Klonoa (2008 video game)

Klonoa carrying an inflated enemy in the game's first level.

Klonoa is a side-scrolling platform video game, serving as a remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. The player controls the protagonist Klonoa through each of the game's stages; these are presented in a 2.5D perspective, with gameplay itself taking place within a 2D plane. Klonoa can use a large ring called the "Wind Bullet" to grab enemies, who become inflated and can be used as either a projectile weapon or as an extra jump boost tor each higher places. Inflated enemies can also be thrown into either the foreground or the background. Some stages end with a boss, which take place within either 2D planes or large, circular 3D arenas.

The remake contains several features not present in the original. The player can access "flipped" versions of each stage, which mirrors the game horizontally and gives Klonoa six extra hit points instead of three; these flipped stages host a secret, harder version of them that can be found through exploration.[2] The player can also unlock several costumes for Klonoa.[2] By using the Wii Remote the player can use a special spin-attack to defeat enemies,[2] as well as being able to change the voices into English instead of the default "gibberish" language.[2]

In 2005, Namco merged with Bandai to form Bandai Namco Holdings, the third-largest video game entity in Japan. Shin Unozawa, the vice president of Namco Bandai Games, expressed interest in reviving the Klonoa series due to its large, enthusiastic fan community.[3] In acknowledgement of the series' impending 10-year anniversary, Namco Bandai decided that a remake of the original would be the best approach, and would help determine if the series would be suitable for a proper revival if it was successful. The Wii was chosen as the platform to develop it for as the company felt it had a wide appeal, which it felt fulfilled the original's premise of appealing to both younger and older players.[4]

Klonoa's character redesign (left) and Klonoa's proposed North American redesign (right)

The game itself was developed by Japanese studio Paon. Leading production was producer Hideo Yoshizawa, the director of the original Door to Phantomile; assisting him were members of the former Klonoa Works development studio, including chief planner Tsuyoshi Kobayashi, Yoshihiko Arai, and sound designer Kanako Kakino.[3][4] Yoshizawa also recruited fans of the series within the company to work on the game.[3] The hardware capabilities of the Wii allowed Yoshizawa and the development staff to make Klonoa world closer to their original idea when they were working on the PlayStation original, namely the addition of transparent water, shadows from trees, and sunlight.[3] Many other additions were made to the gameplay to make more intuitive and easier to control, such as the speed at which Klonoa runs, the length of his attack, modified enemy hitboxes and the addition of a spin attack.[4] The levels were also slightly altered to make them more "playful", such as different enemy placements and less-rounded level geometry.[3] The addition of the flipped levels and unlockable costumes were designed to appeal to hardcore fans of the genre.[4][5] The game was also given proper voice acting; the Japanese version features Kumiko Watanabe as Klonoa, Akemi Kanda as Huepow, Yuko Minaguchi as Lephise, and Bin Shimada as Joka.[6] The in-game cutscenes were remastered with cel-shaded animation, an idea borrowed from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.[7]

Klonoa was unveiled at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, and released in Japan on December 4.[8] On January 9, 2009, Namco Bandai Games announced that the game would see an international release.[9] For the North American version, Namco Bandai proposed a redesign of Klonoa specifically for this release; Yoshizawa felt that the original design for the character was somewhat "old-fashioned" and would be seen as "too cute" for Western audiences.[3] This design was met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction from both fans and critics for its "depressing" and unappealing design,[10] with one comparing it unfavorably to Poochie, a character from The Simpsons created as an necessary change to a television show and who embodies the idea of "jumping the shark".[11] Namco Bandai scrapped the redesign and kept Klonoa's original design for the North American version.[3] Namco Bandai also made further changes to the North American release, such as omitting the Door to Phantomile subtitle from the Japanese version and adding a new "whirlwind" attack that slows down any nearby enemies.[4][3] Klonoa was released in North America on May 2, 2009, and in Europe on May 22.

The game received mostly positive reviews from critics, earning a 77 out of 100 rating from Metacritic.[12] The title experienced low sales in Japan, however, debuting as the 33rd highest-selling game in the region during its first week with only 5,800 copies sold.[25]

Reviews of the gameplay have been mixed. Weekly Famitsu felt that the game was overall enjoyable, awarding it a 36 out of 40 score and a Platinum Award, but criticised it for a lack of freshness.[26] The magazine also felt that the graphics had "evolved significantly",[26] sentiments echoed by Kotaku, who also praised its gameplay while criticizing the game's overall simplicity, calling it a "fairly stock platformer".[27] GameSpot also felt the game was enjoyable, but criticised the game for being linear and easy.[28] GameSpot praised the game for a large amount of detail, and called the environment "bright and colorful".[28] IGN similarly praised the colours of the game, calling it "visually impressive" due to its "lush water palette" and "great water effects".[29] 1UP.com compared the graphics to those of the original game's successor, Klonoa 2,[30] and would later include the title in their list of the "Six Obscure Wii Games You Must Play".[31] Editors of Nintendo Power named Klonoa as one of the 30 "Wii Essentials" in June 2012,[32] and later ranked it as the 63rd greatest game ever released for a Nintendo console in their farewell issue the following December.[33] GamesRadar placed the game 38th on its own list of the Top 50 Wii games in 2013.[34]

• Official website (in Japanese)