"Not great, but it's definitely fun.... for about 3 hours."

I don’t know what it is with little fuzzy animals, hopping around and collecting items and whatnot. It seems like every platforming game released since 1995 has incorporated some sort of rabbit/squirrel/weasel hopping around a forest/castle/mountain collecting coins/rings/gems. But you know what, as long as it’s fun, I’m alright with that. Let the companies create a game where you play as a muskrat, rescuing injured children; let them make their ostrich fending off ninjas simulator. As long as the game is fun I have no problem. Unfortunately, Klonoa Empire of Dreams doesn’t quite meet up with expectations. Why, you ask? Well read the rest of my darned review you lazy bum, I’m not going to tell you in the freaking opening paragraph!

The Story
Once upon a time, something happened… and then something after that… Well, honestly I’m not too sure about the story. I haven’t really kept up with the Klonoa series. From what I can tell though, it appears that Klonoa, our rabbit eared hero, had a dream last night! Oh no not that! Now Klonoa’s been arrested because, darn him, he was dreaming in a kingdom where dreams are forbidden, that troublemaker. This really bothers me, actually, how do they know if you’re dreaming or not? Can they read your mind? If they could, then I would have been arrested a LONG time ago… for reasons, which I need not explain…
The senator/king/military dictator dude then (Just in time) hears about a monster that needs to be put to rest, so he sends Klonoa off to kill him, saying that if Klonoa can defeat the monster, Klonoa will be forgiven of his sins. This part of the story also bothers me, as soon as I could get out of the kingdom, I would have made a run for it. But not Klonoa, for a guy who is such a bad criminal, he did an awfully good job of keeping with his part of the deal.

You’re playing as a criminal right? So far, you’d think the game would be nothing more than a blazing firefest filled with explosions and killing and all that stuff that makes games good, right? Well, no, it’s not. Despite the fact that you are given the ability to throw your enemies, and grab them with a whip-thing, Klonoa: Empire of Dreams is nothing more than a puzzle game. The object of each level is to find a key and collect little jewels so the door opens, and you can move on to the next level.
The game does have a few snowboarding levels though, which is great. I got kind of tired of key-chasing any ways. If the game was nothing but these snowboarding levels, and I am serious about this, the game would be two times better. Such snowboarding levels have simple objectives (reach the goal), but are so fast that you need precision timing if you want to collect all of the jewels and not get killed.

Hopping around as Klonoa is no problem, you can grab an enemy, throw them, use them as an air cushion, ride them, kill them. Whatever you choose. Klonoa can even fly, using his big crazy bunny ears. He just can’t fly long, is the problem. And now that I think of it, he doesn’t even fly, he just floats there, like a balloon that’s losing helium. Or a dead fish in a pond. That’s not to say the ability is useless, however, it helps you a lot in situations where you are falling and need to make a quick decision about where to land. Or that rare situation where an enemy is coming your way, just fly and the enemy will walk right under you. You won’t even have to worry about landing on him.

So far so good, right?
Well, no. Like I stated earlier, the game is nothing but puzzles, a few bosses and a few action stages. The bosses are fun, and the snowboarding levels rule, but the puzzle-based levels: YUCK! They’re monotonous, they’re repetitive, they’re 90% of the game and I wish Namco would have made them faster. I was always anticipating the ending of these levels, just to find out that the next level was NOT a snowboarding level, and instead was another puzzle level. Halfway through the game though, I guess the puzzle levels became more interesting. Newer enemies were introduced, and you are slapped in the face with their appearance. No they’re not ugly, they harass you. You’ll start doing a lot more fighting and less hopping. But still, these levels never become much more than puzzles, even with the tougher enemies and required-precision.

Graphics:
Amazingly enough, the graphics are pretty good. Klonoa moves smoothly, showing off the GBA’s true power. And the parallax scrolling looks great.
I have a few gripes, such as lack in variety (For the levels, and enemies) and the scrolling screen, which moves very slowly. Often, I’d move to one end of the screen, and I’d wait for the screen to slowly, SLOWLY make it’s way over to match my position. This is annoying, but it never happened enough to truly ruin the game.

Is it worth a purchase?
Klonoa: Empire of Dreams is a pretty good game, assuming you don’t bore easily. However, I’d buy it just to play on the school bus or incredibly short car trips because of the simple levels that don’t require much more than 2 minutes of your time. A lack of two-player mode is sad though; I’d love to race my friends in a snowboarding level, and I’m sure they’d love to race me.
And like I stated in the above paragraph, Klonoa is too short and way too easy. I beat the game in one night (I didn’t get 100%, but I beat the game) and I finished with exactly fifty-five lives left. No, I’m not bragging, the game is just that easy.
I’d say buy it, save it for the school bus in the morning, and play it then. After all, it’s better than talking to that smelly breath 5th grader who thinks he’s as cool as me, which he’s not, by the way.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/03, Updated 03/29/03