Posts Tagged ‘klonoa’
Podcast: Klonoa Door to Phantomile Game Club
This week Fred and Jam discuss the action platformer Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. Released by Namco in 1998, this was really a 2D side-scrolling title releasing when the industry had moved to 3D, but that doesn’t hinder its ability to be a fun and enchanting experience. As always, our hosts (along with chat) delve into the development, concepts, and gameplay.
Podcast: Top Scores, Volume 4
Wow, another year and another fantastic episode of game soundtracks. This year GH101 was delighted to get so many listener submissions that it amassed over 30 songs and nearly two and a half hours! You can find the full playlist at the bottom of this post.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile Review
Some titles just never seem to fair well in the West. Klonoa is a cute cuddly anthropomorphic animal, he kinda looks like he’s a cross between a dog, a cat and maybe a rabbit. In Japan this cute fella was incredibly popular and his Playstation game rocketed to the top of the charts for sales. Then Klonoa made his happy debut in the West and things just didn’t seem to fair well for the poor guy. The problem you see is we are horrible people over here in the West. Gamers here are hungry for blood like vicious hyenas, and that’s why games like Tomb Raider did well. If we have a platformer it better have attitude like Crash Bandicoot or be in 3D like Spyro the Dragon. Klonona failed to perform well and in turn the game become very rare and sought after to Playstation collectors in the West. I was lucky enough to rent this game back in 1998. Fortunately with the power of PSN, I was able to download the game to my PSP and see what this cuddly adventure has to offer and what we folk in the West failed to see.
Podcast: Genre Study – Platformers (Part 2)
This week Fred and Jam wrap up the platformer genre study. They start with analysis the 16-bit era, which many consider to be the pinnacle of 2D platforming, and then move on to 3D. 3D platformers were an interesting impasse in that they marked the future of game technology and design while also making way for a strong batch of platformers that refused the third dimension.
Gaming History 101 