veteran gamers will be able to complete it in around twenty minutes. Imagine spending upwards of sixty dollars on a game that doesn’t even keep you busy longer than an episode of a television show. There are multiple difficulty modes and even endings, but there really isn’t enough worthwhile content in this package.
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| The isometric perspective is not conducive to good platforming. |
Despite its issues Kid Klown in Crazy Chase is actually a really good looking game for the platform. The isometric perspective gives everything a pseudo three dimensional appearance and the artists did a great job with pretty much all of the character/obstacle designs. As I mentioned earlier in this review the animations are pretty well done. They use a significant number of frames for something as mundane as the protagonist being flattened by a falling log. What’s more is the general art style is appealing and distinct from just about every other game. The still images used to convey the story look amazing for the hardware, and I was truly impressed with how well they were drawn. If there’s one complaint I have it’s that the stages themselves are a little boring. You have a forest, mountain, town, ice stage etc. These all look as imaginative as they sound. The soundtrack is largely forgettable with distinguishable bleeps and blips and it’s overall too goofy for its own good.
