Kid Klown in Crazy Chase
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Kid Klown in Crazy Chase | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
"We'll meet again, Kid!" - Blackjack
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Kid Klown in Crazy Chase (キッドクラウンのクレイジーチェイス, Kiddo Kuraun no Kureijī Cheisu) is a platform video game developed and published by Kemco for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released on September 1994 in North America, October 21, 1994 in Japan, and February 1995 in Europe.
Gameplay
Players control the player character Kid Klown as he attempts to rescue Princess Honey from the villain Black Jack. The game's graphics are presented in an isometric view as Kid Klown automatically moves down a path to thwart Black Jack's plans of blowing up one of his spade bombs in each level. Various obstacles cause Kid Klown to slow down if they collide with him; if Kid Klown does not make it to the bomb in time or if he is hit too many times, the level is lost. The game consists of 5 stages. In each stage, Kid Klown must find all 4 card suit orbs and stop the bomb to complete the level. At the end of each stage Kid Klown gets a key which in turn at the ending could be of use to unlock Honey's cage. If the player gets all 4 orbs in the very first turn, Kid Klown also gets a Honey heart. After the fifth stage Kid Klown must find the correct lock out of the 10 locks to unlock Honey's cage.
Bad Qualities
- The controls are sluggish, mainly because when you're holding the down button to finish through the levels, because you crash with things very easy, slow speed can make it difficult to turn off the bombs in time, but if you go fast there's a good chance you'll get hit more often and at the same time you can't get some collectibles.
- As is the case with a lot of isometric games, the isometric appearance can make depth and distances hard to judge. This is a particularly irritating problem in a platformer, where precision jumps are the name of the game. It can be hard to judge and time your jumps well and all too often you will end up plunging into a pit, taking damage and wasting valuable time.
- The amount of obstacles that get in your way per stage is frankly unpleasant, whether it be dodging cannon fire between bushes, jumping over pits while wooden logs chase your character, or hopping over lava pits as fire projectiles leap towards you on a narrow overpass.
- There are many instances where you won't even know when a threat is coming, meaning your first few Crazy Chase sessions are going to be infuriating. The second stage alone is a prime example, as you'll be slammed into a wall by a sudden gush of water from a fire hydrant, crushed by car wheels spontaneously rolling out from fences, and smacked by manhole covers that also move if you try walking around.
- The system of having to collect the four playing-card suit symbols is made tricky by the fact that Kid Klown can only run down through the level. You can't backtrack at all, so if you miss a balloon, it's gone. It's not much of a problem if the balloon only contains a coin, but if you happen to skip a balloon containing one of the card symbols (which you almost certainly will at some point thanks to the awkward isometric view) you better get ready to play through the whole level again.
- Watching Kid Klown get hurt in different ways at first is hilariously but then it becomes frustrating to see the damage animations because most are unnecessarily long and it takes too long to take back control of Kid Klown, because you get hurt very often, this becomes more frustrating than fun, because you have to turn off the bombs in the shortest time possible and collect the collectibles, you really have not much time left after hitting you with things often.
- In the SNES version, There are only 5 levels, after getting used to the levels, the game can be completed in half an hour, which is disappointing considering the price of the game, plus a phase can be finished in 3 minutes, this is because the player has to completely pass all levels, but there just isn't much variety of levels.
- Hilariously, if you complete the game, your "reward" is Hard Mode, which features a faster fuse and more aggressive hazards, but it's unnecessary, because the game itself is hard enough to beat.
- The fourth stage is the worst phase of the game:
- The controls are quite slippery due to the ice mechanics, which causes you to fall off the platform very often and take away a considerable amount of health.
- You're introduced to too many platforming elements then you have to be too precise to time properly, if you're not accurate enough, you'll lose unfairly.
- There are quite a few enemies and ice cubes that will hinder your path, due to the slippery ice mechanics most obstacles are harder to dodge than normal, and because of this you will lose a lot of health.
- Due to the problems mentioned above, it is the most difficult phase to get the collectibles.
- Throughout each stage are four hidden symbols, you have to have all four of them by the end of the stage to move on to the next stage, if you're missing even just one of them Kid Klown runs all the way back up to the beginning, Blackjack sets another bomb and you have to do everything again.
- In the end you must rescue Princess Honey of his cage using the five keys you have collected, then there are 10 locks, only one lock is the correct, if you don't pick the right one, a bomb explodes all over Princess Honey and you end up with the bad ending, so you have to pass the game again to be able to choose the right lock and get the neutral ending if you used a continue, so you must play perfectly to get the good ending.
Good Qualities
- The technical section is very good. Graphically, it stands out mainly for the Kid sprite, which is very well done, has many very funny animations (and also well animated) and is very expressive.
- On the other hand, the isometric scenarios are very striking, since they are varied, detailed, colorful and very well acclimated.
- As mentioned above, damage animations are very good. They are hilarious and very well-animated, but they take a lot of time away from you.
- There are numerous very pleasant and sympathetic melodies, in keeping with the casual style of the game, and the same can be said about the sound effects, which are of good quality and typical of a platform game.
- The Game Boy Advance port has 11 new levels, 4 unlockable mini-games and multiplayer mode. Also, the multiplayer can be fun.
Reception
Kid Klown in Crazy Chase received mixed reception. It holds an aggregate score of 64.17% on GameRankings based on three reviews. Nintendo Power gave it a 3.375 out of 5. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a 7.6 out of 10, summarizing that "this one requires a lot of skill and technique, but the various antics and animations (especially on Kidd's enemy) are incredibly lifelike and make this one of the better games around." Nintendo Life's Andrew Donaldson commented that while not a bad game, there's no reason to play it due to a lack of levels and an abundance of games that do what it does better.
The Game Boy Advance version was met with similar reception. Nintendo Power gave it a 3.2 out of 5, lower than the Super NES version's score. They gave specific criticism to the early build of Crazy Chase due to the stiff controls and delayed jump. They also criticized the animation for being less fluid than the SNES version.
Trivia
- Kid Klown was the main mascot of both Tong King Show and Kemco in early 2000s, he appeared in the Kemco website until late 2000s.
- Kid Klown also appeared briefly in the German Club Nintendo magazine comic "Warios Weihnachtsmärchen". In this story, Kid Klown visits Wario's bomb shop, looking for a "surprise bomb". Wario grabs Kirby, who is also in his shop, paints him black and delivers him to his client. Kid goes home contentedly, but soon realizes that it is Kirby who Wario claimed to be the surprise bomb. Both Kid and Kirby are very angry at Wario and can be seen playing darts with a target depicting Wario's face when Wario visits them with the Ghost of Present. By the end of the story, however, Wario gives some cookies to them as an apology, and Kid and Kirby can be seen enjoying them.
- The Game Boy Advance port never released in Japan during the Japanese version development, which the Japanese version was almost finished. However, it was canceled before the release of Japanese version, the game also featured at Tokyo Game Show.
Videos
Comments
Loading comments...