Clockwork Knight (Saturn) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Sega's 1995 platformer game for the Sega Saturn, Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau's Adventure.

Clockwork Knight was released at the launch of the Sega Saturn way back in 1995, and though it lacked glamorous draw of 3D graphics that Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter offered, it was a thoroughly excellent game.

It's very much a traditional 2D platformer, and though it does use polygons for a number of background elements, the majority of the sprites are comprised of pre-rendered computer generated images like you see in Donkey Kong Country. The effect works really well, and it makes a really nice, early-on showcase for the bump in visual fidelity that the 32-bit machines could provide over their 16-bit counterparts. The CG FMV cutscenes all look great for such an early title, and there are quite a few of them peppered throughout.

And ultimately, the graphics are the selling-point of the game. It's all quite charming and saccharine sweet, but in the goofy, heartwarming way that many old kids productions tended to be. There are plenty of goofy little details and animations, and it almost feels like a precursor to Toy Story in video game form. It made me smile quite a bit.

The sound is cutesy and inoffensive, and makes reasonable use of the Saturn's mega-diesel on-board synths - no Redbook here, but it helps the game's quaint, old-school appeal. The voice acting is fairly well done, and I was particularly surprised at the production value of the ending's "music video" credits the first time I ever beat it.

The gameplay is pretty typical of the genre - you double-tap the d-pad to run, one button jumps, and another attacks with your key. Simple but effective, and it's all quite responsive. The gameplay never really innovates much on the mechanics that had already been long-since established ten years earlier, but it's well refined and hard to find fault with. The game is pretty easy and short though, even after Sega went and beefed up the difficulty from the original Japanese release, and graphics aside, it could have easily been a 16-bit title. I never cared, but I suppose there are those out there that would.

Clockwork Knight never set out to turn the genre on its head, and it never needed to. It succeeded admirably at what it was going for - it's family-friendly, simple but engaging, and completely endearing. It's a damn fine example of platforming magic without violence and gimmicks, and I absolutely loved it. I still do.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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