It had been a while since I played Claw all the way through, so I grabbed the most recent download from CaptainClaw.net (the game is abandonware, download the first and third listed files if you want to try it out) and plowed through it over the weekend. I kept thinking, “Wow, this really holds up! What a masterpiece!”
…and then I hit the 12th level.
I remembered that I had never made it past that 12th stage without using cheats as a kid, but I was confident that this time I could make it through the way the devs had intended.
GUESS WHAT!
NO!
For as long as I can remember, I've considered Claw to be one of my all-time favorites, but this replay made me see its issues a bit more clearly. The levels are still absolutely stunning, with the hand-drawn 2D backgrounds and sprites being some of the best of any game in the 90s. The variety in the areas is top-notch, with the cats vs. dogs, pirates vs. navy theme being portrayed in plentiful and charming ways throughout the game’s runtime. The powerups are still tons of fun to use, collecting treasure is enjoyable in and of itself, and the enemies and bosses are solid and memorable. Beyond all the praise I've lavished on Claw since 1997, there were two main sticking points that I had this time, one small and one huge.
First, the nitpicky realization: There is a vast gulf between the quality of the good voice acting and the bad, and I hadn’t really noticed when I was young. What’s weird is that every voiced enemy you encounter in the levels themselves is fantastic! From the sword-wielding Dobermans to the narcissistic Mercats (“Well, I’m no longer among the living, am I?”), there’s so much impressive dialogue during gameplay. The title character Captain Nathaniel J. Claw is especially well-portrayed, especially for a 90s video game. But the boss fights and cutscenes somehow have a 50/50 chance of maintaining that high standard. You might hear professional voice actors, or you might see a wonderfully animated character open their mouth only to hear the tired mumblings of one of the devs. This scene between Captain Claw and his nemesis Red Tail is particularly bad, with Red Tail being played by one of the sound designers. Really seems like they ran out of budget at some point and had to use some people around the office for the last few voices.
The second issue is the one that’s a legitimate problem. Claw isn’t the easiest game. It was clearly designed with challenge in mind, and it can be a struggle to make it through some levels without running out of lives, but it’s always doable without being frustrating… up to a point. When the 12th of 14 stages arrives, there is a STEEP difficulty spike. The first 11 levels all felt fair, but the final 3 are full of cheap deaths and platforming segments that feel like a bullet hell shooter. The falling stalactites in level 12 are seemingly unavoidable at times, and each of these final 3 areas will abuse their tendency of putting hazards beyond the screen limits where you can’t see them. Increasing screen resolution does help alleviate this issue, but for some reason you can only do this with a cheat code. (I’ll list the important cheats at the bottom of the review) In any case, levels 12-14 are a significant challenge even if you turn God Mode on, so don’t feel bad about typing that code in so that you can make it to the end, especially when it comes to the bosses of levels 12 and 14. That tentacle boss fight is pure hax.
I still love Claw a lot. It’s a beautiful, engrossing 2D platformer from an era when those were going out of style, and I firmly believe more people should play it. However, this playthrough did drop it from my 5/5 list because I can’t really justify the unbalanced masochism of the last three stages.
But it’s free and it’s still a great time, if you've got a PC, give it a try!
CRUCIAL CHEAT CODES FOR THE LAST THREE LEVELS:
MPKFA: God Mode (Unlimited health, lives, and ammo)
MPINCVID: Increases resolution
MPDECVID: Decreases resolution (use if you zoomed out too far)
MPVADER: 30 seconds of invincibility, stacks with repeated entry
MPHOTSTUFF: Fire Sword
MPPENGUIN: Frost Sword
…and then I hit the 12th level.
I remembered that I had never made it past that 12th stage without using cheats as a kid, but I was confident that this time I could make it through the way the devs had intended.
GUESS WHAT!
NO!
For as long as I can remember, I've considered Claw to be one of my all-time favorites, but this replay made me see its issues a bit more clearly. The levels are still absolutely stunning, with the hand-drawn 2D backgrounds and sprites being some of the best of any game in the 90s. The variety in the areas is top-notch, with the cats vs. dogs, pirates vs. navy theme being portrayed in plentiful and charming ways throughout the game’s runtime. The powerups are still tons of fun to use, collecting treasure is enjoyable in and of itself, and the enemies and bosses are solid and memorable. Beyond all the praise I've lavished on Claw since 1997, there were two main sticking points that I had this time, one small and one huge.
First, the nitpicky realization: There is a vast gulf between the quality of the good voice acting and the bad, and I hadn’t really noticed when I was young. What’s weird is that every voiced enemy you encounter in the levels themselves is fantastic! From the sword-wielding Dobermans to the narcissistic Mercats (“Well, I’m no longer among the living, am I?”), there’s so much impressive dialogue during gameplay. The title character Captain Nathaniel J. Claw is especially well-portrayed, especially for a 90s video game. But the boss fights and cutscenes somehow have a 50/50 chance of maintaining that high standard. You might hear professional voice actors, or you might see a wonderfully animated character open their mouth only to hear the tired mumblings of one of the devs. This scene between Captain Claw and his nemesis Red Tail is particularly bad, with Red Tail being played by one of the sound designers. Really seems like they ran out of budget at some point and had to use some people around the office for the last few voices.
The second issue is the one that’s a legitimate problem. Claw isn’t the easiest game. It was clearly designed with challenge in mind, and it can be a struggle to make it through some levels without running out of lives, but it’s always doable without being frustrating… up to a point. When the 12th of 14 stages arrives, there is a STEEP difficulty spike. The first 11 levels all felt fair, but the final 3 are full of cheap deaths and platforming segments that feel like a bullet hell shooter. The falling stalactites in level 12 are seemingly unavoidable at times, and each of these final 3 areas will abuse their tendency of putting hazards beyond the screen limits where you can’t see them. Increasing screen resolution does help alleviate this issue, but for some reason you can only do this with a cheat code. (I’ll list the important cheats at the bottom of the review) In any case, levels 12-14 are a significant challenge even if you turn God Mode on, so don’t feel bad about typing that code in so that you can make it to the end, especially when it comes to the bosses of levels 12 and 14. That tentacle boss fight is pure hax.
I still love Claw a lot. It’s a beautiful, engrossing 2D platformer from an era when those were going out of style, and I firmly believe more people should play it. However, this playthrough did drop it from my 5/5 list because I can’t really justify the unbalanced masochism of the last three stages.
But it’s free and it’s still a great time, if you've got a PC, give it a try!
CRUCIAL CHEAT CODES FOR THE LAST THREE LEVELS:
MPKFA: God Mode (Unlimited health, lives, and ammo)
MPINCVID: Increases resolution
MPDECVID: Decreases resolution (use if you zoomed out too far)
MPVADER: 30 seconds of invincibility, stacks with repeated entry
MPHOTSTUFF: Fire Sword
MPPENGUIN: Frost Sword
Nilichi
1 month ago