Klonoa

Managed to finish up Klonoa: Empire of Dreams the other day. (Well, except for a couple of the bonus levels...) It's an interesting little game. I have a soft spot for Klonoa as his games are among the few that my wife really enjoys (this one happens to have been her birthday present). I can buy a Klonoa game for her and it will get played by her. She's struggling with the final boss in the game so she's managed to make it further in this outing than either of the PlayStation games.

This is a GBA game, and while the difficulty level isn't always tweaked for that system, it's safe to say that in this case the difficulty level is a little lighter. And that's not really a bad thing. The bonus levels certainly stretch your platformer reflexes and some of the puzzles in the main game were quite insidious.

There were some odd choices made though. The level design was curious. The two Klonoa games on Sony's systems offered a unique 2.5-D world that you travelled through as you were playing the game. You always had the sense that you were going somewhere. Empire of Dreams offers up strangely circular levels that buck against that trend. More often than not you'll end up exactly where you started. And this negates that feeling that you're going somewhere or progressing through the story. It was an odd feeling in comparison to the other games. It wasn't bad - it highlighted the focus on puzzles that this game focuses on a bit more - but it was occasionally distracting.

The graphics were well done for the GBA's smaller screen and the level goals were in keeping with the other games in the series. Collect a few stars hiddden randomly and collect a lot of gems placed so as to work out your platforming skills. The hoverboard and action levels were particularly twitchy in spite of offering a nice break from the game's main "story" levels. The music was relatively forgettable, but that's almost par for the course in a GBA game.

It cerrtainly provided a lot of enjoyment and a lot of frustration. Which can be a good thing in a platformer. At the $10 I picked it up for it was a great deal. I highly recommend Empire of Dreams to those of you with a GBA and an interest in platform games. If you have a child or spouse that isn't all that into gaming Klonoa may just soften their hearts a bit. Kids will be able to do some of the earlier bits, but you may be asked how to do some of the later levels. I must admit my wife and I helped each other more than once through tough spots.

Wahoo!