The same can’t be said about the combat or enemy encounters, however. When you clear an area of all of the goo, plant life, fauna and colorful flowers spring back to life and it all feels visually rewarding, at the very least. Similar to Okami or Kena: Bridge of Spirits, you’re slowly rejuvenating the land by clearing black tar that has enveloped the planet. It also just feels good to suck-up the, well, gunk (it’s almost as satisfying as using the vacuum in Luigi’s Mansion or the F.L.U.D.D. The Gunk isn’t breaking any new grounds, but it’s a short and sweet romp through an alien world with a beautiful color palette and some impressive visuals. The most impressive thing about The Gunk to me is the fact that the developers went from developing mostly 2D games to creating an extremely competent 3D action-platformer on their first attempt. If you’re familiar with or have played any of the SteamWorld titles, you might be surprised to learn that The Gunk is from the very same people.
The Gunk, developed by Image & Form, is the first 3D game from a developer who’s mostly known for their 2D action-platformers. Clockwork Aquario wasn’t a mind-blowing experience, but I enjoyed it for what it was worth and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat if you’re looking for your 2D action-platformer, arcade game fix. Clockwork Aquario has its cheap moment or two (as it was originally supposed to be an arcade game, likely designed to eat your quarters), but it’s a short and sweet playthrough that can easily be mastered once you know where the enemy spawns are and you’ve got the boss patterns down. I completed the game three times, two of which were on Normal and once on Hard, which included a 1-credit-clear run (1CC)! The sign of a good, old-school arcade game is if it’s both challenging but rewarding to complete a 1CC run of the game. Apparently, releasing the game in the state that it’s in was quite the endeavor, too. I discovered the game from someone random on Twitter tweeting about how they thought it felt like it was a precursor to Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, so I had to play it. I had no idea that Clockwork Aquario was a cancelled project, so it was wild to see it resurface in late 2021. Clockwork Aquario’s visuals are bright and colorful and the sprites are chunky and detailed the game simply looks good.Ĭlockwork Aquario surfacing from the cancelled depths… Give me a set amount of continues in an old-school/retro game and I’ll work within those limitations until I improve. There’s Normal, Hard and Arcade modes available and the game gives you a set amount of continues that you can use for each difficulty, which I appreciated. Collect enough gems and you’ll gain an extra life, and that’s the gist of it.
Along the way you’ll kill enemies in succession by grabbing and tossing them into each other (similar to Klonoa?), which will make them drop gems. In Clockwork Aquario, you choose from three different characters (I’m not sure if there’s any gameplay differences, but the robot is very tall) and from there, you’ll tackle five stages which culminate in boss encounters. MM5 feels even easier and more streamlined than MM4 extra lives are plentiful and drop frequently from enemies (or maybe I was just lucky), stages don’t overstay their welcome, checkpoints are mostly fair, and the bosses are surprisingly unaggressive (outside of a few).Ĭlockwork Aquario, originally developed by Westone, is a 2D action-platformer arcade game that never saw the light of day until now. Gravity Man’s stage was probably the most interesting mechanically with its inverted controls and upside down sections, but it feels like something that’s been done before in one of the earlier MM titles. Some of the bosses felt phoned-in (Stone Man?) and the stage design, outside of a few, felt uninspired. As the fifth mainline entry, you can sort of see the developer’s waning creativity. MM5 felt mostly unremarkable, although I still enjoyed revisiting the game. I’ve been replaying classic Mega Man (MM) games from Capcom’s Mega Man Legacy Collection for the past few years and Mega Man V (MM5) was next on the docket.
At the start of each year, I typically play something old-school/retro as a sort of palate cleanser.