When it comes to any genre of video game, there are plenty of different ways you can label specific games to be found within said genre. There is the most popular of the bunch, which is usually the most successful and recognizable out of all of the games in the genre, there’s the direct competitor, which is usually pitted against the most popular game when brought up in conversation, and of course, there are the many, many imitators that exist out there, who try to recapture and replicate what made the most popular product work to begin with, but most of the time, they fall flat on their face. But then, out of all of those, there is an outlier: one who, rather then trying to directly compete with the big boys, they instead aim to make fun of them instead, while also attempting to make a worthwhile product in the process. In terms of the fighting genre from the early 90’s, this game in question would come to be known as ClayFighter.

I myself had never played ClayFighter before, nor any of its sequels, but I have always wanted to, not because I thought it would be the best game ever made, but just because of how goofy it was. This game was made primarily to be a parody of Street Fighter, and you can definitely see it, not just in terms of the goofy character design and art style, but also with several elements that can be found within the game, which makes it more appealing to someone like me, who loves products like this that simply don’t give a shit. So, I decided to give it a shot, and not gonna lie, I actually ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would, and that is mainly due to the art style and goofiness of it all. Would I say it is a good game though? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh… kinda? It is definitely not gonna outshine any of the other fighters that was released around this time, but for what it is, it is fun and silly enough to where I didn’t necessarily care about
any of the problems that it does carry.

The story is about as goofy as you would hope for, where a meteor ends up crashing into this random circus, with the clay-goo from the meteor infecting all of the circus attractions and mutating them into the fighters of the game, and instead of trying to fix themselves or figure out what the hell is going on, they decide to compete for the title of the King of the Circus……….. honestly, it’s a 10/10 premise, nothing more to say. The graphics are… interesting, to say the least, with all of the characters being animated entirely using claymation, with plenty of goofy environments present to also have them fight in, and while it is definitely dated and ugly in several areas, I can’t help but find it more strangely charming rather then hideous, the music is also fitting goofy for the type of game this is, but I can’t really say that it is all that good, as it is mostly just forgettable, the control is what you would expect from a fighter, and it is pretty stiff as a whole, which did kinda drag this down, but I wouldn’t say it ruined the game for me, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect from this type of game, limited only to its basic functions, which may or may not be bad depending on who you ask.

The game is a 2D fighter, where you take control of one eight different goofy fighters, take on many different opponents throughout plenty of different environments throughout the land, throw out plenty of kicks, punches, and special attacks against opponents to drain their health to zero, properly defend yourself whenever your opponent manages to get the upper hand on you, and stand out on top amongst the rest as the best piece of living clay to have ever roamed the Earth. As a whole, it is all pretty basic, which does kinda suck, as I will get into later, but there are several things that definitely makes up for this (for the most part): the presentation and characters.

This game tries to be more humorous rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say it is flat out hilarious, or even all too funny, I would say that it was funny and goofy enough to where it definitely worked out in that regard. Most of this comes from the characters that you play as and fight throughout the game, which are some of the goofiest characters that I have ever seen in any fighting game. The main character is literally just Frosty the Snowman if he was an asshole, which is who I stuck to playing as the whole time, and as for all of the opponents, you have this crazy-ass clown who I love to beat the fuck out of, an spooky ghost with a pumpkin on his head, an opera singer dressed up like a viking, an Elvis impersonator that didn’t die on the toilet, and even just a blob with eyeballs. Sure, they aren’t the most bizarre characters you could see in a video game, but all of them being put together in this one game just makes it that much more appealing, in the most “what-the-fuck” way it could. Hell, even the final boss of the game is goofy as hell, with him not only being named “N. Boss”, but with him also being a circle made of gray balls with eyes. Again, how can you not love that?

If you don’t end up loving that though, then there isn’t really much else here for you to love instead. This is the most basic type of fighting game that you can find, with you just fighting many different opponents all in a row, taking on a final boss, and then that’s where the game ends. Literally, it just ends, there’s no ending sequence for each of the characters, it just cuts to credits, which does kinda suck. Not to mention, there are no additional bonus stages, other unique modes, cutscenes, or anything of the sort, which does make it less appealing to choose over any other fighter of the time. Also, there are times where you will have to refight opponents, and you all know how much I LOVE doing that in video games. In addition to this, the fighting itself isn’t necessarily the best. Yes, it does function, and it is certainly better then, say, Doomsday Warrior, but it does feel pretty stiff, and there aren’t any flashy combos or unique special moves that you can pull off that would make it stand out. Really, the only thing that the game has going for it is, again, the goofy characters you play as and the silly environments you fight in, which does work for me, but I can definitely see how it wouldn’t for many others.

Overall, despite how bare-bones, clunky, and basic the game as a whole is, I did end up really liking ClayFighter at the end of the day, primarily because of the silly nature of the game, and the unique presentation that you don’t particularly see from games of this era, making it a good enough game in my eyes. I will probably never play it again after this, but I am glad that I decided to check it out after all this time, and I do look forward to playing the sequels at some point in the future. I would recommend it for those who enjoy 2D fighters, as well as those who just enjoy laughing at stupid shit, because one way or another, this could definitely be stupid enough to satisfy your tastes. Before I go through, I would like to briefly go over the Tournament Edition of this game, as I won’t be doing a separate review for that one. This is basically an updated version of the game that fixes several glitches present in the main game, as well as adding several new features like more options, more versus mode, and more stage backgrounds. It is basically a better version of this game, but it doesn’t add quite enough to make me wanna cover it in a separate review. Besides, after covering fifty different versions of Street Fighter II at this point, I need a break from fighting game updates as is.

Game #475