{"id":18916,"date":"2019-04-03T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T00:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18916"},"modified":"2019-03-18T09:49:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T09:49:41","slug":"claybook-switch-ps4-xbox-one-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/03\/claybook-switch-ps4-xbox-one-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Claybook (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve always had a passing interest in stop motion and clay animation.\u00a0 In fact, one time in college I took a day-long just-for-fun clay animation class.\u00a0 It took us a whole day to make a few seconds of very choppy clay animation, so I have new respect for the folks who do that for a living!\u00a0 So I won\u2019t pass up a chance to review a game that looks like it\u2019s made entirely out of clay.\u00a0 Claybook is a 3-D puzzle platformer where everything looks like it\u2019s made of Play-Doh.\u00a0 It\u2019s available on nearly all current game consoles, but reviewed on Switch here.<\/p>\n

Normally I don\u2019t do this, but I\u2019m going to start the review by commenting on how remarkable the graphics are.\u00a0 Not only does everything look like it\u2019s made from clay, but everything is squishy and malleable as well.\u00a0 Everywhere you roll, you\u2019ll make imprints, and the longer you stay in one place, the deeper the imprint will be.\u00a0 It even takes some getting used to just to look at it!\u00a0 Also, clay \u2018water\u2019 is even more malleable than regular clay.\u00a0 And you know how when you play with Play-Doh, and you mix two colors together and bits stay stuck together on another color even when you pull them apart?\u00a0 Well they do that in the game, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a really neat effect!<\/p>\n

Anyway, you play as a round lump of clay and roll around mazes like Marble Madness or Super Monkey Ball.\u00a0 As you roll, you\u2019ll have goals you need to reach.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s getting to a certain spot, and sometimes you must empty a bin full of clay water, \u2018eat\u2019 all the clay chocolate in a level, and more.\u00a0 There can be multiple goals per level, too.\u00a0 You get stars depending on how well you perform each goal in a level.\u00a0 Stars unlock new stages as well, so you\u2019ll want to get as many as you can!<\/p>\n

You have several abilities that will help you reach those goals.\u00a0 By pressing buttons on the D-pad, you can morph from a ball into a cube, disc, or cylinder.\u00a0 Doing so will help you squeeze into certain spots or climb slopes easier.\u00a0 By pressing the Y button near certain objects, you can \u2018possess\u2019 them and play as them.\u00a0 Playing as a bigger square, for instance, will help you cover more ground.\u00a0 By pressing the ZR and LR buttons, you can do more important things.\u00a0 One button rewinds, in case you made a mistake.\u00a0 But it\u2019ll only rewind where you are.\u00a0 It\u2019ll also leave an impression of your character that\u2019ll stay there, which you can then use as a stepping stone.\u00a0 The other button \u2018carves\u2019 into the clay, which is handy if you need to make a hole in something or \u2018eat\u2019 chocolate clay.<\/p>\n

The game sounds neat so far, but it does have a few problems.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always had a tough time with physics-based puzzlers, as just being slightly off can ruin the whole level.\u00a0 Breath of the Wild players probably know what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 Camera angles can sometimes be problematic, and goals can be a little unclear at first.\u00a0 The tiny text doesn\u2019t help matters, and makes it really hard to play in handheld mode.\u00a0 Also there are only 16 levels, and they are really small.\u00a0 Like they fit on an in-game table.\u00a0 Granted it\u2019s hard to get all the stars in each level.\u00a0 You can create your own stages and upload them online to share with others and try other players\u2019 stages as well.\u00a0 But the editing tool is hard to use and they don\u2019t explain very well how to do it, and from what I can tell, there wasn\u2019t much room for creativity with all the pre-made items. \u00a0I wanted to make a Pac-Man maze but I don\u2019t think I could.\u00a0 Anyway, I\u2019d like to see this game engine improve and be used in other clay-based games.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be cool to use this same kind of clay game engine with a new ClayFighter game?\u00a0 There\u2019s a series due for a revival.\u00a0 What do you think?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing violent or objectionable here.\u00a0 Reading skill is a must for the text, and younger players may find the game too difficult and frustrating.\u00a0 Claybook is rated E for Everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always had a passing interest in stop motion and clay animation.\u00a0 In fact, one time in college I took a day-long just-for-fun clay animation class.\u00a0 It took us a whole day to make a few seconds of very choppy clay animation, so I have new respect for the folks who do that for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18918,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18916\/revisions\/18918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}