Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #381: Clockwork Knight

Clockwork Knight

Sega Saturn

Nostalgia Factor:

Although it is a title mainly forgotten by time, Clockwork Knight was a big deal for the Sega Saturn back in 1995. I can’t remember if it was a launch title or not, but this was a heavily pushed game by Sega – right up there with Daytona USA and Panzer Dragoon. I remember I had a demo disc that contained one level for Clockwork Knight 2, and I used to play that one level over and over again. The original, however? Never played it.

Now that I’m up to ’95 in my Mop Up Duty review tour, I figured it would be a great time to dive into this game once and for all. It only took me 27 years. Geez, I’m getting old!

Story:

There’s not much going on here. This game is basically Toy Story without the great characters. At the beginning of the game, a cutscene shows Chelsea (a fairy princess who sings to the other toys) being kidnapped by an unknown evil. Your character Pepper, a toy soldier, is forced to join forces with his rival to save her. The rest of the game consists of you fighting through toys and bad guys in an attempt to rescue Chelsea.

Gameplay:

Clockwork Knight is a very standard 2D side-scrolling platformer. I remember when this game came out, a lot of reviewers blasted it for being nothing special or innovative. I can’t blame them, I suppose. This was one of the first Saturn games out there. People wanted something new and groundbreaking to usher in the “next generation” of consoles. And this game wasn’t it.

Think Toy Story mixed with Cool Spot, and that’s what you get here. Your main goal is to make it from one end of the stage to the other. You jump over bottomless pits, fight enemies, push platforms around, collect items, and uncover secrets as you go. One thing this game has going for it is the fact that there are multiple ways to make it through each stage. So you could potentially play through this game a couple of times and get a different experience each time if you take a different path as you play. There are also secret items galore. None of these items are what I’d call collectable (where the game tracks your progress as you go). Instead they just kind of go towards your points and your extra lives counter - and you can use them to take place in minigames as well.

Fighting takes place through melee combat. Your character wields what I can only call a Keyblade (not so original were you, Kingdom Hearts?). Tap the attack button to strike your enemies. But it takes more than that to hurt most of your foes. You have to repeatedly tap the attack button to use your Keyblade like a crank, which winds up your enemies and makes them explode after a few seconds. You use this crank attack to open boxes and use on keyholes.

Every few stages you’ll fight a boss character. These bosses aren’t too difficult. Trial and error will get you through these fairly easily. Determining their patterns will probably cost you a handful of lives, however, so make sure you are exploring each stage thoroughly and stocking up on as many lives as you can for these boss battles. Some of them can be quite cheap, and the hit detection is questionable. But like I said, it is not too hard overall.

And the same can be said for the entirety of this game. You can probably sit down and beat it in a couple hours, if that, your very first time playing it. Unless you totally suck. Then it might take a couple more added attempts. But I still don’t see anyone saying this game is too hard. If you sit down with this game with the intent to beat it in one day, you’re going to beat it in one day. And you’ll have a lot of time to spare.

Graphics:

Most people would probably say that this game looks ugly by today’s standards, but I would disagree with that. The game has some rough edges, sure. Messy pixels, polygons that blink in and out of existence. This is an early Saturn game and there is no hiding that. I find it quite charming, however, especially being someone who grew up in this era of gaming. You might say it looks ugly, and I can respect your opinion, but I think it looks good. The Toy Story aesthetic works for it.

Sound:

This game has a lot of standout music. The intro music. The stage music. It got stuck in my head both while I was playing the game and after it. The sound effects do their job as well. There must be something special about this game’s sound, because normally a game’s music and sound effects are the first thing to vacate my memory when I am done playing it, but I can remember this game quite well. Kudos.

Overall:

I really do wish I could say I liked this game more than I did. But the fact of the matter is that the reviewers back in 1995 were 100% right: there is nothing special about this game. 2D platformers like this were a dime a dozen during the 8 and 16 bit era. Sure, this game has some nice music and some nice visual effects going for it, but its gameplay is absolutely nothing special and nothing the average gamer hadn’t seen dozens of times already back then. Playing it in 2022 doesn’t make me appreciate it in a “forgotten classic” light either. Clockwork Knight is as bland as can possibly be.

I can’t think of a game that better encapsulates the meaning of the word average than Clockwork Knight. Everything about it is average. I can’t say I liked this game, but I can’t say it was bad either. It just exists. It’s just there. I can’t think of a better score to give this game.

THE GRADE:

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984:

Frogger II: Threedeep!