Klonoa: Empire of Dreams is just a better Moonlight Museum. It has the same format, design philosophy, and shares a lot of similar mechanics. the only difference this time around is that the level design is a lot more varied and there is a lot less fluff.

Empire of Dreams introduces two new types of stages to the handheld series; those being the surfboard stages from Klonoa 2, and brand new auto scrolling levels. The surfboard stages are fast and hectic. They're genuenly the hardest levels to grab all gems in, with the later ones taking me multiple tries to get down. The auto scroller levels are strange. they're designed in a very similar way to the levels in the original PS1 game, making them easily my favourite. but the forced scroll speed ruins it. If these stages were reworked to be time trial stages instead, they'd easily be the best part of the game. we even get a taste of that in the first EX mission, which is basically an auto-scroller level that you tackle at your own pace.

I believe Klonoa's gameplay is at it's best when you're platforming over parreless pits and using the items in fun and creative ways. This is something that the console games focus primarily on, but the handheld games don't (at least so far) I understand that these games are trying to be more so their own thing rather than an appropriation of what the main numbered games are going for, but it's hard to separate that preference. That's not to say that this game isn't worth playing because it is a lot of fun. The last world is especially a great time since it asks you to use enemies in ways that haven't been attempted in the series up until now.

Empire of Dreams is a fun side episode that you can knock out in an afternoon. It never feels like it overstays it's welcome but at the same time, lacks the ambition of the console games, which is understandable even if a little disappointing. Give it a shot if you liked what you played of the main games and wanted to get a slightly different spin on the core mechanics.