Of course, once you play Clockwork Knight, you realize it's not using polygons at all. The game was a regular 2D side-scrolling game that used rendered spites instead, faking the 3D effect. It was certainly an effective trick, and coupled with areas that occasionally took a 90-degree turn, the game took on more of a 2.5-D appearance than anything. There were some polygonal characters thrown into the equation, such as the final boss, which was a giant television with a weakness against... pencils. Now, Clockwork Knight might look quaint to some and messy to others, but in 1995, this was an eye-bleeder. This, and Panzer Dragoon, were the games I used to drive friends crazy.
But, as we learn when we go diving through the games of yesterday, the tangibles sometimes do not hold up as well as memory. Clockwork Knight is indeed one of those games that puts a smile on your face by tapping into nostalgia, but once the initial connection fades, you're left with a very basic platformer that uses its shiny graphics to obscure some very plain game play.
Clockwork Knight certainly has charm on its side. The titular hero, Pepperouchau (Pepper for short), is a pretty cool cat. He looks exactly like a wind-up toy you might find in an antique store in Bavaria. He walks like you imagine a toy soldier really would, and his weapon is a giant key that subs for a sword. (Really, this is the precursor for the Keyblade found in Kingdom Hearts.) Pepper must cross through an entire house to save his lady-friend, Chelsea. She's clockwork princess, the kind of wind-up doll you'd encounter when opening a music box.
The knight is not alone in his adventure. He is helped by his trusty steed, Barobaro. Barobaro is just as charming as Pepper, constructed out of a bottle and some spare basket parts. Sadly, Barobaro is only in the support role in Clockwork Knight. You have to wait until Clockwork Knight 2 to actually ride Barobaro -- which is a key reason the sequel is a superior game. Pepper is also showered with affection by Soltia, a perfume bottle that runs a slot machine game between stages where Pepper can bet bottlecaps collected during missions to win extra lives.
Clockwork Knight's stages are interesting to look at -- they use that little-big-world aesthetic of seeing a room from a toy's point of view. Pepper must cross through a block-filled playroom full of jack-in-the-boxes, a sopping wet sink and blistering stove in the kitchen, and train sets in a den. The platform is not fast-paced. It's deliberate, geared more for precision jumping and plowing through waves of meandering toy enemies. Pepper lunges forward with his key, cranking bad toys to make them pop in an explosion of confetti.
As mentioned above, none of this is risky or innovative. Clockwork Knight repeatedly plays it safe, choosing instead to throw out eye candy at every turn. It's easy to not look behind the curtain in 1995, but in playing the game again, I found myself getting listless. You know that feeling you get when you play a game that is not bad, but not really trying to be great? You can't insult it for being mediocre, but praise would be fleeting. That's Clockwork Knight.
It must be pointed out that Clockwork Knight's soundtrack holds up remarkably well. 1995 was long before games went mainstream, so publishers weren't yet sold on licensed soundtracks or changing quirk. Clockwork Knight's music is goofy and whimsical, full of mischief. It's worth finding and putting on your iPod.
Special thanks to VGMuseum for the Clockwork Knight images.
Verdict
Clockwork Knight is a classic launch title. It's gussied up with features that capitalize on a new system's power, such as polygons or CD-quality audio. But at its core, Clockwork Knight is just a base-level platform that skates too long on the charms of its hero, Pepper. I do hope that the Saturn is resurrected somehow on the current console, maybe on the Virtual Console or the Xbox Live Arcade, but if Pepper is called back into service, his sequel is the one that should be enlisted.
