Clunky Hero – Playstation 4 Review

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Clunky Hero is the latest wacky platform hit from Estonian Developer Chaos Monger Studio. Combining platforming, Metroidvania, and RPG elements with tons of humour. This offers a strong storyline that will appeal to gamers who enjoy platformers. It’s a fun game where you can talk to characters, do side quests, buy and sell items, and swap weapons and accessories, all the whilst laughing at itself.

When You Order Armor From Wish

Clunky Hero appealed to me when I first saw the trailer. Its story just sounded utterly bonkers and the narration tied everything into a lovely parcel. Available for both PC and Consoles (Playstation, Nintendo Switch and Xbox)

Our Protaganist Rufus talks to Priest Donpiero inside a large church. Sunlight beams through the stainglassed windows. Rufus stands in front of him wearing his bucket covering his face and holding his wife's broom as a weapon.
The priest gives Rufus some words of wisdom for his journey.

Gameplay

A 2D platformer that sets out the story straight away, your wife has been kidnapped and turned into some “duck-faced woman” (Think pouting instagram model). Our hero Rufus grabs his wife’s trusty broomstick as a weapon and a bucket placing it upon his bonce. Our hero is now suitably attired for the quest ahead.

Talking to the villagers Rufus is unsurprised to find out that they will have an upgrade that he will require and naturally they want something in return. This is an area which shows that the game isn’t going to take itself seriously at all. A villager even alludes to the developers not coding in a shop for her!!

There is no indicator showing where you should go, so much of the game is exploration. There are many secrets to be found. The first upgrade that you should receive is the ability to Double Jump. It is here that you are able to reach previously unreachable areas. The skills work really well, and you will have to unlock slots to use multiple.  These are unlocked by collecting coins from defeated enemies, however not every shop will sell the upgrade you require.

So more exploration is required, you will need to collect maps for each specific area which when collected will allow you to see everything. The map system I found really frustrating, due to every area being split into sections you need to find the map piece for every section. This meant having to really focus on where you were going and where you have been.

Rufus stands in front of a statue of a woman riding a horse. The ground has gravestones that have been etched with names. There is a fire burning on a platform supported by wooden planks. The fire provides the only light to this dimly lit area.
Gravestones

Combat

With lots of enemies that will respawn when you leave an area, the majority of the combat is very basic making it easy to pick up and play. Some consumables give you an increase in damage or even leave a fart cloud which will damage enemies.

It is here that the jokes in the game get a bit unnecessary. The toilet humour ended up being more of an irritation than humour. There is the ability later in the game to unlock a ranged attack which launches sweat balls from your armpits at enemies. For whatever reason, this requires Mana as you will have a limited amount of shots. There is also an ability to dive attack, however from what I have seen this is more useful for breaking into areas than for actually attacking enemies.

Boss fights lock you into an area, these were more challenging than I expected especially later on when the area feels smaller when dodging multiple attacks. Thankfully there are save points dotted around every area so you shouldn’t lose much progress if you die.

Graphics & Audio

Clunky Hero has that storybook feel about it. The environment managed to have a beauty about it and its varied from one zone to the next. The standard enemies just feel like they haven’t been given the same love and attention. What has ended is generic pumpkin-headed enemies, bees and even blobs.

Narrow brick pathways with low ceilings, vines cling to the ceiling but in some places loop down. Trees scatter the background of the images giving the feeling of being aloneand deep into the woods.
Rufus takes a break out to ponder his life choices, does he really want to rescue his wife

It is a real shame that there is such a big discrepancy between the environment and enemies. Thankfully the bosses have an improved art style,  I wish they had included a health bar for the boss fights
The camera is strange because it is so close to Rufus it makes seeing enemies coming from other directions at times impossible. I touched on a lack of indicators showing which way to go, sadly this is the same with your abilities like dash. There are countdowns for some items that you use for example buffs. However special abilities get ignored.

I ended up turning off the game sound because it got very annoying very quickly. Such a shame that the areas that I didn’t enjoy were so prominent and all of them are simple to fix.

Longevity

You can expect to play for roughly 8 hours, depending heavily on how well you navigate the environment. Getting lost could result in a lot more if you forget where you are and wander aimlessly trying to find your way. During my time with Clunky Hero, I was frustrated by the slow progression and had to take breaks and come back to it on a few occasions.

With no collectables and no difficulty settings, there is not much that will bring people back unless there are future updates.

Final Thoughts

After watching the launch trailer, I was eager to play Clunky Hero. It was a fun platformer that didn’t back down from taking a shot at its own developers. The game, however, lost the ball on several occasions because of the audio, poor enemy design, and lack of visual indicators. Despite its flaws, Clunky Hero is an entertaining game. In my opinion, time would have been better spent polishing things instead of concentrating on poor jokes. For this reason, Clunky Hero has been awarded the Thumb Culture Silver Award

 

 

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

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