A platforming dream come true... again?

1998. That would be eleven years ago in case you aren’t keeping track—feeling old yet? That’s also the year we witnessed the introduction of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for the Sony PlayStation here in North America. The original game was heralded by many as one of the best sleeper-hit platformers of the PSX age, praised in large part for its inventive “2.5-D” gameplay which saw players wrapping around corners on a seamless 2-D plane thanks to a very active camera, but then shortly thereafter jumping onto a branching path leading someplace far into the background. When this Wii remake was announced, the nostalgia was thick amongst fans of the PSX cult classic.

I’m not one of those people. Having never played the original Door to Phantomile, I’ve got no rose-colored nostalgia holding me back from an honest, modernized opinion here. I also happen to be an enormous platforming fan—so this stuff is right up my alley, and I’ve got plenty of benchmarks against which I can judge its mechanics. Thus, if you’re among the many Wii gamers giving this game a look, but you aren’t sure what to believe about how competent it actually is as a modern platforming title, maybe I can help to shed some light on the situation for you. Let’s get started.

Gorgeous? Not really. Attractive? Absolutely.

An Updated Klassic – Wahoo!

Phantomile is a world of dreams, formed by the imaginations of those who are sleeping, whose rampant thoughts coalesce within the fabled Moon Kingdom. Elsewhere in this world, a young boy—Klonoa—has awoken from a dream which mysteriously foretells of a nightmarish transitioning. As the events begin to transpire just as he witnessed them in his thoughts, he ventures to investigate and eventually finds himself at the center of a frightening development: the evil Lord Ghadius and his accomplice, Joker, have plotted to kidnap the songstress Lephise and destroy the land of dreams for their own selfish reasons.

Wait, what? Yeah—it’s a classic platformer storyline, though it clearly strives to be more. You get a colorful cast of sometimes-annoying characters (including the single most pointless sidekick ever: a floating orb—or “ring spirit”—called Hewpoe), a decent storyline, and a number of supporting cut scenes. Presentationally, the newly-recorded English voice acting is pretty grating at times, though it is nice to have spoken word instead of waterfalls of text. The cut scenes themselves aren’t agonizing in length and truly the storyline merely serves as an aside to a compelling collection of puzzle/platforming ideas.

To that end, Klonoa is essentially the same game as the PSX original with a fresh coat of paint (graphically the game is quite good), the aforementioned English voice acting (meh), some (small) new areas and play modes, and some presentational changes (cut scenes are now rendered in real-time, and look great, by the way). In terms of controls, you’ve got several options at your disposal: horizontal Wii remote, Wii-mote + nunchuk, Classic Controller, or GameCube controller. For my purposes, I chose to stick with what worked for me in Mega Man 9 and Wario Land: Shake It: the horizontal Wii remote. The controls are simple; the D-pad moves, 2 jumps (hold it to float), and 1 attacks using a little ping-pong projectile. You can also apparently shake the Wii remote to activate a whirlwind attack, though I actually never used this attack throughout my entire time with the game (and that’s probably just as well, as it apparently wasn’t even a part of the original PSX title).

A fairly kiddish commercial... but hey, it's gameplay

And that’s where things get interesting. Attacking enemies with your projectile actually reels them in and allows you to hold them over your head. At this point, Klonoa can either chuck the enemy in a direction of his choice (even toward or away from the screen—a mechanic which is exercised frequently with switches and power-ups) or toss them downward to produce a “double-jump” that allows him to reach extra height. On top of that, while the game is clearly a side-scrolling venture, there are in fact branching paths which never fail to lead you in an entirely different direction, oftentimes wrapping back around to meet the beaten path after providing you with a certain hidden collectible as your reward. Klonoa uses the combination of these simple mechanics to produce a unique puzzle-infused experience that feels different enough from any other platformer out there still today. Simple gameplay, yes—but as with most true classics, this basic, intuitive formula is expanded upon elegantly to produce myriad different increasingly-challenging permutations.

The game is broken up into 14 different levels (or “visions”, including one which is unlockable). In a refreshing break from many lesser-known platformers, each level is entirely different from all the rest… and this undying sense of variety is actually one of Klonoa’s greatest strengths. Throughout the tragically short 4—6 hour experience, you’ll find gameplay comprised of moving lifts, springboards, disappearing platforms, and all sorts of other familiar (and beloved) elements of platforming yore, all coupled with some interesting new ideas based on the enemy-grabbing mechanics. In the later stages, the game is at least somewhat challenging, though hardcore platformer fans might be a bit disappointed—well, unless you are dead set on completing even the newly-added segments (SPOILERS: available once you complete the regular game, hidden throughout mirrored versions of the original levels). If that’s the case, you’d better have the patience for some thoroughly unforgiving enemy-jumping-over-one-hit-kills-lava or you’ll never make it through.

Of course, there are some drawbacks, too. For starters, the game’s audio is pretty substandard; the MIDI music doesn’t hold up quite so well, and the new English voice acting is more annoying than anything else. In terms of gameplay, the multi-plane 2.5-D platforming and the constantly-moving camera can occasionally make it difficult to tell where precisely Klonoa is positioned with respect to his surroundings (though this is fairly uncommon). The game’s also quite short (even by platformer standards), so don’t expect a long-lasting experience. Sure, there’s more to do than simply beat every level, but even collecting all of the pick-ups and unlocking the final level doesn’t take all that long—so the experience isn’t likely to last much more than several hours total, even if you’re planning on playing through the unlockable stuff.

2.5-D done (mostly) right.

Remember that thing called “fun”?

But most importantly, Klonoa gets it right where it really matters: in the department of fun. Watching the camera whisk around obstacles and rotate freely as you move left and right through the worlds is an enjoyable task, any way you slice it (and thanks to the new textures and beautiful 60 frames-per-second widescreen engine, it’s pretty attractive, too). Scooping up enemies and tossing them around is also addictive and easy to get the hang of. A sporadic assortment of gameplay-changing “interludes” throughout the levels (such as mine cart rides, water sliding, and so on) and a few pretty creative boss battles help to keep the experience fresh and entertaining (though it’s hard to ignore the fact that it’s aged).

In spite of its attractive new visual facelift, the game isn’t the most technically amazing piece of software around these days—but rather than dazzling via presentation, it does a good job of providing a constantly-changing, healthy array of activities at an intelligent pace. There’s a fairly respectable dose of challenge in the later stages, and the environments are interesting and varied. It’s the product of a time when games still relied primarily on fun and innovation to define themselves—something we’re seeing less and less of these days. And because of its strength in that area, it’s a fine pick for an updated release.