"Standing the test of time."

Whether you may or may not know this game was released in Japan just one year after Klonoa's GBA debut in 2001, titled Kaze no Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament. It's taken about four years for the game to make it to the western coasts for reasons unknown exactly but fans of the long eared feline will be most happy to know that Klonoa has returned, and this time, things were done right.

Gameplay
To those that may be unfamiliar with the series Klonoa is a cross breed of platform and puzzle with some action involved too, despite the fact it sounds odd, it actually plays extremely well and in this title, it's refined. All the elements from the Klonoa franchise has returned and many things have stayed the same. the goal of each stage is to use enemies, blocks, and many other resources available to you to seek out three star stones and reach the exit. To do this you'll be forced to capture enemies with Klonoa's ring to use them as a sort of double jump to get over walls or obstacles, or having to hurl them at a switch or breakable item in or to advance. In the beginning, the levels involve pretty much just that: tossing and jumping on enemies, but things soon get much more complicated after the first few simple levels. Soon you'll be introduced to a pot that can serve as a ladder if an enemy is thrown into it, switches that must be pressed at certain sequences, blocks that will stop rushing winds, and even more contraptions follow with every later stages, the levels designs and contraptions are used together in some very ingenious ways, making for some very complicated puzzles as players go on, unlike the title before this one, which often had simple puzzles that even repeat themselves sometimes. But even with the difficulty this game still doesen't cause a lot of frustration at the same time. Then to add an incentive to play more a rank is awarded according to the player's performance and collecting all of a stage's dream stones and sun stones that will offer unlockables once obtained.

A new feature had been included to Klonoa dream champ tournament however and this doesn't work out as well as the clever level designs of the normal gameplay. As player progress they will encounter what are called float board stages that involve guiding Klonoa through a 3D esque track with obstacles ahead. Many of the same actions you used to get past things in the 2D levels are used here, mainly grabbing an enemy and using them to jump over an obstacle. These stages are still decently entertaining, but don't have the same effect that the original levels do, plus these levels can be extremely frustrating due to cheap hit range and clunky controls and will make you wish for the normal levels soon. Fortunately these stages are few and far between and can even be skipped when the paths branch in the worlds. There are about five worlds with nine stages throughout and an extra stage that can be unlocked in each world is certain conditions are satisfied plus illustrations can be unlocked for collecting everything in all the levels for one of the worlds, however the illustrations aren't really what makes you want to collect everything it's just the fact that doing such a task is so addicting that you really don't care what you get; you'll just enjoy doing it.

Although this game doesn't ever pressure the player to make decisions or rush things in the normal levels, the boss fights however can be very devious and fast paced, including the extra difficulty brought on by the desire to collect all the items. These stages have been formulated in some what of a race between you and the opponent character as you both rush to the goal. Most of these stages involve that same thing, but have little twist implemented that makes things feel different every time. For example, you must find the keys to the next area before your opponent and to slow him down you can throw enemies into cannons and buy yourself some time. Even in the rare event that you are defeated there are so many chances to obtain free lives and recovery items you won't be getting a game over too quickly, and with so many lives available to you you'll often think: “I've got so many lives, might as well try again.”. But even with the challenging puzzles you're still only looking at about a weeks worth of length, mainly for the mass abundance of lives and some of the puzzles can become simpler once you get the hang of the game flow.

If you've played the previous installment to the Klonoa series on GBA nothing will seem new to you. About half of the sprites and animations have been recycled to this title, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing though. All of the animations and environments look crisp, colorful, and detailed plus the game's cut scenes can be somewhat amusing too. Everything runs smoothly as well, with absolutely no slowdown either, but this isn't one of those games where tons of things are moving anyways so it almost can't have such a thing.

Audio
A decent little soundtrack is to be heard here; however there are a lot of annoying and obnoxious sound effects to go along with it. While these bleeps and blips are bearable it does take away from the over all quality of the audio and will most likely make most turn the sound off.

Overall
In the end, Klonoa's concept stands the test of time and is guaranteed to entertain any platform or puzzle fan with a GBA or DS. Though not without it's flaws like anything else, it provides enough to make you look well past them, even though it doesn't offer anything much more than the previous entry, it offers it very well. One of the better releases the month of March 05, recommended for anyone bored with their GBA/DS.

Score: 8.5

Pros
+Extremely addictive gameplay
+Puzzles are much more challenging and fun

Cons
-Doesn't last too long
-The boarding stages aren't as fun as the normal stages

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/05